When you understand how much
time the Lord Jesus Christ spent in prayer while he was on the
earth and how he depended upon his Father living upon the Spirit
of God, you wonder how shamefully we who are nothing live in so
little dependence upon God. And I speak to my, speaking of
myself, the scripture says that we can't know anything spiritual
without the Spirit of God. Even though He's revealed it
in Scripture, it makes no impact on us until the Spirit of God
visits each one of us. So let's pray that the Lord would
do that right now. Our Father, we pray, according
to the words of our Savior, that You would give to us Your Spirit.
and that he would show us the things of Christ, and we would
be so enthralled with his glory, and then we would realize in
looking on him we see you, and help us to find in him all of
our salvation, all of our desire, and look for him, and wait for
him, and trust him, and call upon him all the days of our
life. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. in Genesis chapter 18. We're going to look at just the
first eight verses here. The scripture is a wonderful,
wonderful thing. Just every verse just drips with
God's with God's message to his people about the Lord Jesus Christ
and his love for them. And this is what I see in these
verses of scripture. I just want to go through this
with you one verse at a time. Let me read through the first
eight verses first so you get the picture, the context. And
the Lord appeared unto him, that's to Abraham. The Lord appeared
to Abraham in the plains of Mamre, and he sat in the tent door in
the heat of the day. And he lift up his eyes, and
looked, and, lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them,
he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself
toward the ground, and said, My lord, if now I have found
favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant.
Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet,
and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will fetch a morsel
of bread, and comfort ye your hearts. After that ye shall pass
on, for therefore are ye come to your servant." And they said,
So do as thou hast said. And Abraham hastened into the
tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures
of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham
ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave
it to a young man, and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter,
and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before
them. And he stood by them under the
tree, and they did eat." What a beautiful scripture. The Lord
appeared to Abraham. In the New Testament, these words
are spoken Almost in every epistle, the apostles wrote to the Church
of God. Listen to these words. Grace
to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ. Realize that these men spoke
by the Spirit of God. And they spoke by the Spirit
of God who spoke of the peace from God the Father, the grace
and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace
in Christ is the source of all blessings. And peace comes to
us because of grace. So grace and peace with all blessings
are given to all of God's people at Christ's expense. Eternal
blessings, unfailing blessings, blessings unconditioned on me. unimpeded by my sin, overcoming
all impediments, silencing all protests, and the bounty of God's
riches in glory, abundance, unspeakable and immeasurable. Oh, the grace
of God. Grace is the golden word from
the throne of God that brings salvation accomplished. keeps
unto eternal glory, and conforms us to the image of God's dear
Son. Grace brings many sons to glory, presents us before God
in His presence, perfect in Christ, and rejoices over His people
with exceeding joy for all eternity, with unbounded, incomprehensible
love that began before the worlds began, began in eternity. There
was never a time God did not love His people in Christ. What
kind of grace is this? Truly, grace and peace from God
the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is what's meant here.
The Lord appeared to Abraham. There's no higher favor shown
to a man than when God appears to him in grace. Remember John
1 17? It says grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. That is God's ultimate blessing. Grace and truth in Jesus Christ
to his people. God appeared to Abraham. Now
Abraham, it says here, he sat in the tent door in the heat
of the day. Abraham was 99 years old at this
time. You see a 99 year old man sitting
in the door of a tent. It was hot. And he sat in the
door of the tent perhaps to view the countryside. Maybe the goings
on of his little community. And he probably sat there in
order to catch some cooler air in the heat of the day. Probably
under the covering of the tent door for shade. But God appeared
to Abraham in Abraham's sojourn as he was going about his life.
This was after Ishmael was born. This was after Abraham had begotten
this son after the flesh, after Abraham had prayed for Ishmael.
It was after God covenanted with Abraham to give him and to his
seed all the land of Canaan, that physical land to his physical
seed, and that heavenly country of eternal inheritance to Christ
and to his spiritual seed, the Church of God. Abraham and his
children were the heirs of God, the heirs of eternal salvation,
that glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. And here he sits in the
tent's door, looking, and the Lord appeared to him. In verse
2 it says, "...and he lifted up his eyes and looked." He looked. Believers are looking. Believers
look to the Lord Jesus Christ. They look to Him for everything,
don't they? Everything. For faith, for His
Spirit, for righteousness, for eternal life, for everything.
Is there anything that is not found in Christ? We're complete
in Him. Believers look to Christ, but believers also look for Christ. They look for Him because He
is their blessed hope. He's our great God and Savior.
And so we look for him in Titus 2.13. It says, Believers, look
for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great
God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And here, Abraham, while he's
looking, he lifted up his eyes, and there the Lord comes to him.
And then it says here, Lo, three men stood by him. Now when God
appears to us, it is always and only from His Word. God doesn't
speak to us audibly. He doesn't communicate His message
to us in our conscience, apart from His Word, but He takes His
Word and speaks to us from His Word in our conscience. And so
when God appears to us, it's always from His Word, and it's
always concerning Christ. He always applies His Word, His
truth of Christ, to our conscience by His Spirit. We know the fullness
of the Godhead dwells in the Lord Jesus Christ as our mediator,
as the God-Man. And that's something that we
should often think about. The fullness of God dwells in
a man. The one who is both God and man.
And in Him, we see God. Therefore, when God makes known
Christ to us, He makes Himself known in all of His glory. Remember
2 Corinthians 4.6? It says that the God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light. of the knowledge of the glory of God, where? In the
face of Jesus Christ. So when God appeared, He appeared
to Abraham and these three men. God's Spirit reveals Christ,
and seeing Christ, we see and know the Father and the Son. The Father, God the Father, brings
us to Christ. John 6, 44 and 45 says, No man
can come to me except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him.
And Jesus said in Matthew 11, 27, No man knoweth the Son, but
the Father. So the Father brings us to Christ.
And Jesus Christ brings us to the Father. The just for the
unjust that He might bring us to God. He died the just for
the unjust to bring us to God. So when we come to Christ, we
come to God by Him. That's why we come to the Lord
Jesus Christ, because he's the one mediator between God and
men. We cannot meet God except in
Christ. And all who so come shall be
saved to the uttermost. Hebrews 7.25 says he's able,
the Lord Jesus, is able to save them to the uttermost who come
to God by him. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, Jesus said. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. So, these three men appeared
to Abraham. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit in the form of three men. And that one
man by whom God revealed himself is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
it says here that when Abraham saw him, in verse 2, he ran to
meet him from the tent door and bowed himself to the ground.
It's clear that Abraham was a humble man. He was definitely humble
before the Lord. Notice how he approaches Him.
He runs to Him, and then he bows himself down to the ground. You never see people doing that
today, do you? It's not proper. It's not right
for us to do that to a man. But when we come into God's presence,
we ought to bow ourselves down to the ground. Why? Why would
Abraham do this? He humbled himself before God
because he knew that he was but dust and ashes. That's what he
says later on in the same chapter in verse 25. I'm but dust and
ashes. Or verse 27 actually. So he was humble before God.
Remember, he was also humble before men. When Lot and his
herdmen were striving together, Abraham humbly offered Lot the
very best of the land. Take whichever one you want.
I'll take the other one. And later on, when he had to
buy a field for his wife Sarah to bury her in, he humbled himself
and bowed himself before the sons of Heth in order to buy
that field for his wife's burial. It's clear that Abraham had a
high regard, a high regard for the Lord. He had a high respect
for Him and it was seen in the way he approached Him. The Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit revealed to him in these three
men. You know, grace always humbles a man. The law doesn't humble
men. Grace humbles men. The law puts
men in terror. But the grace doesn't put men
in terror. It puts men in reverence and in awe, in thankfulness. It puts them in awe and thankfulness
for the truth of God's great grace at so great a cost by so
great a God and so great a Savior. But the law puts men in fear,
doesn't it? Creates nothing but fear in our
minds and our hearts. It hardens men and their lies.
It makes us liars before God and men. The law does that. Anytime
you're in a system of religion where you're putting on a facade
in order to make yourself look better before men, you know you're
in a religion of law. Because the law makes us honest
before God and before men. I mean, the grace makes us honest
before God and before men. How can grace do that? Because
grace shows us what we are, that we're nothing, and brings us
to Christ who is everything, and we see our all in Him, and
we say, as that man did, I'm a great sinner and nothing at
all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. That's a humble man and
an honest man. Grace does that, but not the
law. The law leaves us hardened in our lies, and it makes us
dishonest before men and proud before men. But grace humbles
us, it strips us down, and it convinces us what we are. It
shows us who Christ is, and shows us that Christ is all to God,
and all for sinners. Grace, therefore, takes away
our fears and makes us honest before God and men. Remember
what Philippians 2.5 says, let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus. And anytime you read in scripture,
do this because Christ did it, that's an honor. That means that's
your highest possible privilege, to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let this mind be in you, which also was in Christ Jesus, who
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be made equal
with God, to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. And he took upon him the form
of a servant. All these things are spoken of
Christ, who humbled himself. And Abraham, like his Savior,
humbles himself before God. And then it says, he ran to meet
them from the tent door. He ran. He's 99 years old. And he ran to meet his Savior. And when he saw Him and came
to Him, he bowed to Him. And it was in the heat of the
day. He was overawed and overjoyed to see the Lord had come to him.
Even the one Lord in His threefold character revealing Himself in
Christ, the God-Man. When God comes to us and appears
to us in Christ, we run to Him. It's a mutual attraction. God first comes and then we run
to Him and we bow to Him. We are in awe. But not in terror,
because grace draws us near. We are in awe, and by this God-given
persuasion of faith in Christ, we worship Him for saving us
by Christ alone, to His glory alone. We should pray and look
every day of our life for God to appear to us in Christ. Every
day. We should always be on our face
before God. Lord, make known Yourself to
me in Christ. Come to me. and draw me to you
so that I run after you and worship you in your Son." Once we see
Christ, we don't go away. We can't leave Him and be content. We want nothing more than to
see more and more of Him, to see none but Him, who is the
revelation of God. Our salvation and acceptance
and eternal inheritance, all for sinners, That should make
us always hungry and thirsty as the deer pants for the water
brook. So pants my soul for thee, O
Savior, my God and Savior. And he appears to us in the gospel.
In the gospel we see Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ crucified we
see the glory of God. And it makes us thirsty and hungry
for more. And so in verse 3 here it says,
And he said, Abraham said, My Lord, if now I have found favor
in thy sight. Now the Lord came to visit Abraham. visiting him. God visits his
people. Remember in Luke, we read last
week, I think it was in Luke chapter 1 verse 68, it says there
that the Lord has visited and redeemed his people. I was thinking
about this. Sick people visit the doctor.
But when God saves a sinner, the great physician of our souls
visits us. Because we have no strength,
we have no ability to go to Him. He comes to us. He's the great
physician because He came from heaven and earth to visit His
people to make redemption for them in His own blood. And that
redemption is our healing. By His stripes we were healed.
His word saves because He offered Himself to save and obtained
our eternal salvation by His own blood. And then it says,
Abraham says, if I found favor in thy sight, in thy sight, because
it's what God thinks of me that makes all the difference, not
what I think of God. God has to think of me, and the
only way God can accept me and find, that I can find favor in
his sight, if he thinks of me in Christ. Favor, because though
God has been, had been favorable to Abraham, Abraham now asks
him for continued favor. This is amazing. Here Abraham
was shown all this favor and yet he comes to the Lord and
asks Him, if I have found favor in your sight, based on the grace
you've given to me, the promises you've made, the covenant you've
made, everything you've told me about the Lord Jesus Christ,
based on that grace. Now listen to what Abraham said.
If I have found favor in your sight. He asks this, he says,
Pass me not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. What is he
doing? He's asking God to allow him,
Abraham, to serve his God and Savior in this trivial way. Isn't that what he's doing? Don't
pass away. Don't pass me. Allow me to serve
in this trivial thing. He doesn't use the word trivial
because whatever is done for the Lord from the heart, out
of faith in Christ, cannot be trivial. But it's trivial because
we're insignificant in ourselves. And what we do, really God doesn't
need it. He doesn't need all that Abraham
is about to do here. But it's a great blessing. It's
the highest blessing Abraham can possibly give to come and
with all that he is and all that he has run and hastened and hurried
to do this service to his God and Savior. Our greatest privilege
is to honor him. by what we do. Therefore, Abraham
asks God to be allowed to do what he's about to do for the
Lord. And so believers ask God to allow them to serve Him in
everything. We pray for His Holy Spirit that
we might do so. In Luke 11.13, the Lord Jesus
says, If an earthly father gives his
son these things, when he asks him, how much more will your
heavenly father give you the Spirit of God, if you ask him? That encourages me to ask, doesn't
it you? ask, he says, and you shall receive. Everyone taught of God asks for
his favor. In Psalm 106, verse 4, this pastor's
verse out a few weeks ago, it said, remember me, O Lord, remember
me, O Lord, with the favor that thou bearest unto thy people,
O visit me with thy salvation, that I may see the good of thy
chosen, thy chosen the Lord Jesus Christ and thy chosen in him,
that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory
with thine inheritance. Favor from God is grace from
God. And favor from God to sinners is always undeserved. If God
shows any man favor, it is always out of pure grace. Out of his
sovereign, uninfluencible will. Holy will. God's holy, uninfluencible,
sovereign will. That's where grace comes from.
It doesn't come from us. It doesn't originate from us.
It's not kept by what we do. It's God's continued supply.
His unending, unchanging supply of grace. If I have found favor,
if I have found grace in your sight. And Abraham counted a
great grace to him if he would be allowed the company of the
Lord in this meal he is about to prepare in his honor. Abraham
wanted to do something to honor the Lord, to show his high regard
for Him. He craves, he craves the Lord's
communion. He wanted to be with Him in this. So he looked for him and saw
him and ran to him and bowed to him. And now he wants nothing
more than that he would remain with him. Stay, wait, I want
to give you something. And he calls him Lord. He bows
to him to the ground because in his own eyes, Abraham was
nothing but dust and ashes who had found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. There is nothing greater for
this dust and ashes sinner, that to know I have found grace in
the eyes of God in Christ. Isn't that your cry? Oh God,
in all of my life, in all that I do, in all that I think that
I am, everything I count, but nothing, even dung, to know you
in Christ, to be found in you, and to find grace in your sight
for Christ's sake. He calls himself the Lord's servant
in verse 5. It's unmistakably clear that
Abraham understood this was the Lord, even though he appeared
in the form of these three wayfaring men. And so he calls on him. And everyone who calls on the
name of the Lord shall be saved. That's God's promise, isn't it?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Do you
hold on to that? Do you cling to God's promise?
Lord, in all the work in my heart that you do, let it be my response
to your grace. Let me call upon you. I need
you. I want you. I have to have you. I can't live without you. And
so Abraham was eager. He was eager to do this. And
he was very hospitable. Very hospitable. It says in Hebrews
13, let brotherly love continue and be not forgetful to entertain
or to be hospitable to strangers for thereby some have entertained
angels unawares. So look at verse 4. He says,
let a little water, I pray you, be fetched and wash your feet
and rest yourselves under the tree. Every word here is significant. Let a little water. I pray you,
let a little water. I like the way he put it, don't
you? I pray you, let this be. Let your servant, let me, your
servant, by your will, have this grace to do this. That's what
he's saying. Let it be so. Let us have grace
whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
Hebrews 12, 28. Let a little water, let me your
servant, by your will, have grace to do this now. Let a little
water be fetched. All of these things speak of
salvation in Christ. A little water? God sprinkles
clean water upon us to cleanse us from all our filthiness and
our idols and our sins. Christ cleansed his people with
his own blood. Jesus told the woman at the well,
if she knew the gift of God and who He was that spoke to her,
she would have asked Him, and He would have given her living
water. And you must be born of the water
and of the Spirit. Therefore, the cleansing water
in Scripture is the gospel of Christ's precious redeeming blood,
sprinkled on our conscience by the Spirit of God, when He persuades
us that Christ is all of our salvation. that God has provided
and accepted Him for His people, and that though we are sinners,
we have all been washed, we have been washed from all of our sins
by His sin-atoning blood, even by Him who is the Lord from heaven,
who is now seated on the right hand of God, and who is our Lord. We bow to Him who washed us in
His blood. Isn't that what it says in Revelation?
Unto Him that loved us and washed us in His own blood. The water
points to the blood of Christ applied to us by the Spirit of
God, in which our consciences receive what God has done for
us in Christ, that He's accepted from Christ all that He's required
from us. a little water, let a little
water, and then he says that you might wash your feet. Now
it is by fresh application to Christ, our fresh application
to Christ, that the Spirit of Christ gives us fresh views of
Christ And we are made again to see that even in our walk
in this life, we're cleansed by him. A little water. Jesus
said to his disciples, I'm going to wash your feet. Peter said,
no, no, not me, not my feet. I'm not going to let you wash
my feet. If I don't wash your feet, you have no part with me.
You have to continually go to Christ for fresh applications
of his grace. The cleansing blood of Christ.
And yet, he said, but I don't need to wash any more than your
feet because you're all clean every whit. Wash your feet. See what Christ has done again.
And apply to Him for this grace. And He says also, rest yourselves.
Now rest signifies comfort. It signifies a cessation from
work. No more work needs to be done
because whatever was set out to do has been accomplished.
And God rests. God rested on the seventh day
because the work of creation was done. But God rests now because
the work of salvation has been accomplished by Christ. The New
Covenant has been put into force, and we rest. Because in believing,
we see that Christ has done all for us. Just as God has received
all that Christ has done as everything He requires from us, and He rests.
And Christ looks on His own work, and He rests. God the Father,
and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, all can find nothing
more satisfying than the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so every sinner rests in that. And it says here, and rest yourselves,
notice how he puts it, let a little water, I pray you, be fetched
and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. The tree provides
shade from the heat of the sun, doesn't it? Christ Jesus redeemed
us from the heat of the curse of God's law being made a curse
for us as it is written. Cursed is everyone that hangs
on a tree. God rests. He rests in his love for his
people. He rested from his work in creation. When Jesus cried
on the cross, it is finished. Christ rested and he was satisfied. And he rests under the tree of
his finished work. This is an amazing thing. Abraham
asked the Lord if he could fetch these things for him. What Abraham asked the Lord to
do for him indicates that the salvation in Christ, by which
Abraham was saved, was the way in which he served and worshipped
God in all of our life. That's the way we worship God.
The way he served God in the water, in the washing of the
feet, in the resting under the tree, all indicates that his
service was all having to do with his faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the way he came to God.
God would only receive him that way and receive his worship.
He would only know God that way in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what it means. In all of our life and all that
we think, all that we do and all that we say, we want to serve
the Lord. But that can only happen when
we look to Christ and honor God by Him and look for Him in hope.
And it means that God Himself, this is also what it means, that
God Himself, God the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, all look
upon and find utmost delight in Christ's sacrifice. It says
in Ephesians 5,2, walk in love as Christ also hath loved us
and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a
sweet smelling savor. Now, Abraham was serving God
in these things, but Christ is God's ultimate servant, isn't
he? He's the one who provided all things for us. He provided
all these things to the Lord for his people. That's why he
said, I thank you that you've prepared this body for me. I
thank you. I delight to do your will, O
God, and I came to do it, so God the Father delights in this.
And notice in verse 5, he goes on. He says, I will fetch a morsel
of bread and comfort your hearts. After that you shall pass on,
for therefore are you come to your servant. Notice, Abraham
believed that the Lord had visited and appeared to him for the purpose
of holding communion with him in those things concerning Christ.
Isn't that what we believe? That God visited us, His people,
in Christ and redeemed us by Christ for this purpose. To have
us. To have us as His sons in glory
and to hold communion with us. And isn't that what we are to
do now in our lives? Is to hold this intimate communion
with God in Christ. That's what we're supposed to
do. Serving Him on the basis of what Christ has done. Every
believer realizes that all that God has done from eternity and
all that He does in time is to bring His people to Himself and
make Himself known to them and hold communion with them in Christ.
And it's every believer's delight. His one desire and hope to be
saved and to meet with God in Christ and serve and worship
Him by the revelation God has given in His Son. Just as it
was all of Christ's life and desire to come and live and serve
God as a man and to live to God as our mediator and save us and
bring us to himself to see his glory. So it is our salvation
in life and desire to come to Christ and live in him and live
on him and serve him to his glory. We follow Christ as God's dear
children. I'll fetch you a morsel of bread.
That's why you came here. That's why you came. That's faith,
isn't it? You came to your servant. I don't
deserve it, but I found favor in your sight, and that's why
you've come. Because of grace in Christ, in this communion
with God, in the things of Christ. And so they said to him, they
said, so do as thou hast said. This is amazing. God is accepting
here this feeble worship and service that Abraham provides.
You think about it, he's going out to get a calf and make some
bread and bring some butter and milk for the Lord. What does
the Lord need with food? God accepts our feeble worship
and he accepts our service for Christ's sake. Never discount
that. Never think that in your life
that what you do is insignificant when you do it as unto the Lord.
Do all that you do for the glory of God, whether it be in word
or deed. Do it all to the glory of God.
God doesn't need food and water, but he delights in whatever the
believer does, no matter how outwardly insignificant, because
the believer does all that he does with a view to Christ's
eternal purpose and work in thankfulness to God for Christ and in worship
of God in Christ. So we go on in this attitude
of prayer throughout our lives, Lord, let me do this. Let me
do this for you. Give me the grace now to do it
for your sake. And bowing in worship to the
ground, Lord, receive me according to that grace you've given in
Christ. God honors all who honor his Son. Jesus said this in John
12, 26, If any man serve me, let him follow me. And where
I am, there also shall my servant be. If any man serve me, him
will my Father honor. If you do what you do, if what
you do you do by faith, trusting God to accept your service for
Christ's sake out of a heart, believing in Christ as all of
your salvation and all of your life, if you live in thanksgiving
for His grace that provided and accepted Christ's blood and righteousness
for you, if you live in thankfulness for His eternal love and unfailing
care, then You do all, then you should do all that is in your
heart with all your strength for the glory of God. And whatever
you do, whether you eat or drink, do it to the glory of God. Do
as the Lord Jesus Christ did in his life. He prayed and he
worked. He prayed and he set his face
like a flint to do the will of God. And he depended on God's
Spirit at every point. And guess what? He actually did
the will of God. That's what we're to do, to follow
Christ in all that we do. 1 Corinthians 10.31, in all that
you do, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to
the glory of God. 1 Peter 4.11 says, that in all
of our service, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles
of God, and if any man serve or minister, let him do it as
the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be
glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion
forever and ever. We give Him glory because He
turned us from our sins. We give Him glory because He
has given us faith. We give Him glory because of
the reproach we suffer for His sake. In all these things, in
life and in eternity, we give all glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1
he says, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and
to be admired in all them that believe. And later he says that
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you
in him according to the grace of our God and our Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Then in verse 6, look at this,
it says, And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said,
Make ready quickly three measures of the meal, knead it, and make
cakes upon the hearth. And then Abraham ran to the herd,
and fetched a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young
man, and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter and milk,
and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them, and he
stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. What an amazing
thing this is. Here's this old man, on a hot
day, running around like a little girl, doing something to prepare
a meal for her father. Can you see the delight? He hurried. He did not want to keep the Lord
waiting. Like a servant, Abraham ran to
do what the Lord had granted him the privilege to do in His
name. And he did it without delay,
as fast as he could. Because it was God who was at
work in him, both the will and to do of his good pleasure. And
so he worked out his own salvation, looking to Christ, doing all
in the name of Christ. And so Abraham tells his wife
Sarah, you need to help. He engaged her in his service
to the Lord. Do this, do that, do it quick,
make it nice. It's for the Lord. She was his
helpmeet in the gospel. And Abraham ran to the herd and
fetched this young, tender calf. And he took special care to find
the best one in the herd for the Lord. He gave that calf to
a young man to dress it for the meal. And then he enlisted the
help of his servant to do this for the Lord. He ordered his
household around his service to God. in Christ. Because God had given him, you
do it. Do what you said. You wanted
to do it. Do it. Do it to the Lord. It's for His sake. It's accepted
for Christ's sake. And so He took butter, which
is like fatness. And He took milk, which is like
the word of the gospel. And He took the calf that He
had dressed, which is like Christ crucified, and He set it before
them. And when all was ready, He set
the feast before these three men, before the Lord. And all
who have no money, and who have wasted their labors on everything
that does not satisfy, are called so to do, to hearken diligently
to Christ, to delight yourself in fatness, and to buy wine and
milk without money, and to look upon Him, and find God's eternal
everlasting covenant made in Him, the sure mercies of God
to you. And so he stood by them, it says,
It says here in verse 8, He stood by them under the tree. There's
the tree again. There He stands watching them
eating what He had made. And they did eat. They accepted
His service. They accepted it even though
it was taken by itself. It was just a meal. And there's
no absolute, there's no way that you could say that there was
anything of consequence in the meal if you measured it by absolute
standards. Because Abraham did it. But the Lord didn't need it,
but Abraham did it for him. God accepted it in the worship
of his heart of faith. When he asked the Lord to accept
it by his grace. Do this, if I found grace in
your sight, let me do this. And the Lord accepted it from
him. He accepts it from his saints. He accepts it all for Christ's
sake. He accepted the two mites that widow threw into the treasury
because she threw in all of her living. May God help us to give
our all to Christ in honor and worship. It's insignificant.
All that we are, really, our life, we're just dust and ashes,
aren't we? We think, well, we have a lot, I don't want to give
up too much. Really, what's insignificant? And the widow understood that
and Jesus said she cast in all of her living. Here it says,
we see this delightful thing that a 99 year old man is running
around like a young man. Running, working, preparing like
a child for his father or a servant for his master that he loves.
And then he stands under the tree while they eat. Can you
see in this the communion between the Lord and Abraham in the death
of Christ? The Lord taking delight in the
sacrifice of his son. His servant brought to him, this
is all my delight, my salvation, and my desire, to see you satisfied
with him for me. And he stood there. in worship
of God because His glory is seen in Christ crucified under the
tree. The bread is the broken body
that endured the heat of the hearth of God's wrath to make
food of Christ's sacrifice, the eternal life of sinners. The calf is the slain sacrifice
of the young, good, tender, sinless, spotless Lord of glory, the Lamb
of God. The butter and milk are the fatness
and the life nourishment declared in the gospel and relished by
every needy sinner. The tree is Christ crucified.
The Lord eating while Abraham stands by is God's delight in
Christ crucified to the salvation of his people. And Abraham is
the believing sinner standing and looking and beholding God's
satisfaction and glory in that sacrifice. And Abraham said,
therefore are you come to your servant. This is why you came. This is why we're here. This
is the reason God in grace comes to sinners in Christ. It was
His will. He provided all for them. He
offered up His own Son. And Christ offered Himself. And
every believing sinner fetches again, from God's testimony of
Christ, the only thing we can bring to Him, what God has done
for Himself, for my salvation. It's God's purpose. in coming
to have fellowship with us in His Son. 1 John chapter 5 verse
11 says, This is the record that God has given to us, eternal
life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the
Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and
that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. What can we
bring to the Lord? What can I bring to the Lord?
I'm a poor sinner, guilty. What can I possibly do to serve
Him? If I have found favor in his
sight, then let these gospel tokens be brought forth and spread
out, and let me see God's acceptance of Christ and my acceptance in
him, and let me see God's delight in him, and let me find my communion
with him in Christ alone, and let this be all my service. that
in all of my life I will do all by the Spirit of God, with faith
in Christ, asking Him to receive Christ for me, and in so asking,
running to serve Him, knowing that though I am insignificant
by any honest measure, yet God receives Christ and receives
sinners who come. to him by the Lord Jesus Christ,
having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith." Abraham was called the only man
in scripture ever called the friend of God. You can see why,
can't you? Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we pray
that you would so woo us, draw us to yourself, that in all of
our life the things of this world would grow strangely dim in the
light of your glory and grace. And we would see the Lord Jesus,
and him only as if we had one eye and there was only one object
in front of us. Him, He who came from heaven
to this world, who lived the full life of a man, depending
in prayer, moment by moment, in the weakness of His body,
in the sufferings of His soul, in the torments of those things
that were put upon Him by men, and the forsaking of God, and
all the while He rolled Himself upon His Father and trusted Him.
And He prayed, and He depended upon your spirit, let us so serve
our Savior, following Him, depending upon you, Lord Jesus, to live
in us and give us this life that we might love you and worship
you and serve you in all things. And may it be to your glory to
take the insignificance of our lives, having been saved by your
blood, and making those lives an offering of service to you.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Okay, we're going to take the
Lord's Table now. And I want to turn you to the
scripture to look at this with me. First look in Matthew chapter
26. It was the night of the Passover,
the very last Passover. They were eating the Passover,
the disciples and the Lord Jesus. And at the end of the feast of
the Passover, then the Lord Jesus did this, what we're about to
read here in Matthew chapter 26. It says in verse 26, and
listen carefully at every word. And they were eating. As they
were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and break it,
and gave it to the disciples, and said to them, take, eat,
this is my body. The Lord Jesus took his body
his father had given him. He said, A body hast thou prepared
me. And in that body he bore our
sins in his own body up to the tree, carried them in his own
body up to the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live
to righteousness. by whose stripes were healed
a body. Thou hast prepared me, and it
was broken." He took the body, it says. He took the bread, which
he said later was his body, and he blessed it. Can you see the
Lord Jesus? The Lord of glory, the Son of
God in our nature, having been given by his Father this body,
And he says, this body, thank you. And he blessed what he was
about to do because he thanked his God that he could so offer
himself willingly and have his people by that body, by that
offering of himself to God for us. He took it, he blessed it,
and he gave it to them. He gave himself for us and gave
himself to us. He gave it to the disciples and
then he told his disciples, listen to what he says, take, take it. He didn't put it in their mouths,
you take it. Reach out in faith and take as
a poor, helpless, guilty sinner this body broken for you." This
is all your life before God, all of your life. And he took
the cup and he gave thanks again, again for this. Because he was
about to do in reality what these things pointed to in picture.
And he gave, he says, He gave this cup to them saying, drink
ye all of it. In other words, all of you drink
of it. And then he said these words, for this is my blood of
the New Testament. Now a testament, we know, is
like an agreement between two. God made a covenant, a covenant
with his people, Israel, in the law. That covenant depended upon
them. But they failed, like every man,
failed to keep it. But here the Lord Jesus Christ
says His blood is the New Testament. Because as sinners, we can't
keep the agreement. We failed in every part. And
so God laid it on His Son. And He says, you, you keep it
for them. And He said, this blood is the
New Testament. This is what binds all of the
promises, the eternal salvation and promises and blessings. Making
you the sons of God. This does it. What Christ did
in His offering of Himself in blood. And so now look at 1 Corinthians
chapter 11, and it's all summarized again there for us. But in the
Corinthian church, the people there were completely oblivious
to the meaning of what they were doing. And so they came together,
and they didn't wait for one another. They ate bread, they
ate their own bread. They brought their food. Some
were hungry because they didn't have anything. And others had
too much and they got drunk. They were completely oblivious
to the meaning of what was going on. And so Paul corrects them. He says in verse 23, after correcting
them in the verses that come before, he says... Verse 23 of
1 Corinthians chapter 11. For I have received of the Lord
that which I also delivered unto you. that the Lord Jesus, the
same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given
thanks, he break it, and said, Take, eat, consume me by faith. That's what the word means, live
upon me. This is my body which is broken
for you, this do in remembrance of me. And after the same manner
also he took the cup which he had supped, I'm sorry, when he
had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood,
this do ye, as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death, or
preach, that's what the word show means, preach, proclaim
the Lord's death till he come. So notice how God, the Lord Jesus,
wants us to take. He wants us to take it. Take
it by faith, poor sinner. And take it into yourself. Christ
in you. The hope of glory. Jesus said,
whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I in
him. This is an intimate communion. Not the actual eating of the
bread and drinking of the wine. That's not the communion. It's
what's going on on the inside. Everyone who looks to Christ
as all of their salvation and comes to God by faith, is doing,
in reality, what these things only point to. And if we do that
in reality, then God is saying, then do this outwardly so that
you can proclaim it. This is all my salvation. This
is all my acceptance before God. The sacrifices in the Old Testament
weren't eaten unless they were accepted. And Christ, before
He's even gone to the cross, says, here, take. I'm breaking
it. Take it and eat it. It's accepted.
And you're accepted because of the sacrifice. Take it and live
upon it. Live in me and I in you. This
is that intimacy between Christ and His people. One body. One
Lord. One Spirit. In us. We all drink
of one Spirit. One body. And then He goes on
in 1 Corinthians 11. Look what He says. I'm going to read verse
29. He says, For he that eateth and
drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself,
not discerning the Lord's body. If you eat like the Corinthians
had been doing, completely oblivious to what's going on here, without
faith in Christ, then you're eating and drinking damnation
to yourself. This caused many are weak and
sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves,
we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are
chastened to the Lord that we should not be condemned with
the world. Wherefore, my brethren, notice what he says, when you
come together to eat, wait for one another. Why? Because it's
one body. We don't take the Lord's Supper
individually, apart from our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Because one body, one Lord, by one Spirit, we're partaking of
Christ and Him crucified by faith. We're doing outwardly what we're
doing in our heart, what God has given us. And it's the Spirit
of God that enables us. And we do this until the Lord
comes. We show forth the Lord's death till he comes because we
not only are partaking of him in our life, looking back upon
what he's done, and at present our entrance into heaven and
access to God, but we're looking for him to return. This is the
Lord who gave us himself and offered himself for us and we
want him. We want to be with him. We want
to see him as he is and see him where he is and be with him there.
And so it's all about our life, it's all about our salvation,
and it's all about our hope for eternal glory.