Genesis chapter 13. Last time we considered this
passage of scripture. We beheld the Lord's bringing
Abram back to the place where his tent had been in the land
of Canaan before he sojourned in Egypt. Back to the place of
the altar. Back where he had worshipped
God, called on the name of the Lord, Bethel. On his west side,
Hai on his east. There he beheld that place that
was a reminder of what a believer is in this world. The house of
bread, a heap of ruins. And the Lord, who worketh, the
Scripture says, ever working all things after the counsel
of His own will, was pleased to use the means of a heathen
king to get Abram back to the land of Canaan. He says in verse
18 and 19 of chapter 12, And Pharaoh called Abram, and
said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst
thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou, She
is my sister? So I might have taken her to
me to wife. Now therefore behold thy wife,
take her, and go thy way. You know, I thought about that
scripture as I was going over my notes, and I thought, you
know, he had told half-truth is what he did. She was his half-sister. They
had the same daddy, different mommas. And so she was actually,
technically, his sister, half-sister. But she was his wife, which took
a great precedent over her position toward Abram. And I thought to
myself, when he told that Pharaoh that, and Pharaoh told him, why
did you do this to me? I mean, humanly speaking, he
could have had him killed. I mean, you know, he lied to
the king. Psalm 76, 10. Surely the wrath
of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath thou shalt
restrain. I'm so thankful that the Lord
holds back the wrath of men that, according to the Scriptures,
hate the people of God. You're going to be hated of all
men for my name's sake. And it's the restraining hand
of God that protects, keeps God's people. So now here we are, we're
going to continue and we're going to find the situation after Abram
and Lot have now gone back. They've gone out of Egypt, now
they're back in Canaan, the place where they were, and the situation
between Abram And Lot is going to be one of great trials. The scripture says in 5 to 7
of 13, And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks and herds
and tents, and the land was not able to bear them, that they
might dwell together. For their substance was great,
so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife
between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's
cattle, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in
the land. Now, the reason for their quarrel was their wealth. Both men had acquired much wealth. concerning Pharaoh, when Abram
told Pharaoh, this is my sister, the scripture says, verse 16
of chapter 12, and he, that is Pharaoh, entreated Abram well
for her sake. And he had sheep, and oxen, asses,
men servants, maid servants, she-asses, and camels. And then
the Scripture says in chapter 13 and verse 5 concerning Lot. And Lot also, which went with
Abram, had flocks and herds and tents. So we find out that these
two men had gone down into Egypt and by the good providence of
God that works all things, as we said, after the counsel of
His own will, He blessed them. with great substance, and so
great was the substance. Between these two men, the Scripture
says they couldn't dwell together. And there was strife between
the herdmen of Abram and the herdmen of Lot. And the Scripture
reveals something else that is very, very revealing. In the bottom part of verse 7
in chapter 13, it says, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled
then in the land. Now what was the significance
of that? Well, there was strife, verse 7. There was strife between
the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle.
And there were Canaanites and Perizzites that dwelled in the
tent and they saw the strife. They beheld what was going on
between the workers of Lot and Abram. Now, these men that didn't
know God, these Canaanites, Perizzites, They're watching. And let us
remember something. We're in this world, and the
scripture says we're not of it, God's people are not of it, but
we're observed by those who are unbelievers. You remember, turn
to 2 Samuel chapter 12. You know the story, you know
where I'm going with this. 2 Samuel chapter 12, when David took Bathsheba. And well, let's just read it. He had taken Bathsheba and got
rid of her husband. And here's what the Lord did.
He sent a prophet to David. He says in 2 Samuel 12 verse
9 to 14, He's speaking to David through the prophet Nathan. And Nathan
says, verse 9, Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment
of the Lord to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah
the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy
wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of
Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall not depart from thine house,
because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah
the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, Behold,
I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house,
and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto
thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of
this sun. For thou didst it secretly, but
I will do this thing before all Israel and before the Son. And
David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And
Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou
shalt not die. How be it? Because by this deed
thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to
blaspheme the child also that is born unto thee shall surely
die. So here's Abram's herdman and
Lot's herdman, and because of their wealth, because there was
so much that they had, the land was not bearing it, and there
was strife between them. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite
saw it. They beheld it. And let's learn
here. though they appear to the world
to be always a blessing, can certainly be found to be a snare
and cause of strife and division. Money. Money. Don't ever think
that people, you know, you can talk to family members, and family
members, you know, as long as maybe the parents are still alive,
they'll say, you know, boy, I tell you what, we'd never let money
come between us. Now I can tell you this, that's usually not
the way it is. It's usually strife. It's usually
an argument over it. The scripture says 1 Timothy
6, 9, but they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare,
and to many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction
and perdition. Abram's removal. from Ur, the city of the Chaldees,
this city in Chaldea, drew his family closer. They were very
tight, they traveled together, and they were directed down to
Canaan. They built an altar there, and
they worshipped. And so that being separated out
of his country drew them together. But earthly possessions is what
proved to be a point of contention between them. But with the contention
between the members of the family, the Spirit of God moved upon
Abram to say something unto Lot in a spirit of meekness and sympathy
and kindness, compassion, wisdom. Here it was. There was a strife, verse 7,
between the herdmen and the Canaanite and the Perizzite, who dwelt
then in the land, and seeing it, it was pretty obvious. And
the Scripture says in verse 8, And Abram said unto Lot, Let
there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between
my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren. Is not the whole
land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee,
from me. If thou wilt take the left hand,
then I'll go to the right. If thou depart to the right hand,
then I'll go to the left. You know, we'd like to think
that there would never be any strife, any division in our families. But I'll tell you for a fact,
the scripture bears out that that's not the way it always
is. David had strife in his family,
that's why he said, though my house be not so with God. He
had a son that wanted to kill him, dethrone him. And you take
Jacob and Esau and their strife, you know, the faith of God's
people is going to be tried. It's going to be tried and often
in ways that we would never pick. And one of the hardest burdens
to bear is strife within your family. Listen, Abram and Lot were believers. They were believers. Abraham
believed God, and God made a covenant with him. And the Scripture says
concerning Lot, just Lot. Justified lot. If God wouldn't
have said that, we might have some reason to doubt, Neil, but
God said he was a believer. And here's these two believers,
members of the same family, uncle and nephew. And the faith of
God's people is going to be tried and often in the tenderest ways,
even with your own family. Oh, when trials come. Let's remember,
God's not the author of confusion. But the Lord may be pleased to
permit trials to come to show us, to show His people. You're
going to find comfort and stability, happiness and joy nowhere else
but in me, in Him. Only the rock upon which a believer
stands is going to be the rock of security. All other securities,
all other joys are going to be proven to play second fiddle,
if I can say it like that. We love our families. We do.
But when we go through and see a tight-knit, closely-knit family,
and the Lord allows us to see ourselves for what we really
are, I'm telling you, that's when you're going to realize
that God Almighty is Lord in heaven and earth. The Lord that
he might receive all the honor and all the glory and all the
praise. We're going to learn from this strife and division
that Almighty God is the one to whom we look alone. Two believers,
two men, loved and chosen of God, redeemed by the blood of
Christ, called by God's Spirit, robed in the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ,
but they were shown to be frail creatures of the dust. And a
quarrel developed between their workers and the strife came to
a head to where these two men had to separate because of it,
because of what was going on. The Canaanite and the Perizzite
dwelled in the land and the escalation of the tension would do nothing
but bring a reproach unto the Gospel, unto the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So Abram, a man sensitive to
the whole situation, he came to Lot and he said, We're brethren. Let there be no strife. You take
what you want. You take what you want. Now the
Lord had promised this land to Abram's seed. He said, I'm going
to show it to you. I'm going to give this to your
seed. It's going to be yours forever. And Abram says to him,
you take what you want. It ain't worth this. Oh, what
an example of faith. What a statement of trusting
God to lay his heart bare before Lot. And he said, Lot, we're
both believers. What are we squabbling about?
You know, you take what seems best to you. Brethren, let us learn. When the glory of God is the
issue, and men, because of their pride, would rather quarrel over
that which is fleeting This is temporal. What do you think that
grass right now, back where they were, what do you think it means
right now? But at that moment, it was a big deal. It was a big,
big deal. And what Abram was saying, he
said, listen, I'd rather give you what you want and separate
from you rather than give the enemies of God a reason to blaspheme. God's honor. God is teaching
Abram something, and Abram's saying something. Listen, we've
worshipped together, we've fellowshiped together, and now we're going
to squabble over grass? This can't be. So here now, Lot's
come to a crossroad. And Abram tells him, he said,
now I want you, you choose what you want. And the choice was over something,
as I said, that was worldly. It was just, it was worldly. And what a painful position to
be in. Abram told him, you pick what
you want. We've got a squabble here, and
you just, you tell me what you want. You choose this, I'll take
this. You choose that, I'll take this.
What do you want? You know, hold your place there. No, I'll read it to you. It's in 1 Corinthians 21. It
was a time when the scripture says, 1 Corinthians 21. Satan
had stood up against Israel. and provoked David to number
the people. And David did. He was tempted
to number the people for whatever reason. And the scripture says
that God was displeased with the thing, that David numbered
the people. And David found himself. God sent word to him. David found himself in a crossroad.
He's in a place, he's in a great strait now. He's numbered the
people. God's displeased. And the Lord
sent word to David to a prophet named Gad. And this is what he
stated that David was to choose. He said, I want you to make up
your mind. You tell me what you want. Do you want 2 Samuel 24 13? Do
you want seven years of famine? Or shall you flee three months
before thine enemies while they pursue thee? Or three days of
pestilence in the land? Now here's what God told him.
God told him this. You choose what you want. You
make the choice. And David did the wisest thing
he could possibly do. He cast himself upon the mercy
of God and he said unto Gad, I'm in a great strait. Let us fall now into the hand
of the Lord for his mercies are great and let me not fall into
the hand of man. The wisest thing that at this
particular place right here Lot could have done was to say back
to Abram what Abram said to Lot. No, no, no, no. You're God's man. You've taught
me. God's taught me through you.
And the Lord's promised this to your seed. You take what you
want. But Scripture says that Abram,
you know, telling Lot, you take what you want. in proving what
a believer's conduct ought to be, to trust the Lord, to direct
providentially while we esteem others better than ourselves,
and what security and peace and comfort would be found there.
No, you choose. I don't want to pick. I don't
want to pick. You pick. You pick. And Abram
was striving as much as possible to live peaceably with all men,
but he was more concerned with the glory of God and the honor
of the gospel than the privilege to pick the grass. What he wanted to do was he wanted
to wait on the Lord, worship the Lord, and when it comes to,
it's all about me. It's all about me. Abram said,
you pick what you want. And when it comes to where it's
about me, myself, and I, surely, for a believer, especially, I
can say this, there's going to be some chastisement. There's
going to be some correcting. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. And you know, Lord willing, these
next few weeks, we're going to be looking at what happened.
And because of what Lot chose, verse 10 to 13, Lot lifted up
his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered
everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the
garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest
unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain
of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves,
the one from the other, And Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan,
and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain and pitched his
tent toward Sodom." Boy, what a verse of separation. What a laying down of what's
really going on here. Lot observed and considered and
made his choice based on the lust of the flesh The lust of
the eyes and the pride of life. All that is not of the Father,
but is of the world. And here's what he did. He looked
out there and he chose Sodom. That looks good to me. That looks
good. I think that's what I'll pick. That's the lush place. And here
was a place that was soon to be judged. A place where, by
and large, all the inhabitants of that place, Scripture says,
they were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.
And I don't doubt, one second, Lot knew nothing of the judgment
that would come to that place. He knew nothing of his soul that
would be vexed every day. He soon would feel that striving
and that turmoil within. But this is the Lot. when believers, especially believers
I'm talking about, when they wait not upon the Lord, and we
choose that which seems best to the flesh at the expense of
seeking the Lord and waiting on the Lord. Wait on the Lord.
Wait on the Lord. And Abram dwelt in the land of
Canaan. The place where the Lord had
led him and placed him, where God blessed him. And he worshipped
God. And Lot dwelled in the cities
of the plain, pitched his tent towards Sodom. And there was
plenty of water and there was plenty of grass, but there was
no altar. It doesn't say anything about
an altar. No believers there where he could fellowship. But
when we come to a crossroads, We come to a place where we've
got to make a decision. We come there all the time. But
when we come to a place seeking the Lord's direction, let us
ask this. Is this decision I'm going to
make, am I going to violate any revealed word of scripture? Am
I going to violate anything on this scripture? If you can see something in the
Word of God and the decision you're making violates that scripture,
that's a pretty good indication. That's not the right decision.
That's pretty cut and dry right there. Will it violate any scripture? Secondly, will it hinder my ability
to meet with God's people in worship? Am I going somewhere where there's
no place to worship? And thirdly, if I can't find
anything in the Scripture that I'm violating, and there is a
place, just ask yourself this, do I believe that this decision
is according to God's leadership and direction? Somebody asked
me something. You know, I'm thinking about
doing so. I said, let me ask you this. Do you believe that's what God
wants you to do? That's my first question that comes out of my
mouth. Is this what you believe the Lord wants you to do? I've
told you before. Before I came here, I met with
a group of men, talked to me, asked me to consider coming here. This was in late January of 2003.
And Glenn and I got married in March of 2003. Moved to Franklin. Staying there. And people knew
that I was coming here. And they'd ask me, said, what
do you think about going to Katy? I said, I don't think anything.
I don't think anything. I don't feel any direction to
go, and I don't feel any direction to not go. I just don't feel
anything. I'm just trying to be honest. And it wasn't until
late June I felt in my heart, you know, this is what I need
to do. This is what I need to do. And I didn't, after I felt this
was the right thing to do, I had complete liberty to do it. If
I'd have got a truck and started loading up and I didn't have
any leadership of the Lord, I'd have been tore all to pieces.
I just, I couldn't settle down. I'm bad enough now, ask Linda.
I mean, trying to settle down, I'm just all over the place.
But if I'm settled, this is what I need to do. This, you know,
whatever you do, Is it according to scripture? Will it hinder
my ability to meet with God's people? And do I believe that
this is according to the will of the Lord? Well, after Lot
left, I'll wrap this up. The Lord spoke to Abram. Lot
left. And the scripture says, verses
14 to 18, and the Lord said unto Abram, After that lot was separated
from him, lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where
thou art, northward, southward, eastward, westward. For all the
land in which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy
seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the
dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of
the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk
through the land in the length of it, in the breadth of it,
for I will give it unto thee.' Then Abram removed his tent and
came and dwelt in the land plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron,
and built there an altar unto the Lord." Here's another gracious
visit by the Lord that was paid to this man, Abram. The Lord confirmed his promise.
unto the object of his mercy, and Lot had separated himself
from Abram, but God came to Abram. And as a token of his favor,
he promised. He said, I'll never leave you.
I'll never forsake you. And Abram, in submission unto
the Lord, he let Lot choose what he wanted, but the Lord came
to Abram. He let Lot do what he wanted
to do. And by telling Lot, you choose
what you want, Abram was exhibiting his trust in God. He believed
God. He believed the Lord was going
to order these things. And the Lord blessed it. The Lord blessed it. It was for
His glory. And we remember relations in
this life. may be separated from us. I think of all the families,
all of the strifes. There's times that there's just
divisions. But what Abram chose was God's
way. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. He bowed to God's pleasure. and he received God's blessing,
and Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom, and Abram dwelt in the
plain of Mamre and built an altar there, and he worshipped the
Lord. I said, remember, both these men are believers. They're
both believers. Not like one of them was a non-believer.
But we learned, we learned from this. We learned when we come
to positions in this life, our faith is going to be tested.
And when it's tested, bow to the good pleasure of God. May
the Lord teach me to do that. This is what I need to learn.
And I pray the Lord bless this to our hearts for His glory and
our good. Amen.