in the chapter that we read,
Genesis 18. I want this morning, with the
Lord's help, to draw your attention for a while to the words that
we find here at the end of verse 22. But Abraham stood yet before
the Lord. In Genesis 18, and that latter
clause, of verse 22, but Abram stood yet before the Lord. In this particular chapter there
are at least two very striking things that we can observe. Here
we see something of the ministry of the angels. As we see in the opening verses
of the chapter, the angels appear as men. We read, And the Lord
appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre, and he sat in the tent
door in the heat of the day. And he lifted up his eyes and
looked, and lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them,
he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself
toward the ground. These are angels, as we see in
the following chapter. As two of them had gone forward,
so they arrived at the city of Sodom. There came two angels
to Sodom that evening, and the Lord sat in the gates of Sodom. There is a ministry of angels.
The Apostle reminds us when he writes to the Hebrews that they are sent forth to minister
to those who are the heirs of salvation, he says. And there
is great joy in the presence of the angels of God, says the
Lord Jesus, over one sinner that repenteth. They are glorious
beings, much greater than we are. They
are mighty creatures. There are those referred to as
Seraphim, the Burning Ones, others spoken of as the Cherubim. They
are about the throne of God. They do His bidding day and night. But their task is to minister
to those who are the heirs of salvation, because the Lord Jesus
Christ passes by the fallen angels. There's no provision made for
those angels that had sinned against God. But he is made a little lower
than the angels, we're told, for the suffering of death. He
comes to redeem sinners of mankind. And those mighty creatures, the
angels, are to minister to the saints of God. Here we see then
how Abraham is actually entertaining angels. And again, it's Paul
who exhorts us not to be forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby
some have entertained angels, he says, unawares. Initially
was Abraham altogether aware as to who these particular persons
were that came to him. There were angels there that
came to him there in the plains of Mamre. But not only angels.
Here we see how he meets also with the Lord. He meets with
the angel of the Lord. It is the Lord who speaks to
him. It says in the opening word of the chapter, the Lord, that
is Jehovah, Lord in capital letters, the Great I Am, the Lord appeared
unto him in the plains of Mamre. And it is the Lord who speaks
to him throughout the chapter. In verse 13, the Lord said unto
Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah lie? Again, in verse 17, the
Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? And then again at verse 20, the
Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great,
and because their sin is very grievous. I will go down now
and see whether they have done all together according to the
cry of him. It is the Lord who is present as well as the angels. It is the Lord who speaks. It is two angels that go off
to Sodom and Gomorrah but then we see how that in our text Abram
is yet standing before the Lord. The men turned their faces from
thence, it says, and went towards Sodom. And we see, as we've already
noted in the opening verse of chapter 19, that those two do
duly arrive at Sodom in the evening. But Abram stood yet before the
Lord. for it is the angel of the Lord.
When the Lord God brings the children of Israel out of the
bondage which was Egypt and leads them towards the Promised Land
and will eventually lead them for 40 years through the wilderness
wanderings, we see how He was pleased to make a way for them,
directing them by means of His presence in that cloudy, fiery
pillar, a pillar of cloud by the day, a pillar of fire by
the night, but it was the Lord. It was the Lord who was clearly
in that pillar. There is the promise as we have
it at the end of the 13th chapter in the book of Exodus. The Lord went before them, it
says, by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way and by night
in a pillar of fire, to give them light to go by day and night.
He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar
of fire by night from before the people." It's the Lord who
is going before them. But then it's interesting to
observe what we read subsequently concerning the Lord's directions
in Exodus chapter 23. In Exodus chapter 23 verse 20
God says, Behold, I send an angel, I send an angel before thee to
keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which
I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice. Provoke him not, for he will
not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. Oh, this
is evidently the Lord, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. God's
name is in him, he is able to pardon sins, he can forgive sins
but God owns them. And then later this angel is
referred to as the fear of the Lord who goes before them. Verse 27 there in that 23rd chapter,
I will send my fear before them. all that to reverence his name.
This is no ordinary angel. This is the Lord God himself.
It's the angel of the Lord. And it is interesting to observe
later in this book of Genesis when we find the age Jacob blessing
the two sons of Joseph. there in chapter 48. He refers
to his God and speaks of him as the angel in the 48th chapter. In verse 15, concerning Jacob we
read, he blessed Joseph and said, before whom my fathers Abraham
and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto
this day, the Angel, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil,
bless the lands. And let my name be named on them,
and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow
into a multitude in the midst of the earth. God is the Angel. And this one who comes with these
two angels, this third person is none other than the angel
of the Lord. It's an appearance of the Lord
Jesus Christ to Abraham here in the plains of Mamreth. These two very striking features
then of this whole chapter, the ministry of the angels who are
sent to minister to heirs of salvation. Abraham, the father
of all the faithful, and also the Lord God himself comes here
in this person of the angel of the Lord. This theophany that's
granted unto Abram. But coming to consider in particular
the words of our text here at the end of verse 22, but Abram
stood yet before the Lord. And I want us to consider Abraham
standing before the Lord. What all of this is about. First
of all, we have to recognize that there's a purpose of God
that is being unfolded here in this chapter. And God is revealing something
to Abraham. He's going to come and visit
his terrible judgment upon those cities of the plain, the wicked
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. As we see from verse 17, the
Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? How gracious God is that He does
reveal His purpose. Oh yes, the secret things belong
unto the Lord our God, but there are those things that are revealed
As Moses says, they belong to us and to our children. We have
a revelation from God. We have it here in the Word of
God. Remember the language of the
Prophet Amos. In Amos 3.7 he says, Surely the
Lord God will do nothing but He will reveal His secrets unto
His servants, the prophets. Oh, He is a God who is pleased
to reveal His secrets. He reveals Himself. If we have any knowledge of the
Lord God at all, it is a revelation that we have received. He has
made himself known to us. But here we see how God is revealing
his purpose unto Abraham. And in the 17th verse, he says,
Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? In fact, what we have at the
end of that verse is really the active participant. He says,
shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I am doing? That's
a literal rendering of what is written there. The thing that
I am doing. God is already beginning to execute
His righteous judgment on those wicked cities of the plains. and we see that with regards
to these two angels who appear together with the
Lord God together with the angel of the Lord these two angels
who appear there in those plains of Mamre in verse 16 we're told
how the men rose up from thence and looked toward Sodom or they're
on a mission and they're mindful of the destination that they
must ultimately arrive at. God is beginning to do this awful
work. And then again at verse 22 we're
told other men turned their faces from thence and went toward Sodom. They looked toward Sodom in verse
16 but now they continue in their journey. They are making their
way to Sodom. They have a very definite commission
that they have received from God, they are angels and remember
what we are told concerning the Seraphim in Isaiah chapter 6,
those are angels, they are about the throne of God and they have
six wings and with two wings they cover their feet and with
two wings they cover their faces and with two wings they fly,
they fly at the commandment of God As soon as God ushers, utters
his word, they do his bidding. And these, these two are on a
mission. They have been sent from the
high courts of heaven. And what is it that they're about?
Well, we see it in the following chapter when they arrived there
at Sodom. Verse 13, We will destroy this place. because the cry of
them is waxen great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord
hath sent us to destroy it." Or the Lord had sent them to
completely destroy those cities of the plain. And so it was,
of course, the site where those cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
once stood is now that salt sea, the Dead Sea. It's the sites
where those cities once stood. Here is God then. God has a purpose,
a purpose that He will fulfill. Here in verse 20 of chapter 18,
the Lord says, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great,
and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now
and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry
of it which is come unto me. And if not, I will know. We're
not to imagine that God could not know and that God has to
send these men on a mission to find out something that he would
be ignorant of. That's not what is really being said. God knows
all things. God is that one who is omniscient,
he's all-knowing. No, what we have here is the
justice of God. and how true and how faithful
God is in His dealings. He is not unsure or uncertain
in any sense with regard to the situation pertaining there in
those cities. He knows exactly what is happening. But see how patient the Lord
God is. How He sends these angels to
examine the scene, as it were, before he visits his terrible
judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Well, their sins are really calling,
crying out for judgment to fall upon them. And we see something
of the wickedness of the place when those angels arrive. there in that 19th chapter. They come to the city, they come
to lots, but what do we read there at
the opening of that particular chapter, that 19th chapter? Verse 4. Before they lay down,
the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house
round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter.
Light has let these men in, you see. And they called unto light
and said unto him, Where are the men which came into thee
this night? Bring them out unto us, that
we may know them. Now to carnal knowledge they
desired of these men. And Lot went out at the door
unto them, and shut the door after him, and said, I pray you,
brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold, now I have two daughters,
which have not known man. Let me, I pray you, bring them
out unto you, and do ye to them as it is good in your eyes. Only
unto these men do nothing. For therefore came they under
the shadow of my roof. Of course, the very name of Sodomite
comes from that city. and how the sins were crying
out unto God as we see here in verse 20 the cry of Sodom and
Gomorrah is great their sin is very grievous back in chapter 13 when Lot in
his folly first goes that way and is drawn towards the lush
plain around the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah what are we told?
chapter 13 and verse 13 the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners
before the Lord exceeded them and those things crying out for
God's judgment and now we see it of course in our own nation
we're a nation now of Sodomites we're a nation of Sodomites all
what wicked things have transpired over recent years. Only this
last year, of course, there's been much celebration of 50 years
of the Abortion Act, 1967, when that Act came into being, or
the murder of the babe in the womb, and it's been celebrated.
And now, of course, we live in a land where marriage is treated as something that is
awful when we contemplate same-sex marriages. And God, we were able
to have a proper marriage ceremony here only this past week. Much to thank God for. They're
in the midst of all the confusion, there are still those who would
have regard to the Word of God and the precepts of the Word
of God. But how marriage now is made
a mockery really, where people of the same sex can enter into
a so-called marriage. And does God wink at these things? Of course not. These are an abomination
in the sight of God. if the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah
was great and their sin very grievous. Isn't that true with
regards to our nation? And it's not only the matter
of birth or marriage, but even, it seems before long, when it
comes to the end of life. There'll be laws enabling people
to practice euthanasia. I don't doubt it for a moment,
it will come. Except the Lord himself should intervene. We
are a nation ripe for the judgment of God. When we see in this solemn
chapter how God does visit his judgment upon wicked people.
But the point I want to make with regards to God's purpose
here is the amazing grace of God as we see it unfolded. In
the face of all that was taking place there in Sodom and Gomorrah
we find this man Abram being visited not only by angels but
the Lord himself is with them and Abram is able to stand before
the Lord and to plead with the Lord Abram stood yet before the
Lord it says even as those two angels go off on their mission
to destroy the cities Abram stood yet before the Lord and Abram
drew near And said, will thou also destroy the righteous with
the wicked? And we see how Abraham now begins
to plead with God. Even in the face of all these
high-handed sins. Even when God's judgments are
abroad, God is beginning to judge those cities. Still, Abraham
prays. Oh friends, he teaches us a vital
lesson. It is never too late, you see.
It is never too late to pray, to plead, to seek, to cry, to
call upon the Lord God Himself. Or we can think of that thief
upon the cross, that dying man. Almost his last words, we might
say, was that blessed request, Lord, he says, remember me, when
thou comest into thy kingdom. and with his dying breath he
pleads for mercy and the Lord says verily today thou shalt
be with me in paradise God has a purpose the gracious purpose
even in the midst of the greatest of sins he will save sinners
and it's for us to pray it's for us to plead with the Lord
God even as Abraham would stand before the Lord and pray firstly
then here we see something of God's great purpose, God's fearful
purpose with regards to those citizens, and yet that gracious
purpose that God will first reveal His secrets unto His servants
the prophets. He reveals it unto Abraham, and
Abraham responds. But then, consider Abraham. How strange, how bewildering,
how perplexing all of these things must have been for Abraham. What
was God doing? Previously, previously in chapter
14, we have the record of that great battle between the kings. The battle of four kings against
five kings, a lot. because he was there in the city
of Sodom and the king of Sodom was one of those involved in
that battle Lot had been taken and Abraham had gone forth and
Abraham had rescued his nephew Lot in verse 14 of that chapter,
when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his
trained servants, born in his own house, 318, and pursued them
unto death. And we're told verse 16, he brought
back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot,
and his goods, and the women also, and the people. Abram was
able on that occasion to rescue Lot who had been taken. And now,
here is Lot still in the city of Sodom, is Lot going to be
destroyed? God had granted success to Abram
when he pursued those kings and rescued his nephew. But is God now going to destroy
him? with all the wicked peoples of Sodom and Gomorrah? Oh, this
whole situation must have been most perplexing unto Abraham. But here at the end of the chapter
we have the record of his remarkable prayer, how he begins now boldly
to implore God concerning Lot, There's some repetition in the
prayer, yes, but it's not vain repetition. The Lord Jesus warns
us of vain repetition. That doesn't mean that all repetition
is vain. Why, as we've said on previous
occasions, the Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane repeats
himself, basically praying the same prayer three times over.
And here he's like, how does he plead? Well, he speaks of
there being 50 righteous in the city. Will God destroy it if 50 righteous can be found? And how he comes by degrees down
from 50 to 45, 40, 30, 20, 10. All Lord God, if just ten. See
God's a merciful God. Now Abraham is emboldened in
his prayers here as he pleads in the midst of all his perplexity. He finds God's ways so strange,
so mysterious. The psalmist says thy ways in
the sea, thy path in the great waters, thy footsteps are not
known. There is that that is strange about God. and sometimes
in the face of God's dealings with us, it's not easy to know
how to pray to him, how to plead with him. We see it so many times
in the language of the Psalmists. There in that 77th Psalm, he
cries out, my spirit was overwhelmed. Or was Abraham's spirit overwhelmed
at this time? As the Lord God had come and
indicated these things to him, but he prayed. again how Jeremiah in his day
when God's judgments were upon the ancient covenant people of
God Jeremiah as you know ministering at the time of the Babylonian
captivity seeing Jerusalem overrun and the temple of the Lord destroyed
and those taken away into exile. How perplexing it all was. We
have his book, the book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah the
prophet. And what does he say there? All
her people sigh. Often God's people, when he comes
to prayer, scarce know how to pray or what to say. How they
come with their groanings and their moanings, their sighs,
their cries. We've referred to it many a time.
It was the situation that God brought those children of Israel
into before he brought that great deliverance out of Egypt. Remember the end of the second
chapter in the book of Exodus, how he came to pass. in process
of time, that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel
sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried. And their cry
came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their
groaning. And God remembered His covenant
with Abraham, and with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked
upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them. Oh, when His children come, you
see, and they sigh and they cry and they groan. God remembers,
God hears such prayers and God answers such prayers as those. And so it was with Abraham here
who he is able to plead with the Lord God. He's emboldened
in his prayers as he is mindful of the fact that his His nephew
Lot and all of Lot's family are yet in that wicked city. Will
they be destroyed? No, we see Abram praying and
pleading and it's for us to pray. The Lord spares us, we can pray
still, we can plead with the Lord God concerning the awful
state of affairs in the nation. When we think of how few have
any real concern, not only for the situation about them, but
when they would in any sense think of themselves. How few even consider their latter
end and pray for themselves. What a blessing if we're those
who are moved to pray and to plead for sinners that the Lord
God will yet come and call out the people to his praise. He
will be inquired of. by the house of Israel, he says,
to do it for them. He will increase them with men
like a flock. It's for us to pray and to plead
in the midst of all our confusion, in the midst of all our perplexity.
But what do we see here also with regards to the Lord God?
We see something of Abraham's prayer as he's standing there
before the Lord. But doesn't Abraham also have
that to encourage him? He has God's promise. When God
comes at the beginning of the chapter, the Lord appeared unto
him, it says, in the plains of Mamre. The Lord doesn't come
empty-handed. The Lord doesn't come empty-handed.
He comes with a great and a gracious promise. And we see that subsequently. Verse 10, God says to him, I
will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life,
and though Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it
in the tent door which was behind him. Now Abram and Sarah were
old and well stricken in age, and it ceased to be with Sarah
after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within
herself, saying, After I am waxen old, Shall I have pleasure, my
Lord, being old also? It is the promise, you see. It
is the promise of the Son. The seed. The seed of Abraham. It's the promise that Isaac is
yet to be born. And it seems to be an impossibility
because they are both aged. and Sarah is well past the age
of conception. But then we have that word at
the beginning of verse 14. What a word it is! Is anything
too hard for the Lord? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? At the time appointed I will
return unto thee according to the time of life and Sarah shall
have a son. there is the promise that God
comes to Abraham with. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, with God all things
are possible. And in the language of the Apostle,
that great passage at the end of Ephesians chapter 3 concerning
our prayers to God, how He is able to do exceeding abundance.
above all that we ask or think or God's ability it so outstretches
not only our prayers but our thoughts all that we could ever
conceive of God is able to do exceeding abundance above all
things because nothing is impossible with Him here is the promise
then What does the Lord go on to say? Verse 17, the Lord said, Shall
I hide from Abram that thing which I do, seeing that Abram
shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations
of the earth shall be blessed in him. And that blessing, it
centers in that son that was to be born, the seed of Abram. Why? It's in the previous 17th
chapter that God enters into the covenant. Here is the covenant
associated with circumcision. And look at what God says there
in chapter 17. Verse 4, As for me, behold, my covenant
is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name
shall be called Abraham, for the father of many nations have
I made thee, and I will make the exceeding fruitful, and I
will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee,
and I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy
seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant to
be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. Again, verse 15, God said to
Abram, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name
Sarai, but Sarah shalt her name be. And I will bless her, and
give thee a son also of her. Yea, I will bless her, and she
shall be a mother of nations, kings of people shall be of her,
Then Abram fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his
heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years
old, and shall Sarah that is ninety years old bear? But only
Sarah who laughs, and Abram laughs. Verse eighteen, Abram said unto
Godor that Ishmael might live before the son of the bondwoman.
God said, Sarah, thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and they
shall call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant
with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him."
Now, I deliberately read those verses in chapter 17 concerning
the seed, because that seed, Isaac, is a wonderful type of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That seed is not so much Isaac,
you see, but it is Christ, the Lord Jesus himself. And we know
that, we have the authority of the New Testament Scriptures
establishing that blessed fact. Galatians chapter 3 and verse
16, to Abram and his seed where the promise is made, says Paul,
he saith not unto seeds as of many, but as of one, unto thy
seed which is Christ. Paul, that is the promise that
God is coming to Abram with and he sees it in type, he sees it
in the son that Sarah is going to bear and it's a miraculous
birth and it anticipates the virgin birth that a virgin should
be with child as was the case of course with the Lord Jesus
conceived of the Holy Ghost in the womb of a virgin all the
promise centers very much in the Lord Jesus Christ it is Christ
and it is this promise that is the blessed object of Abram's
faith. Abram is justified by faith,
but Abram's faith centers in that seed that was promised,
centers in the Lord Jesus Christ who would come made of a woman,
made under the law, the seed of Mary, the seed of Eve, made of a woman,
made under the law, He would come in the fullness of the time
and accomplish all that was necessary for the saving of his people.
Remember how we read of Abram at the end of Romans 4, being
not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, now dead when
he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb, he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, that was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and
being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also
to perform. And therefore it was imputed
to him for righteousness." What was imputed to him for righteousness? The promise! The promise that ultimately centers
in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh friends,
this is the great promise that God brings with Him when He appears
to Abram there in the plains of Mamre. Yes, He will reveal
to him the terrible thing that's going to fall upon those wicked
Sodomites. God's judgments. Oh, but in the
midst of wrath God remembers His mercy. He's a merciful God. He's a gracious God. He spared
not His own son. but delivered him up for us all.
How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? This is the one, you see, and
this is the one by whom we can come to God and plead with God
and have that persuasion that nothing is too hard for the Lord.
Oh, it's in Christ that we come. In Him we have boldness and access
with confidence by the faith of Him. Here is Abram, how he
stands before the Lord. Abram stood yet before the Lord. Abram drew near. And Abram begins
to pray and to plead. And so we have it here right
through to the end of the chapter. And then the Lord went his way
as soon as he had left communing with Abram. And Abram returns
on to his place. We should desire that God might
come and make such visits, frequent visits, even unto us. Come and appear to us and bring
His promise with Him every time. Sometimes you ask a person to
give their testimony, and what do they do? Well, they speak
about the Lord first out with them, and that's good. That's
not improper, of course it's not. There must be a beginning.
But we cannot live upon past experiences. Are we not those
who need a real living experience, a daily experience? We want the
Lord to come, and to come again and again. The Christian life
is that strange life of many changes. We read in Psalm 55,
it's those who have no changes that fear not God. Because children
do know changes. Sometimes they're on the mountaintop,
sometimes they're in the deep valleys. You're familiar, I'm
sure, with how Bunyan, in his immortal pilgrim's progress,
paints the scene of the life of the child of God, journeying
from that city of destruction to the celestial city. A strange,
mysterious life. But we sang the words just now,
more frequent, let thy visits be, or let them longer last.
I can do nothing without thee. Make haste, O God, make haste. How we want the Lord to come
to appear for us, to appear to us. That we might be those who
are ever pleading with Him, ever seeking His face, desiring to
stand before Him and there to cast all our cares upon Him,
knowing that He careth for us. Will the Lord be pleased to bless
His word to us? Amen. In closing, we shall sing hymn
1145 and the June-Eastern Palladium 220. When Abraham, full of sacred
awe, before Jehovah stood, and with a humble, fervent prayer,
your guilty Sovereign soothed. Number 1145.