God teaches His children. He
teaches it through the preaching of the gospel. That's how He
saves His people. That's how He saves people throughout time. That's how He teaches His children.
That's how He grows them in grace and knowledge and understanding
through the preaching of His Word. And if you've got questions,
like, well, I just wonder what's going to happen at this part.
What does this over here mean? What does this over there mean?
Just wait. No matter the strife, No matter
the hurt feelings, just sit down where Christ is preached, where
his word goes forth, and wait. And it might take six months,
it might take six years. I don't know. I won't know. God
will answer all the questions. He'll sort it all out. He instructs
us on things. He instructs us to sit underneath
his gospel. He tells us that plainly, doesn't
he? I tell my children that plainly.
Why wouldn't I? I have influence over them. They're under my house,
my rules, my roof, eat my food, you do what I tell you. I'm giving
you good advice. That's where we came to now.
Last week we looked today, we've been going through Genesis for
a while now. And we got to Genesis 13. And that's where we are. So that's what we're going to
look at, okay? This isn't for you today. You're here, right? You're here, you're looking at
me. But there are some brethren we have around this world. I
know several that's reached out to me over the past couple years
and maybe this is for them. Maybe this is for a child of
God years from now that's got a question or concern and Lord
will use this word for them. This is for our instruction.
Paul wrote to Timothy, he said, all scripture is given by inspiration
of God and it's profitable for doctrine. We need to see Christ
in this. Might be real brief this morning,
we need to see Christ in it. For reproof, what you're doing
is wrong. Oh, I don't like that. It's needed
for correction. What you're doing is wrong and
this is what right looks like. And for instruction in righteousness. Let this mind be in you that
was in Christ. That the man of God may be perfect,
throughly finished, furnished unto all good works. We remember
that Abram was thrust out of Egypt by Pharaoh. Pharaoh found
out what he did. He said, get your stuff and go.
Go away from me. And he returns to Bethel, the
house of God, and he worshiped there in verse 4. It says, "...unto
the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first."
And there Abram called on the name of the Lord. To call on
the Lord's name is to worship Him. And verse 5 says, "...and
Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents."
Abram brought Lot with him. Abram and Sarai basically adopted
their nephew. Lot's father was killed, and
he had died, and Lot left Ur with him, with Abram and Sarah. And he stayed in Haran with them,
and he worshipped between Bethel and Haiya here at the first with
them. And he went to Egypt with them, and now he's come back
with them. Lot's always going to be a problem
for Abram. We're going to see that as we go through Genesis,
as we go through this story. We'll see a brief picture of
how the Lord is represented in Abram through all these trials.
If God will allow us, this will be profitable to doctrine for
us. And we'll be reproved, we'll be corrected, and we'll be given
some instruction. As a picture of the believer
in this, Lot's going to make a bad decision. Later, he's going
to be captured by some kings. and Abram's going to have to
go retreat him, going to have to restore him, give everything
to him, because he failed. It's going to happen a few times.
Abram comes back from Egypt and everything seems to be going
great. He's come back to where the first altar was, where he
first worshipped the Lord, but not for long, was it? Everything's
just going so smooth. And it has some problems. You
who believe, you who are the lords, you're not immune to trouble
and heartache. Any man that stands in public
or private or anywhere else and says, well, if you just give
your heart to Jesus, everything's going to be fine. Not in this
world today. They're lying to you. A child of God has no different
troubles than anybody else does. Personal, emotional, external,
it doesn't make a difference. And many times, I think it's
harder for a believer to live in this world than it is an unbeliever.
We've got a better handle on things. Why am I in the mess
I'm in? Because of me. Cause of sin,
isn't it? Who's that sin against? Oh boy,
now we're aching. If I didn't have what I am, who'd
I sin against? There's great instruction in
this passage. Don't leave where God is worshipped, where Christ
is preached, not for nothing. Not for nothing, not for anything.
Many people leave for many different reasons. I've heard people say,
well, I just can't hear anymore. I can't hear that man for whatever
they've done or whatever circumstances he is. I just can't listen to
him no more. Ask God to give you ears to hear. That's who
he sent to you. Ask him. There's times I struggle
for a message. And I just, oh, I ain't got nothing. I got nothing for you. And then
my pastor tells me, I whined to him. He says, have you asked
for a message yet? No, I'll call you back. Ask for
it. If you can't hear and you think
that you have ears to hear, ask the Lord to give your pastor
words. Like I started, this ain't got nothing to do with you all.
Y'all do fine. That's good advice and that's good instruction.
If the world's more appealing to you, jobs and money and college
and children's education. Oh, what good schools they have.
My advice is don't go where the gospel is not preached. Don't leave where Christ is.
This is a special place we have here. Where two or three are
gathered, He is in our presence. What presence is going to be
here? Would we be on time? Would we dress right? Really?
Would we stick around to help clean up? God Almighty is going
to be there. He said so, didn't He? How we
act then. Don't leave that. That's a special
place. People say that they will worship at home. That's prevalent
in our day. That's something my old dead
man can't tell you. I can watch online. I've lived it. If you won't worship in public,
you will not worship at home. And if you truly worship where
God has given a local assembly, if you go publicly worship with
them, you're going to worship at your house, and you're going
to worship in the car, and you're going to worship at the grocery
store. Because it's our life, isn't it? It's what it is. And
if there's trouble and strife, like we see here, don't leave. That's the worst kind of trouble
that these two are going through. Family trouble. Family trouble. Family trouble in the family
of God. Boy, that's rough waves, isn't it? Why just ain't no settling,
so and so. I can't go to church before they
go to church. I love you and I'll cut to the chase. Get over
it. It'll behoove you. Get over it and go worship God
together. Nothing's more sad and nothing
is more dishonoring to God than division among his people. What
does our great adversary seek to do? To divide and conquer
him. Separate him. Separate us. Separate
us from our Lord. The Great Divider. That's what
Paul took so long writing to the church at Corinth. They needed
to correct it and instruct it. And for the Lord's children,
we don't have anything to divide over, do we? Abram and Lot was
fighting over some ground here, over grazing area for cattle. Grass. You think there's even
grass there right now? Are them sheep still alive? Does
it matter? Is it going to burn up at the
end? What have we got to fight over? We're all sinners. And
you who God saved, what have you got to be mad about? We looked
at that last week, didn't we? What's our portion? They're looking
at a physical portion as a problem. What's our portion? Our eternal
portion is Christ. What's our portion for today?
Our cup. What's our daily cup filled up with? Christ. What
about this hour? What about the next 30 seconds?
We have Him. We have Him. Your Father knows
you have need of these things. These earthly things. He feeds
the sparrows. And they got enough sense to
sing praises to Him, don't they? I'm dumber than a bird most days. If the Gospel's not an issue,
we don't have issues. They ain't an issue. Ain't no
problems. If the Gospel, if you agree on the Gospel, there ain't
nothing else to argue over. Nothing else matters, does it? What we
see in this text is a trial of faith. Lot fails miserably. And he's one of God's elect.
James tells us, righteous Lot, he's God's. But what a bad decision
he made. Abram proves to love Christ more
than material things in this. What was all this strife over?
In verse 2 it says, And Abram was very rich in cattle and silver
and in gold. Abram was rich. Look at verse
5. And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks and herds and
tents. Both of them were rich. And the
land was not able to bear them. They had so much they couldn't
fit physically in the land, that they might dwell together. For
their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.
And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle
and the herdmen of Lot's cattle. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite
dwelled then in the land." What was the big issue? Riches. Wasn't that God blessing you?
Well, God gave it if you had it. But is it a blessing? You
know what that word riches there translates to when it says Abram
was very rich? The literal translation of that is heavy. Heavy. It's a burden. Matthew Henry
said one time, I'll paraphrase, he said, mankind works so hard
to get riches, and then they work so hard to keep riches,
and then they worry so much how they're going to spend riches,
and they're scared to death somebody's going to take their riches. It's a heavy burden. Now the
Lord equips. I saw some, there's wealthy believers. Name a whole
list of them. Job, and Abram, and Lot, and
David. He's a king, wasn't he? Joseph.
There's a whole mess of them. And in our day, the Lord gives
money to his children as he sees fit.
And he equips them to deal with such things. But that's not their
riches. It's a burden. It's heavy. But
that's not where their heart is. That's just something. That
comes and goes. Lord will take it away tomorrow.
He gave it this morning. I don't care about it. He equips those people. So that's not what we see here. They physically had this, but
they weren't dwelling on it at the time. And there had been
a famine in the land. They had nothing. They come from humble
beginnings. And now there's so many heads of livestock and the
herdsmen, they were having it out with one another. This is
my day to graze in this paddock. Leave me alone. It's my turn.
And if this wasn't resolved swiftly, this strife would have been between
the masters and not the herdsmen. Lot and Abram weren't fighting
yet. My old brother Marvin said one time, he said, I've seen
so many families split because of riches, but I've never seen
one split because of being poor. Poor comes with other reasons
to split. We ain't got no money, we ain't
going to live together no more. It ain't got nothing to do with
you. Boy, how many families have been split over that? Independence,
strength, ability, all those things the world covets. That's
a dangerous thing most of the time. Left to ourselves, we think
we can take care of ourselves. We think we can make it without
the Lord. What a blessing it is for poverty to come. What
a blessing it is, both in physical, but especially in heart, when
we see a need for Him, a need for Christ. And what's going
on here at the end of verse six, it says, for their substance
was great so that they could not dwell together. And what
problem arose from that? Verse 7. And there was strife
between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's
cattle. That's what was happening. But there was a bigger problem
going on. We can all understand that, right? We got so much,
and you got so much, and now our servants way down the line
that Pharaoh gave us, we won't forget that, they're fighting.
They're good servants. They're looking out for them
sheep. That's what we put them over, wasn't it? They're profitable
servants, but they're fighting. That's a pretty big problem.
We can understand that. There's a bigger problem. There's
a bigger problem than a family feud. And it's the easiest thing
to look over. Something we think the least
of. Something I'm so quick to think the least of. Look at the
end of verse 7. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled in
the land. Why do you think that's put in
there? Is that an accident? Is that just so we know who was...
In the middle of this story about a family that's dividing, do
we need to just know that there's some people there? Yeah, we do
need to know that. We're being observed. Do you know that? People's watching. People's watching
outside of here, those that hate God, to find something against
me, so they can say, don't go listen to him because he did
this, this, and this. People's looking at you, how you conduct
yourselves in public, how you drive down the road, These children
are watching you. Others are watching you. Always
remember that. Remember who you are and whose
you are. I need to be reminded of that
often. Daily. Especially before I go driving.
Before I go to get into traffic. I need to be reminded often.
These unbelievers are seeing that, they're going to see the
reproach that these children of God are bringing on the gospel,
that they're bringing on grace. Y'all preach grace down there,
but you sure don't act like it. Why does everybody you said that
you love, y'all love each other. That's how the Lord says he's
going to know, people's going to know that you're his, that
you love one another. You ain't loving one another, are you?
You're biting into the vow. I ain't going down there. Bunch
of hypocrites, what they'd say, isn't it? Now something must be done. There's
some disagreements before, but them Canaanites are watching.
Something's got to be done. This is spilling over. Reproach
is coming to the gospel. We tell sinners to forsake all
and cling to Christ alone. And these men are clinging to
their abundance, aren't they? Thankfully, Abram is a picture
of Christ in this. He's the great peacemaker. When
it looks like everything's just over with, ah, what are we going
to do? The peacemaker comes. speaks in wisdom, speaks in power.
It says in verse 8, And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no
strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen
and thy herdmen, for we're brethren. Abram was the elder. He was the
patriarch of this family, the head. And he came to Lot. He
condescended to Lot. The stronger one came to the
weaker one. He knows our frame, doesn't he? He knew Lot's frame. He's probably at least 80 years
old at this time. Lot's a young man, 40, 45. And
he said, I'll go to him. Don't let us have strife between
us. And he came with peace, didn't
he? Peace between us. Come let us reason together.
Our herdsmen don't need to be arguing. Our households don't
need to be at odds with one another. Peace. The Lord ever spoke peace
to your heart? To his people he does. Come to
every one of his apostles. What's the first thing he said?
Don't fear. Why are they scared? Peace be to you. Why they wasn't
at peace? He says tore all to pieces. He came down. He comes to us with peace. With
peace. What grace that is. Grace reigns
wherever it is. Did you know that? If grace is
there, God giving grace is giving somebody, grace reigns. We going
to sin? Yep, we're still going to sin,
but grace is going to reign. Are we going to get upset? You going
to have your feelings hurt? Oh yeah, that's going to happen,
but you're going to get over it. Grace is going to win. It's
going to reign over all. It'll prevail. Wherever grace
is, grace prevails. Why? Because we're all brethren.
He says there at the end of verse eight, for we be brethren. We are one with Christ. He's
a friend that's closer than a brother. We're made one with Him, and
because of that, now there's therefore no condemnation. That's
why. Why is there peace? Why is there
eternal peace for a child of God? Because He's made us brethren.
He's our elder brother. Made one with Him. He said, let
this mind be in you. That was also in Christ Jesus.
Though being equal with God, because he was God, humbled himself. No reputation. Come down here
and be a servant. What's Abram doing? Lot, we don't need to
be mad. We don't need any strife between
us. He was long-suffering. He was patient. He was kind.
He was giving. He esteemed his brethren. Though it was below
him, Lot was, in family structure and in age and everything else,
he esteemed him higher than himself. He could have just made him.
Here's what we're doing, Lot. I'm the boss. Y'all gonna do
what I say, but he didn't, did he? Look at verse 9. There's
not the whole land before thee. Separate thyself, I pray thee,
from me. If thou wilt take the left hand,
I will go to the right. If thou wilt depart to the right
hand, I will go to the left. Abram's love for the Lord and
love for Lot was much greater than his possessions. His possessions
did not possess him. I stole that and I wrote it down.
That's wonderful. His possessions didn't possess him. He wasn't
possessed by him. And he had the right to everything.
It was given to him, wasn't it? Why'd Pharaoh give him stuff?
Because of Sarah? Lot was just in proximity. He just happened
to be around. He got some too. Lot was only
benefited by being a family of Abram. And he could have directed
Lot where to go. That is peaceful and that is
good to end strife, isn't it? He gave him the choice. I submit,
I'll be the servant, what you want to do. Does that sound good
to you? My old man loves that. Kevin,
it's up to you. You call the shots. All right. What a fool I am. What a trial
for Lot. What a choice to make. A choice
is often the greatest trial. It's more greater than what you
choose to make the decision to call the shots. David was tempted
by Satan. I won't have you turn there.
He was tempted by Satan. Satan came to David, whether
in a man, a woman, a child, I don't know. But he was tempted by Satan
to number Israel. He's going to do the census.
That's what it is. And David did it. He did it. And it says
in 1 Chronicles 21, God was displeased with the thing, therefore he
smote Israel. He had his prophet Gad Go to
David. And he said, David, I'm going
to give you three choices. That's what God said to David. He said,
I'm displeased with you, and you can pick your poison. I'm
going to give you three choices. You can have three years of famine
in this land for all of Israel. You can have three months of
being destroyed by your enemies, of your enemies chasing you with
the swords drawn, and you're going to be on the run. Three
years of famine, three months of being chased by your enemies,
or you can have three days of the sword of the Lord. You can
have pestilence in the land. Which one do you want? And God said,
go ahead and make your decision now. I've got to get back to
the one that gave it to me. God said, hurry up. I read that and
I stopped. I didn't jump to it. I didn't
read through it too fast. And I thought, which one would I choose? Three days, get over with. And
I thought, I don't want to pick. David said unto Gad, I'm in a
great strait. Let me fall now into the hand
of the Lord, for very great is his mercies. But let me not fall into the
hand of man. That's me. So the Lord set pestilence upon
Israel. He killed 70,000 men. We think losing a couple of sheep
is a big deal. God was merciful to David and
only killed 70,000 men because David cried out for mercy. Lot's
tested here with a decision and is about to fail miserably. David
was tested with a choice. But I thought of this morning,
somebody else was tested, wasn't they? Somebody else was offered
some wonderful things and they was without sin. Again, the devil
taketh him up to exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all
the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and saith
unto him, All these things I give thee, if thou wilt fall down
and worship me. And then said Jesus, Get thee hence, Satan,
for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and
him only shalt thou serve." What should have Lot done? He should have bowed to the elders,
shouldn't he? I ain't equipped to make this decision, Abram.
What do you want me to do? That's what he should have done.
Did he? No. In his room instead, what did Christ do? Did he let
worldly possessions get in his way? He said, you get behind
me, say, we're to serve God. We're to worship him. Our great substitute. It's not
recorded that Abram ever built an altar in Egypt, or that he
worshiped there. Lot goes to Sodom, and it's not
recorded that he ever worshiped God there either. What a sad place to be. In verse
10 it says, And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain
of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed
Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the
land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Two big problems here. Lot lifted up his eyes. He didn't
bow before the Lord. Lord, I have a great choice to
make here. What do I do? What do I do? Do I seek you?
Let me bow at Christ's feet, begging for mercy, begging to
show me the way. He lifted up his eyes instead of calling on
the Lord. Later, we're going to see Abraham
lift up his eyes, but only when the Lord told him to. The second
problem here is, it says, like the land of Egypt. Lot went down
to Egypt during that famine, where everything was wonderful.
And he left Egypt, but Egypt didn't leave him. He got a taste
of it. He liked it. He remembered how
much he liked it. He said, well, it's just like Egypt. I like
that place. It says in verse 11, Then Lot
chose him and all the plain of Jordan. And Lot journeyed east,
and they separated themselves, the one from the other. Given
this choice, this decision. Lot didn't yield to Abram. He said, I know what I'll do.
And Lot didn't say, also, let me get rid of my livestock. It's
like, no, this is mine anyway. I'm just overseeing it. Let's
downsize. I'll get rid of everything I have and I'm going to stay
with you. They had a bunch of faithful herdsmen, didn't they?
Give it to them. When you talk about a charitable
gift, go down to your herdsmen and say, hey, you've been faithful
for five years. I like you. You got your own
business now. Here, take a thousand head of cattle. Get out of here.
Now, you got to find where to feed them. You got to leave.
Did he do that? Did he downsize? He gained ground.
Did he give it up for love's sake? For worshiping the Lord? We have an opportunity here.
Here's where God is. What are we going to do to worship God
here? Did Lot say, that's it, I'll give up everything, I'm
going to stay with you? Turn over Ruth chapter 1. I'm thankful
for these different stories. Because there's times in my life
I think I didn't give up nothing. I think I gave up something to
serve the Lord. And there's other times I know I didn't. And every
one of God's children in this book have different angles on
these things, don't they? Look here in Ruth chapter 1. Remember, Naomi and Elimelech
went down to Moab because business was good. Moab is the descendants
of Lot too. It says in verse 8, the Lord
killed off Limelech and both of Naomi's boys. So she's there
with her daughter-in-laws only. It says in verse 8, Naomi said
unto her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother's
house. The Lord deal kindly with you,
as ye have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant you
that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.
And she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept,
full of sorrow. She said, you've got some place
good to go. I'm going to head home. I'm going to go back to
House Bread. I'm going to go back to Bethel, where the Lord
is. And you, you all just go. And I love you, and I want what's
best for you. I pray you're blessed." That's
what she said to him. And boy, that's tears. Tears
were shed. Crying took place, didn't it?
They wept. Verse 14. Ruth 1, 14. And they lifted up
their voice and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law. She loved her, didn't she? She
kissed her. But Ruth clave unto her. Ruth clave unto her. And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law
has gone back to her people and to her gods. Go pick where you
want to live. I wish you the best. Return thou
now after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, entreat me not
to leave thee, or to return following after thee. For whether thou goest, I will
go. And where thou lodgest, I'll lodge. Thy people shall be my
people. And thy God, my God. Nothing else matters. What about
your mommy and daddy? Weren't they nice? They don't
care. I'm going to be with you. I want to be with you. What about
your riches? What about your comfort? I don't care about it.
I want to be with you. Back in our text from Genesis
13. Verse 11 says, Genesis 13, 11, And Lot chose him all the
plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves
one for another. What was left behind in the separation?
What did Lot walk away from? The covenant God made with Abram?
He walked away from the house of God where Abram was, his prophet
was, the man he spoke through. He walked away from the altar
where that sacrifice took place, where that blood was. He walked
away from true worship of God. He walked away from the fellowship
of brethren. Over what? Some livestock. A couple heads
of cattle. It says in verse 12, Abram didn't.
Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the
cities of the plain and pitched his tent towards Sodom. Lot was
a believer. He was a child of God. And he
had a lot of misery, didn't he? By his own willful choice. What
misery I brought on myself by my dumb, willful choices. What I thought was best. It says
in verse 13, he knew this. This isn't new information. But
the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. And he went anyway, because it
benefited him. And you know what Locke did?
Locke got real concerned about political activities. He got
real concerned about what was going on in politics, because
where'd them angels find him whenever they come to get him
out of Sodom? Sitting in the gates. What'd he do? He got himself
elected to city council, didn't he? He didn't say, well, I'm
just going to go down there for a little bit. He went ho-ho again,
didn't he? He went down there and lived
with them and lived like them. That's what happens. You can't take
a barrel of bad apples and put a good apple in it and expect
that barrel to turn around, does it? That ain't going to happen.
I've been invited to churches over my lifetime a thousand times.
Well, you go to church with me and I'll go to church with you.
No. No. It don't work that way. If one
of your children was down doing heroin or something in the streets
and you said, you know what? I'm going to get them off heroin.
I'm going to go do heroin with them. No! That's foolish! How would you
do such a thing? That's what Lot was doing. He
was right in with them. But thank God for his mercies and grace.
We'll see down the road, in a couple more weeks, he calls him out.
God called Abram out alone. And his promises are reaffirmed.
Abram stayed to worship God. And the Lord spoke to him again.
Verse 14, Lot missed this service. Did you know that? God already
told Abram this. He was there the first time.
And Lot wasn't there when the Lord spoke to Abram this time. My
pastor asked me one time, asked the congregation, he said, I've
been here 10 years. That's 52 weeks a year. 52 times
10, 520. If I just miss one service a
week, that's 520 messages I've missed. You think God might have
blessed me in one of them? You think he might have? You
think some sheep matter? You think the sniffles matter? That's plain talk, but it's right.
You think that matters? It don't matter, does it? God
might have blessed them. Here's what Lot missed, verse
14. And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated
from him, lift up now thine eyes. You lift up your eyes now, because
I told you to, and look from the place where thou art, northward
and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land which
thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed forevermore."
God told him about Christ one more time. You see all this? Christ is going to own it. I'll
sustain you. These children ain't even born
yet. I'm going to sustain them. When Isaac comes, Christ is going
to be king. That's what he's telling him.
Didn't I already tell them that? Oh yeah, tell them again. Tell
me one more time. I want to hear that. Verse 16,
I'll make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man
can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land
and the length of it and the breadth of it, for I will give
unto thee. And Abram removed his tent, and he came and dwelt
in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built an altar
unto the Lord. When the Lord tells you these
things, Christ is King. He's going to be King. And that's
some understanding that Abram had, too. Lot said, I'm leaving. And I
guarantee you, Abram said, if you're the Lord's, He'll keep
you. You won't stay gone forever. You will depart from us, but
you won't stay gone. If you're His, He'll bring you
back. How did Abram know that? Because he left. And he went
to Egypt. And the Lord brought him back,
didn't He? He had to be taught those things. He had to learn
those things. Abram gave up everything for Christ. and he was given
everything in Christ. He had everything, didn't he?
What did Abram lose in this? What did he lose out on? Absolutely
nothing. Nothing. He had all his cattle,
his whales, his crop fields, worship with the Lord. He didn't
lose anything. What did Lot lose? Absolutely everything but his
soul. What did he walk out Sodom with? Nothing. Didn't he make
it with his wife, did he? Last thing Abraham did in this
chapter was worship the Lord. After the Lord told Abram of
His promise, one more time, Abram worshipped. Abram worshipped.
What was that altar for? For all those blood sacrifices,
wasn't it? For Christ, our sacrifice. Christ, our altar. That's what
he clung to. Just like Ruth to Naomi. Cleaved
to her. And that's what I tell everybody.
Cleaved to Christ. Like Abram, I left. I'd run,
thinking I'd be fine. Boy, what trouble that brought.
If God took me down to nothing, and had me dwelling in a tent,
and I have no earthly possessions, and took everything from me,
but I had Christ, I'd have everything. It'd be a whole lot better than
getting a mansion on a hill, and a brand new Porsche, and
got me a yatchet, a yacht. What good's that gonna do? It's
gonna sink, isn't it? Boy, if I have Him. Whenever
the opportunity arises, God will give the faith. I say it before
I say the Lord gave me faith to do that. He can give others
too. If someone listens to this and they're where the gospel
isn't preached and you know that the gospel is there and you love
the Lord, move. Get rid of everything you've
got. You'll gain all. You'll gain Him. Up and go. I don't want to make decisions
and I'll be responsible for that, but that ain't bad advice, is
it? Drop what you're doing. Leave Egypt. Leave Sodom and
run to Him where He is. Be with His people and Christ
dwelling in them. It'll be a great benefit. Great benefit. If you're
His, you will. I know that for a fact. If you're
His, you will. He'll get you. Bring you right
back. Aren't you thankful for that? How do you get back? Where do I go? How do I move?
I don't know. If you're His, Almighty God will
come down and get a hold of you. In His perfect providence, in
His power, in His wisdom. And we'll thank Him the whole
way. Every bit of it. All the days of crying and suffering
and agony. Thank You, Lord. I'm by Your
altar. I'm where Your Son's preached
and where He's praised. We sang to Him. I'm thankful
for that. Thank You, Lord. Every bit of it will be worth
it, Lord. What a day it will be.