Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Genesis chapter 14. Genesis chapter 14. Last time we were looking in
this blessed book, Abram and Lot had separated. Chapter 13 verse 12 says, Abram
dwelled in the land of Canaan. and Lot dwelt in the cities of
the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. Verse 18 says that
then Abram removed his tent, came and dwelt in the plain of
Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the
Lord. Now, as we begin chapter 14,
I'd like to look at the first 16 verses of Genesis 14, and
the Spirit of God was pleased to record the details of a war
that took place. And knowing that all Scripture
is given by inspiration of God, it's given to reveal the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ I want to read the first 12 verses.
We'll look tonight at verses 1-16, but let's read the first
12 verses and I want us to look at the details of a war that
took place and when you see what happened, it wasn't a war that
was being waged because of Abram or Lot, but they were involved
with it. And as we read, I want us to
remember that all things work together for good to them that
love God. to them who are the called according
to His purpose. This war took place and the Spirit
of God recorded the events, the details of this war to show us
the glory of God Almighty in the rescue and redemption of
His people. Genesis 14 verse 1, it came to
pass in the days of Amrephel, king of Shinar, and Ariok, king
of Elasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of nations,
that these made war with Bera, king of Sodom, and with Bersha,
king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, and Shemeber, king
of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar. And all these
were joined together in the Vale of Siddam, which is the Salt
Sea, 12 years. They served Chattelahimer, and
in the 13th year they rebelled, and in the 14th year came Chattelahimer
and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in
Ashteroth, Carneim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Sheva-qir-i-athayim. and the Horites in their mount
Seir unto El-Paran, which is by the wilderness, and they returned
and came to En-Mishpat, which is Kadish, and smote all the
country of the Amalekites and also the Amorites that dwelt
in Hazizon-Tamar. And there went out the king of
Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of
Zeboiim, and the king of Bila, the same as Zoar. And they joined
battle with them in the Vale of Sidon, with Chattelahmar,
the king of Elam, and Tidal, king of nations, and Amrephel,
king of Shinar, and Ariak, king of Elasar, four kings with five. And the vale of Siddam was full
of slime pits, and the king of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and fell
there, and they that remained fled to the mountain. And they
took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their vectuals
and went their way, and they took Lot, Abram's brother's son,
who dwelt in Sodom and his goods, and departed." Now, four kings. There were four kings led by
a king named Chattelaymar. And these four kings joined forces
to invade five kings. Five kings being aligned with
the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, a place where Lot was now found. Now you know when I read I began
to, this message tonight, it said, Lot dwelled in the cities
of the plain and pitched his tent towards Sodom. Now, I just found out, he's done
moved in. And, so he's there now. He just kind of started going
in that direction, now he's there. And these five kings had served
this king, Chattelaymar, for twelve years. Now here's the
scenario so you can get it. I've read a bunch of names and
I'm throwing some names out now and so here's what's happening.
There were four kings and they were really, let me just say
this, under a king named Chattelaymar and he was the head king. And
they were, let's say the landlords, they were the ones that kind
of were running things. And these five kings over there,
of which Sodom was one of them, Gomorrah was one of them, there
were five kings over there, and they were the ones in servitude
to the four kings under Chattelahmar. Well, what happened was the five
kings They decided, I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want
to serve you. I don't want to be in servitude
to you. And so there was a rumbling is
what's happening. So these five kings who had been
servants, let's say, having to pay money and send it to the
four kings under Chattelaymar. And so what they were going to
do is they were going to rebel. So the five kings had served,
the scripture says, Chattelaymar for 12 years. Well, in the 13th
year, they rebelled. What happened was they said,
we're not going to do this anymore. And in the 14th year, Chattelaymar
aligned with the other three, these four right here, and they
were going to put a stop to this. And so Chattelaymar, along with
his allies, came and they put the rebellion down. But while
they were putting the rebellion down, they went ahead and took
everything else from all the other surrounding neighboring
cities And they decided, we're just going to stop this. I'm
going to make an example of everybody. Well, the King of Sodom, instead
of submitting to the forces of Chattel-Amar and negotiating
terms of peace, decided that he was going to go ahead and
just take the battle again against the four kings that were coming
in to put this rebellion down. But it didn't go well. And the
forces that were aligning themselves with Sodom, they were put down
and many of them, there were slime pits in that area, the
scripture says. And those that didn't, you know,
be caught up in the slime pits, pits fell to the mountains. And
the cities were plundered and all the goods of Sodom were carried
off, carried off by the conquerors. And in that plundering lot Adam's
brother's son who dwelt in Sodom and his goods were taken also. They left with Lot. Now had it not been for Lot being
involved, providentially it may have been, Abram would have never,
you know, that wasn't his fight. But What's happened now, Lot,
now is taken. And the Spirit of God has been
pleased to be dealing with two men primarily in this book, this
latter part of these chapters we've been dealing with, Abram
and Lot, and the lives of these two men. We've been seeing how
the mercy and compassion of God to lead and guide and direct
and protect his people while they sojourn in this world. Lot
has left Ur of the Chaldees. He'd gone to a place called Haran. His daddy was there. He died.
He came down to Canaan. He went down into Egypt. There
he told Sarah, he said, tell them that you're my sister. You
know what happened? Now they're back. In Canaan,
now they had the squabble between them because of their herdmen.
They split. Abram told Lot, you take what
you want. I'll take the other lot. And
now he's caught up. He got caught up in this war. And they came in and they took
everything. Took it all. And he got Lot,
his family, all of them. Now he's taken into captivity.
He's defeated, he's lost all of his possessions. Now, that's
what happened physically, humanly speaking. But in that being taken
captive, do we not see in him a picture of man, man in general,
but specifically with Lot of God's elect? in the fall. All men fell in the fall. But
in that fall, there were some of God's elect, some that the
Lord had known and loved everlastingly. But now Lot has lost everything. He's not with Abram anymore. He was in Sodom, had all of his
stuff. He had all kinds of livestock. I mean, he was a wealthy man.
And he's over there now, and now he don't have any of it.
All of it was taken. Now, those forces under Chattelay
and Mars got him, but now here's a picture of man. Captive. Spiritually captive. Stripped
of everything that he's got. Why? Why? Well, the scripture
says, here's the reason why. Wherefore, has by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. Now, man lost everything in the
fall. Communion with God, joy, in the
Lord, peace, His life. That's what the Lord told Adam.
The day you eat, you're going to die. And now being born in
Adam, we've come into this world in captivity. All of us have. We're all like Lot. We're all
taken, captive to sin, bondage. A nature now that the Apostle
Paul refers to as the body of this death. A body that only
the Lord can free us from and that in death we're gonna go
through the rest of our life with that, you know. We're born
into this world held by a strong man. Satan, one stronger than
us. The Lord spoke of this bondage.
from which a sinner must be delivered by one stronger than himself,
stronger than the strong man. The Lord said, talking to some
Pharisees who accused him of casting out devils by Beelzebub,
the prince of devils, the Lord said unto them, he said, that's
what they told him, he said, you cast out devils by Beelzebub,
you're doing this by the devil. And the Lord said, if Satan,
cast out Satan, If Satan cast out Satan, he's divided against
himself. How shall then his kingdom stand?
But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom
of God is coming to you. Or else how can one enter into
a strong man's house and spoil his goods, those that he has
captive, except he, the Lord Jesus Christ, first bind the
strong man, And then he'll spoil his house. So Lot is captive
to these kings over here. But man's captive in sin, Satan,
this world, self. So here's God's people. Here's where we are. Here's a
picture of God's elect. But according to the good pleasure
and grace of God, the scripture sets forth that Abram found out
about it. Let's read verses 13 to 16. And
there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew, for
he dwelt in the plain of Mamre, the Amorite brother of Eshcol,
and brother of Aner. And these were confederate with
Abram. And when Abram heard that his
brother was taken captive, He armed his trained servants born
in his own house, 318, and pursued them unto Dan. And he divided
himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote
them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of
Damascus. And he brought back all the goods,
and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women
also, and the people. Now, here we see Abram, the Spirit
of God, referring to him as the Hebrew, one who is a descendant
of Shem. You remember? Noah's three sons. Shem, the father of Eber. Matthew
Henry made a note of this concerning this Abram's title, the Hebrew.
He said, one from whose family the profession of true religion
was kept up. in that degenerate age. Now, the word Hebrew means one
from beyond, but most commentators all in agreement say that the
title they're given, Abram, is to show his relationship by the
grace of God to the Lord. And so we've seen now that Lot's
plight now has been addressed by Abram. Somebody came, whether
it was a soldier, whether it was one of Lot's family, we don't
know. But it just says in verse 13,
there came one that had escaped. And here Abram had been informed,
but our God has known eternally his people. Nobody's ever informed
him. Known from the beginning are
these precious things of the Lord. So here, Abram, because
of his love for Lot, he takes 318 men that he's instructed,
that he's taught, born into his family. And what happens is he's
going after, he's going after a lot. And oh, I think of the
mercy of God that the Lord Jesus Christ would not leave us to
themselves. I was going over my notes a minute
ago and I jotted down this right here when I thought about it.
I could just see in my mind this, whoever this was, they came and
they told Abram, a lot's been taken. Chattelay and Mearn, his
allies have come over and they've overrun Sodom and Gomorrah and
these other places surrounding neighboring cities. And they've
taken everything. Lots with them. He's gone. Lots
gone. His family's gone. His stuff's
gone. Everything's gone. They knew,
obviously, who Abram was. And I thought, here was Abram. He didn't have that attitude
of, well, he made his bed. He can sleep in it now. That'd be a natural response. had an argument over, the herdman
had started and he kind of spilled over and Abram had seen that,
you know, the heathen was in the land and rather than cause
a bad name to be upon them and upon the Lord, He told Lot, he
said, you take what you want. We can't do this. You take what
you want and you go on. You go do and I'll go the other
way. We'll split ways. Now Lot's captive. And Abraham,
no mention of hesitation. No mention of, you know, well,
he's getting what he deserves. No, there was a spirit of mercy.
Spirit of graciousness. Without a doubt, he loved him.
That was his nephew. That was his brother's son. But
it says right here, deeper than that. You notice right there,
look at that last verse. Second time it's mentioned, he
brought back all the goods and also brought back, who? His brother. His brother. What did he tell Lott back when
they were getting ready to split? He said, Lott, we're brethren.
We're brethren. We're brethren. These fleeting
things right here. Like I said, what's some grass
and some water? I mean, look. We're brethren. And so here, Abram pursues. He's going after him. He's going
after him with purpose. With purpose. I think of that
scripture. Scripture says, the Lord says,
my meat, this is what I live on. This is my sustenance, right? My meat is to do the will of
him that sent me. And Abram was going after him. How many you got? 318. How many do they got? It don't
matter. I'm going after my brother. And he pursued him. Small number,
318 against four kings. I don't know how many they had.
No mention, but with God, all things are possible. You think
there was any possibility? What if it was one of your kids?
What if it was your wife? What would you do? He went after
him, and the scripture says he heard, he took him, 15, he divided
himself against him, he and his servants by night, and he smote
him. I think about Gideon. How many did Gideon have when
he went in and He slew the army of the Midianites. How many did
they have? I don't know. He doesn't say.
How many did he have? 300. That's how many he had.
And the Lord blessed it. And he smote them. And the scripture
says that he took them, he divided his force, and he came in by
night and he smote those as the Lord has come and tearing it,
pulling down the strongholds against God's people. And he
took back all the goods that they had taken, you know, with
their exploits. And he got back Lot and his goods,
and the women, and the people, and all the, you know, everything
that belonged to Lot. This is what he got. He took
it. All the goods he got, but he
was after Lot's, Lot's stuff. But oh, the victory that the
Lord wrought concerning Lot's rescue and recovery by Abram,
an uncle that loved him, loved his nephew, loved his brother
in the Lord, a fellow believer. But oh, the love of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, I laid down my life.
for the sheep. Do you think Abram had resolved
in his mind? He doesn't say. I'm just thinking. Well, Abram, you know you might
die. I'm going after him. He got him. And Lot was saved. He was delivered from captivity. But consider just in these closing
moments of what the Lord has done for us. Salvation. Salvation is what
a captive sinner needs. We talk about salvation, saved. That word is rescued. Rescued. You know, I was going
over thinking of these things and I'm thinking, you take somebody
out there in the water and they're swimming around and you ask them,
you said, do you need rescuing? They're out there swimming. No.
No, I'm not. No, I don't need rescuing. I
don't need it. Why? I'm not drowning. I don't
need rescuing. But I'm telling you, if a man
is drowning, if he's going under and he can't swim, he needs for
somebody to do something for him that he can't do. He can't
swim. And he's going under. He needs saving. Why? No man can save himself. Salvation is for those who can't
save themselves. That's what a captive sinner
needs. Salvation is what a helpless
sinner needs. There's no way. I need rescuing. I need for the Lord to do something
for me because born in Adam, I am captivated. I'm held. And I need one that
is powerful, that can save me, take me back, deliver me. Lot had lost all of his goods
and in the fall we lost everything that had any value to it whatsoever. We were ruined, ruined in Adam's
Transgression. From the sole of our foot to
the crown of our head. Isaiah 1.6 says there's no soundness. No part of us is unaffected. That's what it means. There's
no soundness. There's no part of us. Whatever part you want
to consider. emotion, whatever. There's nothing in us. All it
is is spiritual wounds and bruises, running sores, and nothing has
been done or can be done except by the Lord. Religion can't help
us. Religion. The religion of the
world, good intentions, We can't help ourselves, we have no ability.
Ephesians 2.4 says this, 2.4 to 7, but God, but God, who is
rich in mercy, rich in not giving us what we
deserve. Did Lot decide he wanted to go
to Sodom? Did he decide this is where I
want to go? It looked good to me. Well watered. That looks like a place that
I can settle down there. That's where he wanted to go.
Man in the garden, Adam in the garden, he did what he wanted
to do. And did it with his eyes wide
open. God who is rich in mercy. He's not giving us what we deserve
for, because of, His great love, wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. Meaning, He has made us alive
with the life that flows from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
quickened us together with Christ. By grace, you're saved. By grace,
this is the favor that we did not deserve, that Christ should
impart his own life to souls that he has everlastingly loved,
that have been given him by the Father, who now are dead in sins,
in absolute rebellion against God. And the scripture says,
and hath raised us up and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. Marvelously and gloriously. I
cannot understand it, but I believe it. that we now are found in
Him, we've always been in Him, He's seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high, and we're still found in Him. That in the
ages to come, He's done all of this, that in the ages to come,
He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. As Abram rescued Lot with 318
men, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the shedding of His own blood, by the blood of one man, by the
blood of the God-man, by the blood of one man, but oh, what
a man, Oh, what blood. By the blood of one man shed
for a people everlastingly loved, they have been rescued. They
have been delivered from the curse of the law by the Lord
Jesus Christ being made a curse for us. He paid our debt. to the law of God with his own
blood. What was the debt? Death. Death. That's the debt. The wages of sin, the broken
law of God, that's, you know, sin is a transgression of the
law. And the wages of sin is death. And the law had to be
satisfied. What's it going to take? to satisfy
the law for sin, death. He was made sin. He took all
of the sin of all of His people for all of time. He bore all
of it. Not only what they committed,
what they didn't do, they should have done, what they thought,
What? Everything. We'll never know. We'll never know the debt he
paid. But by one sacrifice for sin,
he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. The law could demand no more,
no less death. He laid down his life. Abram's
willingness, diligence to save his brother Lot set forth the
willingness of the Lord Jesus Christ to finish the work, that
work that was given him by his father. Believing God, Abraham
believed God. and it was counted unto him for
righteousness. He left his place of comfort
where he was in Canaan, and he came and rescued his brother
who could not deliver himself. He was captive. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, he who eternally stood as the surety of his sheep,
came into this world, made flesh, made under the law to finish
that work, and he finished it. That's what he said. He said
that. It's finished. And Abram brought back all the
goods, his brother Lot and his goods, and the women also, and
the people. And our precious Savior said, I restored that
which I took not away. He restored life that was lost
by sin. He restored man's obedience to
God. The man that obeyed God, he charges
that obedience. his people that believe, restored
God's image in man, God's acceptance of man for his obedience. And
now peace, joy, love, and fellowship, all that was lost in the garden,
it's been restored. Abram went and rescued him, brought
him back. Got all that was lost, gave it
all back to him. Oh, I pray that God bless our
hearts. Seeing in this picture right
here, this event really took place. But oh, what a rescue,
what it pictured, what it set forth concerning the salvation
of God's elect. Pray that the Lord bless it for
his glory and our good. Amen. Okay, Gary.