you That calls me from a world of
care And bids me at my Father's throne Make all my wants and
wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief
My soul has often found relief, And oft escaped a tempter's snare
By Thy return, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer,
sweet hour of prayer, Thy wings shall my petition bear, To Him
whose truth and faithfulness, then gauge the waiting soul to
bliss. And since he bids me seek his
face, his word and trust his grace. I'll cast on him my every
care and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet air of prayer, sweet air
of prayer, May I thy consolation share, Till from Malpiscus' lofty
height I view my home and take my flight. This robe of flesh
shall drop and rise, To seize the everlasting prize, And shout
while passing through the air, Farewell, farewell, sweet arm
of prayer. Thank you. Morning. Here we meet a Jeremiah 45. Jeremiah
45. The word that Jeremiah the prophet
spake unto Baruch, the son of Neriah, when he had written these
words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah in the fourth year
of Joachim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, saying, Thus
saith the Lord, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch. Thou didst
say, Woe is me now, for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow. I fainted in my sighting, and
I find no rest. Thus shall thou say unto him,
The Lord saith thus, Behold, that which I have built will
I break down, and that which I have planted will I pluck up,
even this whole land. And seekest thou great things
for thyself? Seek them not, for behold, I will bring evil upon
all flesh, saith the Lord. But thy life will I give unto
thee, for a prey in all places whither thou goest. Let's pray. Father, we come to you this morning
so thankful that you have sent your son to save a people and
father that you have opened our hearts. Lord. to have the love of Christ, the
love for Christ. And Father, we're thankful that
you have given us a place to come to worship, and Father,
that you have given us a pastor. Father, we ask that you continue
to bless him and his studies. We ask you to watch over him
as he brings the message. and father we ask that you continue
to watch over us here in this congregation and lord we just
ask that you raise our numbers to as many as you see fit and
father we ask that you always just continue to watch over and
care for us lord give us comfort when we're not here. Give us
comfort during the week when we're not here together. And
just, Father, bring us all safely back together the next time we
meet again. We ask all this in Christ's name. Let's sing 356. Near to the heart
of God. 356. There is a place of quiet rest
near to the heart of God. A place where sin cannot molest
near to the heart of God. O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent
from the heart of God. Hold us who wait before Thee,
near to the heart of God. There is a place of comfort sweet,
near to the heart of God. The place where we our Savior
meet, near to the heart of God. O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent
from the heart of God, hold us who wait before Thee, near to
the heart of God. There is a place of full release
near to the heart of God, a place where all is joy and peace near
to the heart of God. O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent
from the heart of God, hold us who wait before Thee, near to
the heart of God. Thank you. Brother, I have to tell you,
those hymns were perfect for the message this morning. Perfect. Let's be turning to Genesis chapter
13. Genesis chapter 13. In this chapter,
the Lord takes Abram up out of Egypt. He returns him to the
land of Canaan, which he had promised to him for an inheritance
and to his seed. Now in Canaan, Abram and Lot,
we'll see, are going to separate from one another. But the Lord
never leaves Abram. He remains Abram's whole portion. Now, what stands out to me in
this chapter is how that Abram is kept faithful to the Lord. The Lord our God keeps Abram
faithful near to the heart of our God, near to our God. Even
through all the giving and the taking from Abram, Abram is kept
faithful. He never departs from the Lord. He's kept faithful by God. And
the more that I meditated on this chapter and thought about
the things that I had read, the more I could see the believer's
constant need for the grace of our God to keep us. We constantly
need his grace and mercy to keep us. I saw that in my life. I
see it in your lives as your pastor. And that's really what
is pressed home to my heart here in chapter 13 of Genesis is the
need for our God. to be gracious to us, to keep
us faithful to Him. We need His grace to do that
for us, just like He did for Abram. You see, Abram and Lot
are both children of God. They're both children of God,
but Lot Lot willfully neglects the worship of God, and he willfully
turns from all that, he neglects all that Abram had taught him.
He was a disciple of Abram. You know, it's widely understood
that those with Abram, a lot of those servants that joined
themselves to Abram, were believers that turned from idolatry and
followed Abram. helpful people. I mean, these
were people that knew something and could fight and helped deliver
a lot from the other kings. And so, not all these people
were just raised servants in slavery or something like that.
They joined themselves to Abram and heard the gospel that Abram
preached, the gospel that God gave to Abram. And so they followed
him. And Lot, he neglects the worship
of God and it leads Lot further and further from the light until
we'll see, not in this chapter, but we'll see that Lot stripped
down to nothing. He's brought to nothing. Now,
we're not going to see the end of that today, but we start,
we see the beginning of that process, that beginning of his
carelessness in this chapter. I'm reminded when I was reading
this, I'm reminded of that verse, a passage from Psalm 32. You
can turn there, Psalm 32, and we'll read verses eight through
10, but verse nine, I remember, it sticks out to me. I've thought
about this verse a lot of times over my life since I was a young
man and first heard it. Psalm 32, beginning in verse
eight, the Lord says, I will instruct thee, and teach thee
in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye."
Now here's a verse that I heard and never forgot. But be ye not
as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding,
whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come
near unto thee. Many sorrows shall be to the
wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass
him about. And I thought about it because
it shuts my mouth. It makes me silent before the
Lord because I know what I am in this flesh. I know the hardness
of my heart. I know the indifference, the
coldness that I feel. I know my carelessness. And I
think of that verse a lot. I don't want to be like the horse
or the mule that needs to be led about with a bit and bridle.
And I've needed it many times in my life. I confess to my own
shame. And so that verse reminds me,
I'm reminded of that verse. And so a passage like that is
not meant to inspire boldness and confidence in ourselves.
It's meant to cause us to look to our God, to beg him for grace
and mercy to keep us because we know what we are in this flesh.
We know the weakness and the carelessness of our own hearts.
It's not meant to, by this message, I'm not trying to get you to
pledge faithfulness to the Lord for the rest of your lives, because
we don't have the power to do such a thing. We can't keep ourselves.
It's meant to humble us before our God and to cry out to him
for grace and mercy to keep us like Abram. because Lott seemed
like a pretty confident man and it cost him dearly. Now, as we
look at Abram and consider his faithfulness, we see he's not
cocky. He doesn't walk around with a
sense of entitlement, even though God called him personally and
promised that land of inheritance to him personally. And yet, before
Lot, he's very gracious. He defers to Lot, who's the younger
man. And he says, whatever you want,
Lot. We'll do it. We'll do it. He's very gracious,
he's generous, and he loves Lot. He loves him. Lot is dear to
Abraham. He's dear to his heart. And so
my prayer for each of us, myself included, and for you, my brethren,
is that we see our constant need for God's faithfulness, for Him
to keep us faithful to Him. that we would desire and put
what we're doing right here, right now, the worship of God,
that he would make that the most important thing to our lives,
just like he did for Abram, rather than us being left to make choices
that lead to more and more careless indifference like we see with
Lot, because the Lord does not lose his children. Lot is a child
of God, and he will not lose any of his children, but there
are times when the recovery of one of his children is very costly
to their flesh. It's very costly in the flesh,
and we'll see that in the chapters to come with Lot. Now, the first
thing we see here is that both men were brought up out of spiritual
bondage. Both men are brought up out of
spiritual bondage. The Lord always saves his people
from spiritual bondage. None of us is born free. None of us is born free until
we're born again. by the Spirit of our God. We're
all born of Adam into darkness and spiritual bondage. And so our Lord must deliver
us from that bondage. He does it the first time He
delivers us and He does it every time that we get ourselves into
darkness and into bondage. Our Lord constantly delivers
and provides for His people and draws us away from death and
the way we shouldn't go, and he keeps us in Christ. We're told in verse 1, Genesis
13, 1. And Abram went up out of Egypt,
he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him into
the south. So this event here that we're
being told of in verse one, it literally happened. It literally
happened, but there's a spiritual picture being conveyed to us
here that shows us that the Lord always delivers his people, all
his people out of spiritual bondage. We all must be born again, else
we cannot see the kingdom of God. And Israel has a history
with Egypt. They have a history, and the
knowledge of that history familiarizes us with this fact that, yeah,
the Lord delivers all his people out of spiritual bondage. You
see, like Abram, Jacob also went down to Egypt because of a famine. He also was driven down to Egypt
because of a famine, and when there's a famine in the land,
the people are gonna starve. People are going to hunger and
thirst for righteousness, and they're going to go down. When
there's no bread, they're going to go down, and they're going
to go into bondage. They're going to be troubled
in that bondage, in that spiritual bondage. We saw the sin of Abram,
faithful Abram. When he was down in Egypt, what
happened? We saw that he sinned with regards
to Sarah. and the Pharaoh. He made a choice
to protect himself fearing man rather than fearing God. And when Jacob went down to Egypt,
what happened? He remained in that good land
of Goshem and his children became the slaves of the Egyptians.
They came into bondage themselves. Let's look at one passage about
this in Deuteronomy 26. Deuteronomy 26 and let's read verses 6 through
9 just to see this bondage in Egypt. And this is the bondage
that we must be delivered from. This is our spiritual bondage.
And so Deuteronomy 26 verse six, and the Egyptians evil and treated
us and afflicted us and laid upon us hard bondage. That's what we are by nature.
We're in hard bondage. We are slaves to sin and death
and we cannot free ourselves. Just like the Israelites couldn't
free themselves. They had to be delivered by a
savior whom the father sent. And when we cried unto the Lord
God of our fathers, and that's what God intends. That's what
he intends for his children. that in that hard bondage, you
remember the Lord. You're brought to know the Lord.
You're brought to cry out to the Lord to remember that blessed
word that He's given you, that you've heard when He sent you
the gospel, to cry out to Him, to ask Him for mercy and grace,
to help in time of need. And the Lord heard our voice
and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression. And the Lord brought us forth
out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm.
and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders.
He hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this
land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey." And so
we see here, we don't save ourselves. That's not what we're talking
about here is what we do to make ourselves faithful. We see the
grace of God. We see the faithfulness of our
God to do for his people and delivering them out of spiritual
bondage, and take us away from that hard bondage, that oppression
of sin and death. And so our Lord, He delivers
His people and brings them up out from spiritual Egypt, out
of bondage, and into the good land, into His inheritance, which
is Christ. He's our inheritance. Christ
is our inheritance and we're his inheritance. And this is
first pictured for us here with Abram, Sarah, and Lot who returned
to Canaan out of the land of Egypt. When the Lord delivers
his people from spiritual bondage, the next thing we see is that
he blesses us with spiritual riches. And that's what our Lord
did for us by Christ on the cross. That's where He delivered us
from spiritual bondage. He gave His life. He sent the
Son in this flesh, yet without sin, and He fulfilled all the
law that we couldn't fulfill, and He satisfied the law, and
He satisfied our God, making payment with His own sacrifice,
the sacrifice of Himself to deliver His people. and to reconcile
us to our God. He shed His blood to put away
our sin. And having done that, we now
have all spiritual blessings of God in Christ Jesus. And this
is what we see here. in this text. Now, before we
get to that text, let me just say, thinking of those Israelites
who came out of Egypt, we're told when they were coming up
out of Egypt, this is Jacob's children, 430 years after Abraham,
when they came up out of Egypt, what happened? They came out
with jewels of silver and jewels of gold, it says, and raiment,
and the people of Egypt were happy to load them up with whatever
they needed as they sent them out. They were happy to give
it, and the Lord tells us that they spoiled the Egyptians. They
took all their precious things, spoiling the Egyptians, and they
went out. They were blessed of the Lord.
Well, that's what's witnessed to us here in our text in Genesis
13 1 & 2 They come up out of Egypt in verse 2 says Abram was
very rich very rich in cattle in silver and in gold Because
he had some things when he went down there, but the Egyptians
loaded him up for Sarah's sake They spoiled the Egyptians here
for Sarah's sake. The Lord provided for Abram.
And that's something of note to you that believe him. You're
going to go through trials. The faith that your God has given
to you will be proved to show you that God has done this for
you. That God is your God, and that He's providing for you.
And when He brings you through trials, you're not going to be
left empty. He's going to load you with spiritual treasure,
spiritual blessings. He'll make you very rich in spiritual
treasure. I'm not talking about the health,
wealth, and prosperity false gospel. I'm talking about the
gospel. You'll be blessed with riches,
spiritual riches in Christ. And I'll show you that. Turn
over to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, we're going to pick
up in verse 6. 1 Peter 1, 6. Peter says, Ye greatly rejoice, though now
for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious
than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto, and now here's all these spiritual treasures,
might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ, whom ye, having not seen, ye love." That's a
treasure. That's a rich treasure that God
has filled your heart with love for your Savior. You love him.
And whom though now ye see him not, ye believe, yet believing. You're believing him. You have
faith. That's a rich spiritual treasure. Ye rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory. You're blessed richly to overflowing,
shaken down, pressed down, to overflowing with spiritual riches
through all the things you go through. God never, he gives
you abundantly above all that you could ever ask or think.
Load you down with spiritual treasure, receiving the end of
your faith, even the salvation of your souls. What could be
more precious than that? You could gain the whole world,
yet if you lose your soul, Big deal, big whoop. But you could
have nothing here in this life and have heavenly treasure that
never fades away, that never gets stolen or rots or diminishes
at all. That's treasure, that's riches,
brethren. That's what your Lord and your
God and your Savior give you. So you're abundantly compensated
far greater, with far greater treasure. So Abram, he didn't
seek earthly riches. He didn't seek them, but God
did give him plenty. There are some people that are given riches
in this life. And that's a burden. That's a
burden that few people can manage well by the grace of God. But
not all of us have those overwhelming riches. although here in America
we have more than we realize compared to other places in the
world, but we need the grace of God to keep our hearts. So
he didn't seek these things, but God gave him plenty and it
didn't change Abram. The riches, the physical riches
did not change Abram. He remained fixed on God, the
God who chose him and called him and blessed him. Now to show
you that Abram was kept by the Lord, we see that when he returned
up out of Egypt, what did he do? He went right back to the
same place, in the tent, worshiping God. Nothing changed him. Look at verses three and four
in Genesis 13. And he went on his journeys from
the south even to Bethel, which is the house of God, unto the
place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel
and High, which as I understand is Mount Ephraim, today would
be Mount Ephraim, unto the place of the altar which he had made
there at the first. And there Abram called on the
name of the Lord." So you see there, his heart was fixed, it
didn't change. He was stripped, he was added
to, he went all around and was loaded down with all kinds of
riches through it. and his heart didn't change.
He remained as faithful as he ever was worshiping God. The famine didn't turn him from
the Lord. When he sinned in Egypt, God recovered him and God protected
him, delivering him from the wrath of the Egyptians who would
have done him harm for what he did. But God protected him and
God sent him out of there loaded down with all kinds of riches
and he comes back into Canaan wealthier now than what he was
before. It's a picture of when we go through trials and we see
the Lord's hand, how the Lord keeps us, you're wealthier now
than what you were before the trial. Yeah, you might be stripped
in the flesh, you might suffer in the flesh, but in the new
man you rejoice because you see the grace of your God and the
care of your God and the love of your God for you and that
blesses us. We rejoice with joy unspeakable
in Christ. And so he continues right on
worshiping God. And that's the grace that we
need. That is the grace we need because history shows us, we've
seen it in ourselves, we've seen it in others, that people are
changed. When circumstances change, people
change. If it's of the flesh, if what
we're doing is of the flesh, it's going to fall apart, it's
going to come to nothing. But if God's in it, you'll be
blessed spiritually, with spiritual riches. Now the Spirit shows
us another man, and this is not the man we want to emulate. We
don't want to pattern ourselves off of this man, but we see that
we're very much capable of being just like him. in this flesh
we could be just like him. Verse 5, and Lot also which went
with Abram had flocks and herds and tents. This man Lot followed
his uncle as a son follows their father and imitates their father
so Lot followed Abram and he experienced the same blessings
that God gave to Abram. He believed God He believed God
had called Abram and he heard the word that Abram said and
he believed in God. He trusted God and he followed
Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees and then out of Haran. And he
went into the land of Canaan, not knowing where he was going,
and he lived in tents, just like Abram lived in tents, a picture
of faith. He went through the same famine.
He went down to Egypt with Abram. We don't read of any sins or
any mishaps of Lot. And he comes up out of Egypt,
and he also has lots of cattle. And he has tents, and he has
servants and people with him. And the scriptures tell us that
Lot is a man of God. The scriptures do tell us, we'll
see that in a bit, he is a man of God. But it got to the point
where their earthly riches caused them to separate. They were so
wealthy of earthly things and they separated. It says in verse
six and seven, 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 them in the land." Now
that last statement caught my attention, and it hung with me
for a while. The Canaanite and the Perizzite
were in the land, because it seems kind of out of place. It
just drops this in there that these nations were in the land
at that time. And we know from our study in
Judges, we see how the Philistines are a picture of the sin in the
land, the sin of our hearts, the sin of this flesh. They trouble
us. Our own flesh is our greatest enemy. It's our greatest trouble. It's the most evil thing. The
most evil man we've ever met is our own flesh. old man of
flesh. He's the most wicked, vile creature
we know of, because we know what he thinks, we know what he does,
we know his schemes, we know his plots, we know exactly who
he is, and he's the most evil man that we know. And so, it
was the Philistines later, but it's the Canaanites and the Perizzites
now that picture sin and rebellion and wickedness that resides in
this flesh, right here, this flesh. Most commentators point
out here how shameful it is that that Abram and lot got into a
fight before the wicked, which gave the wicked an occasion to
mock God, the Canaanite and the parasite. And that's true. It
is a shame when brethren fight and separate from one another. But it's because of these nations
that are residing in this land that are encroaching upon the
wealth of Abram and Lot so that they can't just spread out and
live together harmoniously. The Canaanite and the Perizzite
are occupying that same space, imposing themselves on Abram,
imposing themselves on Lot so that they can't live together. And the meaning, the picture
is their sin got involved. Their own sinful nature is crowding
in and having a say in how these two are getting along. or not
getting along together. It's a picture of the flesh.
It's what troubles us with those that we love and care for. It's
sin in the flesh. It's the Canaanite and the Perizzite
and the Philistine that's in this flesh that makes it so we
can't figure it out and we can't get along. And that's what the
picture is. And so the result is Lot made
some bad choices and he distanced himself from the worship of God. with his faithful uncle. And
ultimately, it costs a lot dearly. dearly in the flesh, of many
fleshly comforts, it cost him dearly. And it cost those that
loved Lot, and were in Lot's family, and servants to Lot.
It cost them as well. They all were brought down with
Lot. And that's a word that I hear,
that we hear as husbands, and as fathers, and as men of our
own households, that's a word to us, is there's people depending
on you. There's people looking to you
to make good decisions. Because otherwise it's going
to cost the family. It's going to cost them as well. And so that word resonates with
us, because we have an awesome responsibility as the heads of
our households. Don't let your wife lead you
around. I'm thankful for my wife, and she's corrected me at times.
She's pointed out my own faults, and I'm thankful for that, but
she shouldn't have to do that. You know, as the head of the
household, we speak and say, let's go worship the Lord. Let's
follow the Lord. Let's do what the Lord has called
us to do. And so that's our responsibility.
Now, Lot, I told you, he is a godly man, but he's going to suffer
great loss because increasingly he keeps ignoring the Word. He
chooses, he makes bad choices, and he attaches himself more
and more and more with the wicked of the world. And so when the
Lord did deliver Lot from the punishment that he brought on
the wicked, Lot was delivered, but it cost him dearly. He came
out of it being stripped greatly of everything that he had. Everything
was taken from him. It says in Genesis 13.10, here's
the beginning of it, 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." He's saying when he looked out, he saw the lush
verdant pastures and the green garden like it's the Garden of
Eden. He said, wow, that's beautiful. That's what I want to bring my
cattle down to, because they're going to be well fattened and
good, healthy cattle. I remember when we were in California,
Kevin Thacker was telling me that this neighbor that he had
there was a goat farmer. He had goats. But the farmer
said, I'm no longer a goat farmer, I'm a grass farmer. I've become
a grass farmer, because if you have good, healthy grass, you're
going to have good, healthy goats, and sheep, and cattle. So I'm
a grass farmer. And so that's what he saw. He
said, I've got cattle. That's a good grassland over
there. I'm going to bring my cattle
over there. And so Lot lusted. He went toward the land that
his eyes were lusting for. And he forgot that truth. I'm
sure Abram told him, Lot, this world is passing away, and the
lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God shall endure
forever. He forgot that word. I'm sure
that Abram said something like that to him more than once. And
so one bad thing led to another, and it says in verse 11, then
Lot chose him, all the plain of Jordan. You know, we're told
by Nehemiah that God chose Abram. But it says here that Lot chose
him. Lot chose himself. Lot made a
choice for himself. He chose the inheritance, he
said. I don't want to wait for that city which hath foundations,
whose builder and maker is God. I see my inheritance right here,
and I want to begin this right now, right here, right now. And he went, it says, that lot
journeyed toward the east, which is a land that out of the east
flowed all manner of wicked idolatry. In those days, the east signified
all that influence of Nimrod. and Nimrod was a very crafty,
tyrannical, wicked man, so that it had the allure and the entrapments
of the whore of Babylon. That's what the East pictured,
and they separated themselves, the one from the other. And so without any spiritual
regard for his loved ones, or what might happen, or his servants,
Lot left the worship of God behind with his uncle Abram, and he
migrated toward the wicked men in Sodom. In Sodom, verse 12,
it says, Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan and Lot dwelled
in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent toward Sodom. Further and further, Lot leaned,
he drifted toward Sodom, pitching his tent closer and closer until
he eventually lived within the city limits. And we know that
of the Spirit, we know when we're pitching our tent towards Sodom
and we're trying to do it without doing it and trying not to expose
what it is that we're doing. But we know the games that we
play and we know our craft and our subtlety that we need to
be delivered from, that the Lord needs to keep our hearts lest
we go further and further like Lot, because we're all capable.
Let me show you what I mean by, we know the scriptures tell us
that Lot was a child of God. It was Peter, the apostle Peter
said in 2 Peter 2.8, that, speaking of Lot, he called him, he said,
that righteous man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing vexed
his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. He was affected by it. It's not
like he joined in with them and loved what they were doing and
approved of what they were doing. He still was a righteous man,
but he lost everything. When God delivered him, he lost
everything. All those earthly things were
stripped from him. And so after Lot departed, God
blessed Abram. Let's see verse 14 now, Genesis
13, 14. And the Lord said unto Abram,
after that lot was separated from him, lift up now thine eyes. Lot lifted up his eyes, but now
the Lord says, Abram, you lift up your eyes and look from the
place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and
westward. And so what the Lord's saying
here is everywhere. Abram loved the Lord. He was
kept faithful by the Lord. He was kept here looking to the
Lord in every direction. Abram looked, he could see all
the spiritual blessings of God. that no matter what part of his
life he was looking at, he could see the spiritual blessings of
God, how that God had provided for him and kept him, that God
was faithful to him. Now I'm sure the natural eye
looking at what Lot left behind for Abram said, you got the raw
end of the deal, Abram. Lot got the really good stuff
over here for himself. Lot was looking to prosper his
fleshly belongings in it. But that isn't what happened. Abram could look at the love
of God, he could look at the provision of God, he could look
at how God delivered him, how God forgave him, how God blessed
him with faithfulness, how God just provided everything. And
he didn't need to pursue those things. In spite of himself,
God just kept blessing him and giving him treasure, spiritual
treasure and blessings and joy unspeakable. And he worshipped
God with liberty and freedom, not getting caught up in all
the things of the flesh. He trusted the Lord and it was
of the Lord that he did. So Abram had every spiritual
blessing given to him in that covenant of grace, which your
God has established with you. We'll see he establishes it with
Abram, but that covenant was already established with Abram
in God, because God did it in Christ. When he gave us to Christ
before the foundation of the world, that covenant was established
so that God is gracious. And everything that's done to
you, every stripping, every trial, whatever it is, it's all for
your good. because it leads us to the Lord. It leads us to cry out to Him
and trust Him. The Lord said in verse 15, for
all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to
thy seed forever. From where Abram was standing
on Mount Ephraim, there's no way he could naturally see 200
miles north and south and see everything around, all that land
that the Lord gave to them under Joshua. But though he couldn't
see with the natural eye, he did see it with the eye of faith.
And that's what the Lord does for his people. He gives us an
eye of faith to behold and to believe God has given me everything
in Christ. I have all that I need. I know
it's hard in the flesh to be stripped and have things taken
from you. Nobody desires that. We don't desire that. We don't
ask for it. We don't ask for trials. We ask
for grace. So that when the trial comes,
the Lord keeps us. That's what we pray for. Lord,
be gracious to me. Keep me, Lord. Help me. Don't
let me go. Don't let me go because I see
what I am in the flesh. I know what I am in the flesh.
I'm just like Lot. You know, that name Lot means
covering. And that's what this flesh is.
It's a covering that veils and keeps us from seeing the blessings
of our God. Lord, deliver me from this wicked
flesh and keep me faithful. Keep me ever looking to the Lord.
Keep me seeing with the eye of faith. And so we're told in verse
18 now, the last verse there, then Abram removed his tent and
came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron. And
what does it say there? And he built there an altar unto
the Lord. And so wherever he was, Abram
made sure he was worshiping the Lord. He made sure first and
foremost, I've got to be able to worship my God. At the same
time, Lot started down a very dark path himself. And so seeing in this light,
which of these two men ought we to be? Which of these two
men ought we to be? The man who chose life to center
his life around the worship of God and was blessed of the Lord,
God being gracious to him, or that man whose life centered
around prospering in worldly possessions. That's what the
Lord is teaching us here. Look at Abram. Look at how I
blessed and provided for Abram. The preeminent thing about Abram
is he worshipped God. He made sure he worshipped God. And that, I think, is the preeminent
takeaway in this chapter. Both were men of God. Both were
men of God, but one endeavored to worship God above all other
things and said, this stuff is going to take care of itself.
I'm going to make sure I worship the Lord. And Lot plunged himself
and all those that depended on him into trouble. It just got
worse and worse for them, and they suffered for that man's
folly, with that man. And I'm reminded of what Joshua
said in Joshua 24. Let's go there. Joshua 24, verse
14 and 15. That's before judges. That's after Deuteronomy and
before judges. Joshua 24 verse 14 He said now therefore fear the
Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the
gods which your father served on the other side of the flood
that is after the flood and in Egypt and serve ye the Lord and
If it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord choose you this
day whom you will serve whether the gods which your fathers served
that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the
Amorites in whose land ye dwell. But as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord. Now, having said that, I wanna
say once again is we don't have this ability in ourselves to
keep ourselves faithful. I'm not trying to psych you up
and get you to make some pledge that you're gonna be faithful
from here on out. We don't have that ability to
do it. And that's not at all what we
see here. My prayer is that we beg God to keep us faithful. like he kept Abram faithful.
We don't want to be saved by the skin of our teeth. We want
the Lord to, we want to be able to look north, south, east, west,
wherever, whatever way we're looking, we want to be able to
see what the Lord has, we just want to see Him and rest in Him
and rejoice in Him, partaking of all those rich spiritual blessings
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so our prayer is, Lord, keep
me faithful. because I can't do it. I'm going
to be just like Lot if you leave me to myself. And Lord, I want
to serve you and worship you like Abram. So I'll close with
two passages, and this will close us out. The first one's in Matthew
6, verse 33. Matthew 6, 33. These are both
from our Lord and Savior, our King, Jesus Christ. He tells
us, but seek ye first, verse 33, seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be
added unto you. You make the worship of your
God. You trust him and you seek that
righteousness which he gives by his son, Jesus Christ. You
come in Christ alone, in Christ alone, and God will provide for
you. He'll take care of you. You may
not have what the world says you need to have, but you'll
have everything you do need in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then
second, Matthew 7. Matthew 7, verses 7 and 8. Here
he promises you, he said, ask, and it shall be given you. Seek,
and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you for this picture, what you've shown us in this
chapter with Abram and Lot. And Lord, we know that you lose
none of your people. None can pluck them out of your
hand. And yet you show us how that you kept Abram faithful.
And he lost nothing. Lord, he had plenty. And we see
how that he was kept faithful by your grace. And Lord, we see
that. We know that left to ourselves,
we'd be like Lot. Lord, we ask that you would keep
us faithful. We ask that you would bless us
with your spirit and keep our hearts Lord, give us that hunger
and thirst for your righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ, that
we may see and behold, whether we look north or south or east
or west, all the blessings of our God given to us freely and
abundantly in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're nothing without
you, Lord. It's in Christ's name that we
pray and give thanks. And Lord, we do also bring one
other thing to you as a church, as a body, Lord, of believers.
We ask that you, if it please you, that you would give us a
building and that you would provide a place for us that is ours where
we can set it up and worship our God anytime and that we could
set up the equipment and be able to stream and have that all working
well. Lord, we don't The one thing
we do know, we don't know how to do it, but the one thing we
do know is that you can do all things abundantly above all that
we ask or think. And so, Lord, we bring this request
to you and ask that you would provide a place for us, a place
where you are pleased to draw your people out of darkness,
out of spiritual bondage, and feed them and bless them richly
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, 352. Jesus, lover of my soul, 352. I'm going to change that. I apologize. That's a different tune that
they did this to. I'm going to find the original
one. There we go. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till
the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on thee. Believe I'll leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is staid,
all my help from thee I bring. Hover my defenseless head with
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Just and holy is Thy name, I
am all unrighteousness. Just and holy is Thy name, I
am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art whole in truth and grace. Last one, acapella. Plenteous
grace with thee is found. Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams abound. Make and keep me pure within. Spring thou, O life, the fountain
art. Freely let me take of Thee. Spring Thou up within my heart. Rise to all eternity. Thank you.