Category: Sermon Supplements

Hmm… so what is this passage about?  Are we to walk away from this passage having added to our list of things great saints do that we should also?  Or do we walk away powerfully feeling why we should and how we can live so radically for so glorious a God?  Let’s think it through…

We’ve been waiting for a son since Genesis 3:15 to pulverize the head of the snake.  Hence all the dudes begetting dudes begetting dudes.  This forms the tension of the Abraham narrative as well.  We are quickly informed that Sarah’s womb is barren (Genesis 11:30).  Thus we are waiting for a miracle baby, hmm…

Abraham then receives glorious promises, promises that pick up the echoes of Genesis 3:15, and these promises necessitate an offspring.  This narrative is then constructed such that the child’s birth feels anticlimactic.  Where does the story reach its peek?  Not at the birth of the promised child, but at his sacrifice?  Hmm…

The intense emotional element to the story is the bond and love between the father and the son, his only son, whom he loves.  Hmm…

They are in union walking both of them together (Genesis 22:6, 8).  The son is trusting and innocent (Genesis 22:7, 9).  They are not divided, they are in harmony, this will be their most glorious moment – together.  Hmm…

The son bears the wood on his back, placed there by his father.  The father is the one with the knife and the fire (Genesis 22:6).  The father must act upon the son, the son must lay down his life.  Hmm…

Empowering Abraham to obey this command is a belief in God’s power and his promises (Hebrews 11:17-19).  The promised child who is to be sacrificed must be resurrected!  Hmm…

The name of the mountain, the area where the temple will one day be built (2 Chronicles 3:1), is not “Abraham obeys” but “The LORD provides”.  A ram is substituted in place of another.  Hmm…

It is in Abraham’s offspring that all the earth is to be blessed (Genesis 22:18).  Hmm…

The Bible is a constellation of stars.  Over every text we should cry out to God the prayer of Psalm 119:18.  No star is lacking glory.  To say one star shines brighter than another is not to disparage lesser stars, but to overwhelm us with the majesty of larger ones.  This text is a supernova, it explodes with brilliant light.

Do not mute such glory by reading this text in a simply moralistic way.  Obey God radically, yes, but dig down and notice the why and how behind such obedience – the glory of the Lamb and He who sits on the throne.

Yahweh has provided!

“God is with you in all you do…”

What is Abraham doing?

He isn’t exploring, discovering new peoples, continents, languages, cultures, and resources.  He isn’t gaining massive wealth, becoming an economic center.  He isn’t conquering great kings, extending his territory and name.  He isn’t teaching, spreading profound revolutionary philosophies.

What is he doing?  He sins, but even in sin it is obvious God’s covenant love is towards him (Genesis 20).  He has a child in his old age.  He digs wells.  He sojourns.  He raises cattle and milks goats.

And, God is with him.

In subtle and simple, yet sovereign ways, God is being faithful to His promises to Abraham.  In the first encounter with Abimelech the covenant seed is in danger.  Now the covenant land is the subject.  In Abimelech’s coming to Abraham it is obvious that yet again, God is with Abraham.

Beersheba will become the city to signify the southernmost border of Israel (2 Samuel 3:10).  Abraham apparently sojourns in this area the rest of his life.  He has received down payments, previews, appetizers of the full promise yet to come.

In this story line the true and better seed of Abraham is yet to come.  Through Him all the earth will be blessed.  His will inherit the earth (Romans 4:13).

And His name will be called Immanuel, meaning God with us.

“…as He had said…”

“…as He had promised…”

“…which God had spoken to Him…”

If you as a Christian remain Biblically illiterate you will shrivel. You will either have no knowledge of the promises that are yours in Christ or the knowledge you do have will be twisted such that you expect the wrong things.

God is the supreme prize of all His promises, not wealth, health, or fame. The promises exist to make much of God, not us, or His gifts. God promises us God. Thus in famine, suffering, death, disease, and persecution we rejoice. The presence of these things does not negate the promises; rather it is in them that they are most present. It is in them that God is glorified as the Giver of the promises, Sustainer by the promises, and Treasure of the promises. The prosperity gospel abuses promises.

 http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7196941&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

The Prosperity Gospel from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

But the neglect of promises will shrivel the soul as well. We were meant to live on the promises of God. They produce faith. They make us jolly expectant beggars. They glorify God as the supreme fountain of all blessing. Consider the reflections of the Psalmist (they are all from Psalm 119, I leave it to you to find the exact address):

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!

Let your steadfast love come to me, O LORD, your salvation according to your promise;

This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.

I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise.

My eyes long for your promise; I ask, “When will you comfort me?”

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

I am severely afflicted; give me life, O LORD, according to your word!

Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live, and let me not be put to shame in my hope!

My eyes long for your salvation and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise.

There are wonderful things in God’s Word. Part of the wonder of God’s Word are the life giving promises erupting out of it if we have eyes to see them. God give us eyes! God’s love and salvation to us are expressed in these promises. These promises sustain and comfort us in affliction (not deliver us from it). They glorify God as we long for them, and as we taste them as sweet, and as we receive them with joy.

For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him.  That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory.  – 2 Corinthians 1:20

Have you ever thought about how similar Legalist, Marketers, Emergents, and Liberals are?  What do Marc Grizzard and Brian McLaren have in common?

Marc is inviting you to burn Bibles:

Come to our Halloween book burning. We are burning Satan’s bibles like the NIV, RSV, NKJV, TLB, NASB, NEV, NRSV, ASV, NWT, Good News for Modern Man, The Evidence Bible, The Message Bible, The Green Bible, ect. These are perversions of God’s Word the King James Bible.

We will also be burning Satan’s music such as country , rap , rock , pop, heavy metal, western, soft and easy, southern gospel , contemporary Christian , jazz, soul, oldies but goldies [sic], etc.

We will also be burning Satan’s popular books written by heretics like Westcott & Hort , Bruce Metzger, Billy Graham , Rick Warren , Bill Hybels , John McArthur, James Dobson, Charles Swindoll , John Piper, Chuck Colson, Tony Evans, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swagart, Mark Driskol [sic], Franklin Graham , Bill Bright, Tim Lahaye, Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn , Joyce Myers, Brian McLaren, Robert Schuller, Mother Teresa , The Pope , Rob Bell, Erwin McManus, Donald Miller, Shane Claiborne, Brennan Manning, William Young, etc.

We will be serving Bar-b-Que Chicken [sic], fried chicken, and all the sides.

Mclaren is inviting some to be Hindu followers of Jesus:

I don’t believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu or Jewish contexts … I don’t hope all Jews or Hindus will become members of the Christian religion, but I do hope all who feel so called will become Hindu or Jewish followers of Jesus. (A Generous Orthodoxy)

One seems radically exclusive, the other inclusive, what similarities can there be?  They are both Pelagians.  Pelagianism was an early church history that put salvation in man’s hands.  Both Grizzard and McLaren emphasize what we do over what Christ has done.  For Legalist it is a set of rules, dos and don’ts that make you a Christian.  For Marketers it is all about the newest and most effective methods.  For Emergents it is about “deeds not creeds”, living the kingdom life.  For Liberals it is all about how we live, the social-gospel.  Some profess the gospel, some assume, some redefine, and others deny, but all allow the Gospel to be eclipsed by works.

The central message of Abraham, of the Bible, is given in the first two words of verse 3, but first I need to set you up with verse 2.  Here is the message, “And Abraham… And Abimelech… But God…”; the Gospel is not about what we do, but what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.  We sin, God saves.  We are unfaithful, He is faithful.  What makes us Christians is not our morality, but our message.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  – Ephesians 2:1-9 (ESV)

The greatest threat Sodom posed toward Lot was not the persecution he faced in verse 9. The one day of persecution by Sodom is eclipsed by the many days of influence by Sodom. Persecution for the name of Jesus is blessed and magnifies his name. Influence belittles the name of Jesus. C.J. Mahaney writes:

Today, the greatest challenge facing American evangelicals is not persecution from the world, but seduction by the world.

It is not the world against us, but the worldliness within us that we need most fear.  Lot got out of Sodom, but not before Sodom got into Lot.

I wonder if when we sing “Amazing Grace” with some sincerity we often mean nothing more than that we are amazed at what His grace has done for us, rather than it is directed to us.  “God’s grace is wonderful, but the wonder is not that it’s directed towards me.”  Grace is amazing in its power, and amazing in that it is directed towards a sinner such as I.

What amazes you more the fire and sulfur of chapter 19 or the grace and condescension of chapter 18.  Sodom and Gomorrah should not shock us.  Oh, for sure we should be in awe of the terrible might and wrath of God Almighty, but it should not come as a surprise that such wrath would be directed against wicked men from so holy a God.  If chapter 19 shocks us more it is because we are more impressed with ourselves than God.  Dale Ralph Davis does well in cautioning us to ask, “Is the Lord deficient in understanding kindness or am I deficient in understanding holiness?”

America needs a soft “God”.  We could never tolerate the gods of the ancient Norseman.  They are far too rude.  No, give us a Cosmic Care Bear in the sky.  He need not awake our awe so much as he need be enthralled with us.  Such is our attitude.  Thus as R.C. Sproul laments, “What amazes us is justice, not grace.”  We have redefined God to please our ego, and in so doing we have lost God all together.  In so doing we have emptied His love of any meaning at all.  D.A. Cason writes:

I do not think that what the Bible says about the love of God can long survive at the forefront of our thinking if it is abstracted from the sovereignty of God, the holiness of God, the wrath of God, the providence of God, or the personhood of God – to mention only a few nonnegotiable elements of Christianity.

The result of course, is that the love of God in our culture has been purged of anything the culture finds uncomfortable.  The love of God has been sanitized, democratized, and above all sentimentalized.  This process has been going on for some time ….

It has not always been so.  In generations when almost everyone believed in the justice of God, people sometimes found it difficult to believe in the love of God. The preaching of the love of God came as wonderful good news.  Nowadays if you tell people that God loves them, they are unlikely to be surprised.  Of course God loves me; he’s like that, isn’t he?  Besides why shouldn’t he love me?  I’m kind of cute, at least as nice as the next person.  I’m okay, your okay, and God loves you and me.

You cannot esteem high opinions of yourself and God at the same time.  God is holy.  Sin is serious.  Sodom and Gomorrah and serious.  Yea, Sodom and Gomorrah fall short of the eternal hell that your God belittling pride deserves.

Today my dentist jokingly said he wanted to get the Swine Flu for a couple of reasons:

1. Everybody is getting it; he wouldn’t want to be left out.  It seems like the cool thing to do.
2. It would help him appreciate his health.  Requesting it is requesting a lesson in gratitude.

If you wish to be overwhelmed with divine love, drowned in it, enraptured by it, first you must be floored terrified of his holiness.  The whispers of God’s love in chapter 18 sound sweeter against the back drop of the thunder of His wrath in chapter 19.  Either chapter without the other is incomplete.

Related Posts:

Is “Good Dentist” An Oxymoron?

Hebrews 4 11:-13 & The Mountains Will Not Listen

Do you realize the preciousness of these words “to be God to you… I will be their God” (Genesis 17:7-8)?  What is the difference between God being God to us, and God being God?  Do not pass lightly by such phrases in God’s Holy Word.  There is life giving, joy sustaining truth in such phrases.  Phrases like this are the place of sweet communion with God.

The difference between these two phrases, “God being God to us” and “God being God”, are as different as a woman being a wife, and a woman being my wife.  In one instance she is a wife, in the other she is a wife to me.  This means that everything she is as a wife, she is for me and to me alone.  This is the language of covenant.  This is the language of intimacy.  God has betrothed Himself to His people in love.

All that God is He is for you.  His beauty, for you.  His goodness, for you.  His kindness, for you.  His glory, for you.  His joy, for you.  His wisdom, for you.  His power, for you.  All His attributes are for you to enjoy and take comfort in.  Even His justice and righteousness, yes, even His wrath are for you.  Because in Christ your wrath has been born, now the wrath of God which works only to exalt His name and to stamp out injustice also works to your joy and good.  All He is, His entire “Godness” is for you.  There is nothing that He is that He is not for you.  To clarify and avoid heresy, by “for you” I mean for your enjoyment and protection.  God’s attributes are not against you, but for you.  You are not the reason He is what He is, but all that He is, He is in your favor.  This is the magnitude of grace we enjoy.  He is both your shield and your exceeding great reward.

Famine comes; self-reliance looks to Egypt (Genesis 12:10).

Barreness persists; self-reliance looks to culturally acceptable means. Pragmatism rather than principle rules.

Self-reliance is the seeking to de-God God. It is functional atheism. It says our God is small, He is not in control, we must bring things about. R.C. Sproul said that “Without sovereignty God cannot be God,” for if there is one maverick molecule it might be the one to undo all his plans. Sproul goes on to say:

If a grain of sand in the kidney of Oliver Cromwell changed the course of English history, so our maverick molecule could change the course of all redemptive history… There are no maverick molecules running around loose.  God is sovereign, God is God.  (Chosen by God)

We are humble creatures. We do not orchestrate the dancing of the stars. Volcanoes do not erupt at our bidding. Earthquakes are not prevented at our wish. We are unable to steer hurricanes. We do not sustain the molecules in our own bodies (Matthew 6:27). True, we should eat well and exercise, but herein lies an illustration of humble obedience and prideful self-reliance. Self-reliance thinks your heath is totally in your own hands. Obedience realizes a responsibility to act as a steward, not as Lord.

We are not in control. We are not sovereign. We are not part of a pantheon. He is the Father; we are to act as His grateful and adoring children, not His equals. We are not to orchestrate, but to play our instrument in humble obedience and reliant faith.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nEIpGwUQxI]

I probably should have preached this chapter in three segments, one on justification, one on covenant, and one on how both of these relate to Abram not being afraid.  I went straight to the third one because I wanted you to see how fear dispelling and courage generating these truths are.  Theology is for life.  We do not dive into doctrines like justification by faith and covenant to gain intellectual superiority.  We dive into it to know our God, to understand His mighty salvation, and then to live properly in light of it.  If the gospel is true then fears are stupid.  Why should Christians not fear?  God.  The more we know God, the less room there is for fear, of anything else. As Richard Baxter said, “If He be thine enemy, it is no matter who is thy friend; for all the world cannot save thee, if He do but condemn thee.”

I say your fears are stupid, my fears are stupid, not to insult you, but to free you.  If you are in Christ here these words from your sovereign heavenly Father, “Fear not.”  It is a command, but it comes so gently you don’t recognize it as one.  We will have fears, but our God speaks to us in His Word, He whispers to us of His might, faithfulness, love, sovereignty, and wisdom.  God deals gently with Abram’s fears as He tries to live in obedience.  As a father hugging his son in the scariest of moments know that the father hugs you.  The hug is soft on the inside but hard as iron from without.  You need not fear, He is your shield (Genesis 15:1).

One saint who was plagued with fears, loneliness, and depression all His life was William Cowper, a contemporary of John Newton, and William Wilberforce.   What gave Cowper hope and life was the gospel.  God spoke gently to Him, and now God speaks gently through him still through his hymns.  When full of fears and doubts, like Cowper, reflect on the cross and the blood of the new covenant.

There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood
By William Cowper

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.
Washed all my sins away, washed all my sins away;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.
Be saved, to sin no more, be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
And shall be till I die, and shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.

Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy power to save,
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.
Lies silent in the grave, lies silent in the grave;
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.

Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, unworthy though I be,
For me a blood bought free reward, a golden harp for me!
’Tis strung and tuned for endless years, and formed by power divine,
To sound in God the Father’s ears no other name but Thine.

God Moves in a Mysterious Way
By William Cowper

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

Think of someone you regard as very blessed.  Who are they?  Why do you think them blessed?  Is it because they have good health, a nice job, wonderful kids, and a white picket fence?  Is it because they are talented, have a lot of friends, and seem to succeed at whatever they put their hands to?  There is a sense in which this person is blessed, but such a person can be blessed in a lesser sense and cursed in a greater one.

“Blessed” has a strong usage and a weak one.  It seems with few exceptions “blessed” is used in the reduced, weaker manner.  When was the last time you referred to a persecuted missionary as blessed?  Jesus did (Matthew 5:10).  This may be a horrifying indicator of Western Christianity adulterous heart.  The American dream is apparently more blessed than the Great Commission.

Biblically, and most truly someone is blessed if the favor of God is upon them, if they enjoy God Himself, if they are reconciled to God.   So why I wouldn’t argue against someone referring to a person who has been gifted and is enjoying God’s providence and common grace as “blessed”, I am disturbed that we may not realize that they may be cursed in the greatest of ways.  “What does it profit a man to gain the world and forfeit his soul?”   Our eyes are hazed over such that we cannot see what it means to be truly blessed?  Thus we long for flat screens more than the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Abram here passes on being “blessed” by a worldly king.  He is able to do so because of faith in the promises of God.  Because the King, the Possessor of Heaven and Earth had blessed him, Abram was able to pass on the trivial Cracker-Jack prizes of this world.

I know of no other way to triumph over sin long-term than to gain a distaste for it because of a superior satisfaction in God.  – John Piper