Good morning. We're going to be in Genesis
chapter 18. Now, our Lord has just concluded a visit with Abraham
and Sarah. It was a gracious visit. And in his time there, he renewed
his promise. his promise of grace, his promise
of his covenant, which he establishes with his people in grace and
mercy. And now he turns himself toward
a very different business. He's going to do something very
different than what he was doing there with Abraham and Sarah. And this is the part of the chapter
where our Lord tells Abraham his purpose for going to Sodom. We're told in verse 16 that the
men rose up from thence, from their time, their place, sitting
with Abraham, and looked toward Sodom. Why did they look toward
Sodom? Sodom was a good ways off from
where they were. They were in Hebron. the area
of Hebron right now, and they looked toward Sodom. Why were
they looking toward Sodom? Well, the Lord tells Abraham
that he was going there because of a cry. There was a cry coming
up from the city of Sodom. And it was not a cry for mercy.
It was not a cry asking God for help or for God to deliver them. or for God to be merciful and
gracious to them, to think on them and to remember them, it
was not that kind of a cry. It wasn't the cry of you that
are burdened because of your sin and cry out to the Lord for
his grace and peace and mercy. This was a very different kind
of cry. This was a cry demanding, judge me, judge me. Come down here and make right
what I've done wrong. I dare you, I dare you. That's
what man was with his fist in the face, with no shame, just
out in the open doing what he wanted to do, what came naturally
to his wicked, corrupt flesh. It was the cry that demanded
the just wrath of God. And God looked toward it because
he was purposed now to destroy it. He speaks in terms how a
man would speak. He says, I'm going down there
to see if what I hear in that cry is so. And he knew. He knew. And he was going down
there justly to observe it and then to mete out the judgment
that they deserved. It makes me think of what we
read of concerning Abel's blood in Genesis 4. Genesis 4, verse 10. Our Lord,
speaking with Cain, Abel's brother, said, what hast thou done? The
voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. It demanded justice. And that's
why we're told concerning Christ's blood that his blood speaketh
better things than that of Abel. Abel's blood demanded justice. Christ's blood shed for his people
demands mercy and grace for you that believe him speaketh better
things. But God looks towards Sodom because
he's going to destroy it. And we're told here that Abraham
went with them to bring them on the way. And this captures
our attention, because here's our Lord justly going to destroy
the city of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other plains of the city.
And yet, here's this oasis in the midst of destruction. In the midst of the wrath of
God, here's this oasis carved out in which God communes with
His child, in which the Lord our glory, El Shaddai, the Almighty
God, meets with and communes with His child, Abraham. And it's a picture. It's a picture
given to us. God's going to destroy this world. Sodom is a picture of this world. And we see it. We see it very
much in the news. We see the shamelessness of man
right now parading and prancing about doing wickedly. And he
has no shame. He doesn't care. He's not worried
about it. Daring God to come and judge him. And God's going
to judge the earth, just like he said he will. And yet, we
see the grace and the mercy of God for his people, who takes
time, as it pleases him, to do as he will to visit his people. to meet with His people, to bless
His people, to comfort His people, to give them the gospel, because
He's not going to destroy them with the wicked. He's purposed
some better thing for you that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
you who hope in Him. And so, in this communion with
His saint, with Abraham, whom He's chosen, whom He's redeemed,
we see the effects of the covenant of His grace. We see the effects
of the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ for His child. Though this world demands it
be destroyed and judged justly, righteously by God, yet God has
a purpose to save whom he will, to be gracious to his children,
lest they should be destroyed with the wicked. I had mentioned
when we entered this chapter, 18, that what the world sees
and what the world knows about God is judgment. They've heard,
they've heard that God is going to judge this world for their
iniquity, their sin, their trespasses, their transgressions. God's going
to judge this world. And the day is coming when God
will look to judge this world. It feels like he's already looking
upon it. It feels like he's already looking
this way because the cry of it demands that justice fall upon
it. The justice of God righteously,
justly comes upon it. But for now, Hebrews tells us
that when the world considers the Lord, they have a fearful
looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour
the adversaries. But God, your God, has not left
you to fear. Your God has not promised to
judge you. with the wicked. He's already
judged his people in Christ. Christ bore that judgment for
us so that we don't look to God in fear, in worry, in doubts. God has found a ransom for your
soul. God has found a ransom for you
that believe, for you who know what you are and have heard that
good word, the good news that God has found a ransom to deliver
the sinner, the sinner who has been made to know their sin and
made to cry out to God for mercy and grace. He's found salvation
for your soul in his son, Jesus Christ. To deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
He's delivered you in Christ. So the fact of the matter is,
though we see this chapter trending and moving towards the judgment
of God upon Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain doing
wickedly, yet we see that God has a gracious purpose. and saving
his people, and having saved his people, he meets with them,
and communes with them, and grows them, making known to us his
mind, his will, and his purpose, and what he does to comfort our
hearts, to bless us richly in the faith which he's given us
in Christ Jesus. So what we're going to predominantly
look at this morning is this fellowship that God holds with
his saints. We're going to look at the fellowship
of God seen here with Abraham. So verse 17, and the Lord said,
shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? Well, this
is quite extraordinary. Here is God. ready to make known
his mind, his will, his purpose with Abraham. And the reason
why he does it is because it's founded upon his covenant of
grace which he made with Abraham. a gracious covenant, a covenant
made with Abraham, not for something Abraham has done, not for some
goodness in Abraham, but because God would be gracious and merciful
to Abraham. And so we had just seen this
in the beginning of the chapter. God visited him. The Lord visited
him and came and spent time with him and renewed his promise of
the covenant. He renewed his promise to be
gracious to whom he will, to be merciful to whom he will,
to bring that seed, that promised seed which was spoken of in the
garden When we fell, when the first Adam fell, God declared
His grace and mercy in the seed of woman who would come and crush
the serpent's head. And so we have this picture. This picture here is that the
Lord is going to judge the world in perfect righteousness. but
he's going to be merciful to his people and they're going
to know him. He's going to call us out of darkness. He's going
to commune with us and make us to know what he's done for us
by his son. what he's done in grace and in
mercy, and he's gonna make you, you that are his, to have that
sweet fellowship with God, to walk with God in faith, to walk
with God to hear his voice, to know his mind and his gracious
will and purpose for you, to bless you, to comfort your hearts,
to give you peace in knowing that, yeah, there's judgment
coming. but God has done for me graciously. God's given me
a good hope, a sure and certain foundation on a rock which is
Christ. So let me show you a number of
things here from this passage that reveal to us and make us
know just how beautiful the feet of Christ are, who came in the
likeness of this flesh, to obtain our eternal redemption, to put
away our sin, and to bring us into that fellowship with God,
to reconcile us to the Father. So first, we're told, let's look
again where it says, Abraham went with them to bring them
on their way. Abraham went with them. Now,
when you read commentaries, especially if someone's quoting what the
Jews say about Abraham, there's a whole lot of boasting going
on about Abraham. There's a whole lot of talk about
how wise Abraham was and how God met with Abraham because
of his goodness and how respectable and honorable this man was. Well,
Abraham was wise, but who made him wise? Who did this for Abraham? Who called Abraham? Who chose
Abraham out of all the other idolaters and was merciful and
gracious to him? Who did that? God did that. Abraham didn't unlatch his shackles
that were on him. Abraham didn't set himself free.
Abraham didn't give himself life. God gave Abraham light and life
and set him free from the pollution and the filth of his idolatry
and vain false worship. Abraham was wise because God
made him wise. Proverbs 13 says, He that walketh
with wise men shall be wise. You that walk with the Lord,
you shall be wise, because God reveals himself to you whom he's
called. He'll be gracious and merciful
to you. So God made Abraham wise, and
this is because of the blessings of his covenant, of his covenant
of grace made with Abraham. And these fruits of Abraham's
wisdom, these fruits of Abraham's generosity and kindness and gentleness,
and humility and hospitality, these are fruits of the flesh.
We know what the works of the flesh, I'm sorry, these are fruits
of the spirit. We know what the works of the
flesh are, which are anger and wrath and getting one over on
people and doing what you want for your own good, but the fruit
of the spirit is faith, and love, and joy, and peace, and kindness,
and gentleness, and self-control, and ministering to the saints. And so the Lord has done this.
He's wrought this in Abraham, and God made Christ Abraham's
wisdom. so that he pursued God. He wanted
to be with God. He wanted to walk with Him and
God blessed him because it was all of God. This is God's purpose. He delights and is pleased to
reveal Himself to His people. He's pleased to make known to
you his mind and his thoughts, his mind of peace toward you,
his mind of the covenant of grace toward you. And so we walk with
God because Christ is our light. His word is a light unto our
feet. and a lamp for our feet and a
light unto our path. He leads us along, and that's
his promise, right? He said, ye that follow me, he
that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life. And so we follow him because
God. God hath made Christ unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. that according as it's written
he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Now the second thing
we see here is God's gracious purpose being made known to Abraham. God makes his mind known to you. I said this a few times, he makes
his mind known to us. And what does Paul tell us in
1 Corinthians? 1 Corinthians chapter two, we'll
look at verse 12. 1 Corinthians 2 now, we have received
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things that are freely given to us of
God. God's given us his spirit to
make known to us the mind of God because we wouldn't know
it otherwise. We would be yet in darkness, yet in sin, yet
dead in trespasses and sins. But God's given us his spirit
to make known to us his will and purpose. It's just like what
we saw at the beginning of Genesis. When God said, let there be light,
and there was light, God was making known. That was the uncreated
light, the light of Christ. God revealing, making known to
you that he has a gracious will and purpose for a people that
he created and put on this earth. That's what his light declared.
All the other rocks out there and gaseous planets, God had
a gracious will and purpose here, because this is where he created
and put his people to be gracious to them. Now let's read verse
17 again where it says the Lord said shall I hide from Abraham
that thing which I do. You know the scriptures teach
us that Abraham James 2.23 says that Abraham was called the friend
of God and we see that here. God is speaking to him. This
is Christ pre-incarnate. He's speaking with Abraham as
a friend speaks with a friend. He's communing and fellowshipping
with Abraham as friends. He's making known to you what
his will and purpose is. You don't go up to strangers
unless you're working with them or have entered into some business
agreement. Then you tell them your mind. But you speak to friends,
and you tell your friends what you're thinking of doing and
what you plan to do. But you don't tell others that.
You tell that to a friend. What our Lord say to his disciples
in John 15, 15. He said, henceforth, from here
forward, I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what
his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends. Why? What do you mean by we're
your friend? For all things that I have heard
of my father I have made known unto you. God's made that known
to his people. He makes known the mind of God
to his people. So God reveals himself to you,
but this world, do they know God? What do they know of God? They have a very characterized
view of God, don't they? A characterized is a deformed
view. It's a misrepresentation. It's
an exaggeration of some parts over another, right? Some of
you have maybe gotten a picture drawn of you by an artist, a
characterization of an artist's rendering. They look at you,
and if you have big ears, your ears are made big on the page. If you have big lips, your lips
are blown up. If you have big eyes, they get big. If you have
little eyes, they get really small compared to your nose or
something. If your hair is doing something
funny that day, it's going to be made known. It's going to
be blown up on the paper, because it's a characterization of what
you look like. It's an overemphasis on certain
parts at the expense of others. And that's how this world's view
of God is. It's distorted. It's a characterization
of God. because all they know of him
is his judgment, is his judgment, and his judgment is coming. Or
they highlight his love without justice. They speak of other
things, trusting in those things, because they don't want to see
the wholeness of God, that God is holy and perfect and just
and right. And so they fight against God. And the Lord tells us that the
carnal mind is enmity against God. Our natural mind, what we
come forth with in Adam is enmity. It hates God. It takes of God
what we want and despises the rest of him. But you that believe
Christ, he says, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. It's your father's
good pleasure to give you the kingdom. God has purposed to
give you the kingdom. whom he's made to know your sin,
whom he's made to hear the voice of Christ, and to know his mind,
his gracious will and purpose toward you in Christ, not because
of some work you've done, but because God would be gracious
to you, and he sent his son to accomplish our redemption. And so he says, unto you it is
given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto
them that are without, it's all a parable. It's all a big riddle. They don't know who God is and
they don't understand. And so rejoice, you that do understand,
who know thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Blessed
art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed
this to you, but my Father which is in heaven. That's the grace
of God for you. He's making known what he's done
for you in Christ, when you were yet in darkness, when you knew
nothing, God did that in grace and mercy for your soul. And
so he's made known to you what sin is. He's made known to you
that he's going to punish sin. We're told that the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. They have a
part of God. They have an understanding to
some degree. They know that God's going to
judge the earth in righteousness, and he's going to judge the world,
all the people in the world in righteousness. We know this,
and so does the world, but God has shown you something more,
something precious, precious in Christ, and it's for you. It's for you because he loves
you and chose you and would be gracious to you. And he passed
by all the others and left them in darkness. And he's done this
because he's found a ransom for your soul. He's made redemption
for you with his own blood by his son. And so God taught Abraham
his covenant of grace. And he reminds Abraham of that
here when he says, shall I make known to Abraham what I am going
to do to Sodom? Should I make it known to him?
Look at verse 18. Seeing that Abraham shall surely
become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed in him. God's saying there, he's testifying
again of that promise made to him. All the nations of the earth
are blessed in him. Because through his loins, that's
what he's saying is through his loins, the Christ should come. The promised seed of woman will
come. And like Abraham, we are, like
Isaac and Abraham, we're children of promise. We believe God by
faith. We're saved through faith. And
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, lest any man
should boast. We're saved by faith, looking
to, believing Christ, believing him. And so we don't fear the
judgment of God. We're not terrified of the judgment
of God because Christ has come, being sent of the Father for
this very purpose, to stand in the place of his people. to bear
their punishment, to die their death, and to set them free. He paid the price as our surety. He bore the sins of his people
as their sin bearer and made sacrifice to the Father to set
us free, to let us go, to obtain our forgiveness and mercy of
God and to let us go free. and to give us light and life
in himself, to know him, to walk with God in fellowship and in
faith, knowing the mind of God. And then he says, Abraham shall
surely become a great and mighty nation. Why? How is this possible? Because it doesn't rest on Abraham.
It doesn't depend on Abraham. It rests entirely upon the shoulders
of Christ. And Christ is the successful
Savior. Christ cannot fail. He did not
fail. He obtained eternal redemption
for you that believe. Meaning it's not waiting to see
if you'll believe. It's you believe because He's
obtained your life. He's obtained this salvation
for you and He gives it. He gives it to whom He will and
He manifests His grace and power and glory in His people who look
to Christ and trust Him. Now our Lord continues in verse
19. For I know him, that he will command his children and his
household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord,
to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham
that which he hath spoken of him. And brethren, I tell you,
this is such a beautiful view of Christ. He is the one who
fulfills this perfectly, commanding his people, life, live, Lazarus,
come forth. And he raises us from the dead
and brings us out and says, unwrap those grave cloths, all that
dead letter religion, take it off of them, turn them away from
that vain religion in which they thought to give themselves life,
and show them me. Give them the bread of heaven.
Take off those grave clothes, set them free, and bring them
to me. Preach Christ, set them under
the tree. Have them rest right there. You feed them with the
bread of heaven. And so the fruit of God that
we see here in Abraham as a result of Christ is Abraham was burdened.
He knew this is life. Christ is life. This promise
is life. And Abraham, he had a reputation
that he and he alone knew and worshiped the true and living
God. And he made sure not only his children came to the worship,
Ishmael and Isaac and his wife, but even his servant, Eliezer,
and all the servants in his house were told, you're coming to service.
You're coming to the services, you're gonna hear, you're gonna
worship the true and living God, you're gonna see Christ in these
sacrifices. You're gonna see Christ, you're
gonna know the true and living God. And he had some friends
around there, Mamre, and I forget the other fellow's name, but
they were friends. And I believe they came and worshiped
with Abraham. Abraham had hundreds of people
that dwelled with him because that's the church, that was the
church then in that day. in that day, and so he preached
the gospel. He preached Christ to those whom
he had influence over, to those whom he had fellowship with,
and anyone that came around, he preached Christ to them. And
the word here to us, the encouragement to us is that if we have loved
ones and beg Christ for their souls and beg Christ to save
them, do all you can to bring them here. Do all you can to
encourage them, be here. And if they're under your roof,
tell them they got to be here. Bring them here. Bring them here.
You have that authority. Use it. use it command them to
come and encourage them to come we had a back in New Jersey when
I went to church there there was a brother named Laxman I'll
say his name a brother named Laxman and his wife Davika and
he had a lot of family and they were from Guyana in South America
And so he had family down in South America. I believe he had
family in Florida, and he had family in other places. And family
would come and visit him. And when they came and visited
him, When Sunday came, they were there. I knew his relatives,
because if they were there one week, they were there. If they
were there two weeks, they were there. He brought them every
time when they came, because he didn't know they may never
hear the gospel again. Some of them did come from a
church, a faithful church, as I understand it, down in Guyana.
But when they came, he brought them there. And so that's the
encouragement. When you have people under your roof, Bring
them, tell them you gotta come. We're going to worship the Lord
and you need to come. Come on, we're coming. Because
eventually they go out of your house and you don't have that
authority and all you can do is encourage them and tell them
and pray that they do, but you don't have any other reach beyond
that. So use that, what you have. Why? Because it's through the
hearing of the word that men and women believe. It's through
that preached gospel that men and women believe. We read in
Romans 10, 13, and 14, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? So the Lord purposed to save
his people through the preaching of Christ, through the preaching
of the gospel. Now, Abraham knew a lot about
the Lord and his knowledge of the Lord and his understanding
of the Lord was growing. And we see that from this passage,
that as Abraham walked with the Lord, he learned more about the
Lord. God spoke and revealed more and
more to him. That's an encouragement to us.
We don't call upon the Lord one day and then never show up again.
We continue to come, because as we walk with the Lord, as
we come here, the Lord is teaching us and instructing us, and he
makes known more clearly to us his mind, his will, his purpose,
and he's settling us. He's saying, yeah, there's judgment
out there. Yeah, there's sin and wickedness out there, but
this is what I've done for you. This is what I've done for you
and it gives us peace and comfort and assurance in the Lord. To
rest in Him, to continue walking with the Lord, to continue trusting
in Him and believing in Him because He shows us right in this passage.
Don't miss it. He's shown you that walk with
the Lord, He's going to reveal Himself to you more and more.
He's going to keep teaching you and instructing you and making
you to know His mind. And He's going to comfort your
heart in it. And so he told Abraham his purpose to going and going
to Sodom. He said, verse 20, and the Lord
said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great. 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 has come
unto me. And if not, I will know. And
the men turned their faces from thence and went toward Sodom.
But Abraham stood yet before the Lord." And so not only did
he reveal his mind toward Abraham, and reminding Abraham of his
covenant of grace, because he said all that right there, but
he also made him to know about the sin and iniquity of Sodom. But God had a gracious purpose. And we'll look at that next time
we come back, we'll see God's gracious purpose, because he
draws Abraham into even greater fellowship with him. And that's
what he does for you that are his people in Christ, in that
covenant of grace. And I pray you bless this word
to your hearts, brethren. Amen.