Okay, we're in Genesis chapter
13 and 13 today if you want to turn to Genesis chapter 13 We're
just going to read chapter 13. I want to read the whole chapter
with you Then we will probably we will start in here in verse
10, which is where we left off last time Genesis chapter 13
beginning at verse 1 says and Abraham or Abram went up out
of Egypt remember he had gone down to Egypt because of the
famine and And now he's coming back out. Abram went up out of
Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had and lot with him
into the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle,
in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journeys from
the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had
been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai, unto the place
of the altar which he had made there the first, and there Abram
called on the name of the Lord. Now that is God's grace. God
brought Him back up out of Egypt. When He brought Him out of Egypt,
He came to the place between Bethel, the house of God, and
Ai, the city of destruction. It would be destroyed later in
the days of Joshua. And He came to the place of the
altar. He came to the place where the
Lord Jesus Christ made Himself known, and making Himself known,
made God known in His saving work of His people. And there
He worshiped God, because that's the only place we can worship.
is when God makes Himself known to us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So you see God's grace in the cycle of Abraham's life here. But it says in verse 5, "...and
Lot also..." Lot was Abraham's nephew. He was his brother's
son. And remember, when Abraham was called to come out of Ur
of the Chaldees, and finally out of the city of Haran, or
the area called Haran, after his father Tira died, then Lot
went with Abram. He and Sarai and Lot all went
together. And so it says, and Lot also,
which went with Abraham, had flocks and herds and tents. That's
amazing. Lot really benefited from being
with Abraham. 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 then in the land. And Abram said to Lot, notice
it was Abram the older, The uncle who said to Lot, the younger,
the nephew, he said, Notice what Lot did. What would you do if Abraham
had asked you, what do you want to do? It's too small here for
us. You choose the best part. Take the right, I'll go to the
left. You go to the left, I'll go to the right. Whatever way
you want to go. I just don't want there to be any strife between
us. I don't know, I think Lot should have done something differently
than he did here. He says, and Lot lifted up his
eyes. And he 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. So when Lot saw that land, it
was literally like the garden of God. That's an amazing thing. We went one time, we only went
one time to Kauai, in the islands of the Hawaiian Islands. That
place was like a garden, just green everywhere. It rained,
I don't know how many inches a year there, like 400 or something. Amazing. Anyway, right in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean. The lot saw all that green, all
that natural beauty, all that, man, water and crops, a place
for all these animals, and he just thought, that's sort of
where I want to be. And then Lot chose him all the
plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves
the one from the other." That's a sad thing, isn't it? And Abram
dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities
of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. Now when it
says he pitched his tent toward Sodom, it means that that was
the direction he was considering. That was really the place of
his desire. And the men of Sodom were wicked
and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. And the Lord said to Abram, after
that lot was separated from him, lift up now thine eyes 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 forever. And I will 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 in the length of it and in the breadth of it,
for I will give it unto thee.' Then Abram removed his tent and
came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and
built there an altar unto the Lord." Here we see Abram again
worshipping God by the Lord Jesus Christ, the altar. He is that
altar. So I want you to think about this. Think about the total. the totality of what we've read
here in the last two weeks. First, there was plenty. Abram
and Lot had all these animals, all this gold and silver. That
plenty led to strife. And then the strife led to separation. And the separation on Lot's part
led to a foolish conforming to this world in sinful pursuit
of this world's goods. And then all that pursuit on
Lot's part actually led to the total loss of everything he had.
But then in chapter 14, which we didn't read, we'll see this
next week, there was a great rescue. God rescued Lot even
in spite of his foolishness. And he did it through Abram again.
Now Lot made a big mistake here. I have no question. Notice that
in verse 10 it says that Lot lifted up his eyes. In response
to what Abram said, Lot did not mimic. He didn't He didn't do
what Abraham would have done. Abraham offered him the very
best. And Lot didn't act like Abraham. When Abraham gave him
the choice, Lot didn't say, no, no, you choose first. Even though
it was because of Abraham that he had escaped the idolatry of
the Ur, the Chaldees. And he had escaped Haran after
Terah, Abraham's father, had died. And because God had made
Abram rich, now Lot was also rich. Because God blessed Abram,
Lot was blessed. Remember, God promised the land
not to Lot, but to Abram. God promised all of this to Abram
and his children, and yet Abram offers the best to Lot. That's a huge thing. So Lot not
only didn't say, no, no, no, you take the best, Uncle Abram. It's really yours. God's given
it to you. It's rightfully yours. You're the eldest. I've benefited
from all that you've done for me and your kindness toward me.
He didn't say any of that, but he looked and he found the best
part and he chose it for himself. And the other thing we see here
is that Lot didn't seem to mind that he had to separate from
Abram. That hurts most of all, I think. He saw the plain of
Jordan and he seemed eager to claim it and go there. Now, it's
the little things in our lives like this, these circumstances
of our lives, that often discover to us our own true, where our
own true treasure lies. You think about how God works
in our lives. Sometimes he brings difficulties, sometimes he brings
blessings. But our response and reaction
to those things often reveals to us what's true in our heart. Jesus said that where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also. So whatever it is that you love,
that's where your heart's going to be. But when trials discover
God's gift of faith in us, when troubles like, remember Abraham,
when the famine in Canaan drove him to Egypt, and when the trouble
in Egypt drove him back to the altar, that whole experience
uncovered Abraham's true faith. When God's trials uncover our
faith that it's true and we're blessed by God for giving us
faith, then we should fall on our face in thankfulness because
our faith is by the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that the most precious
gift God could give us in this life? This precious faith to
make Christ precious to us? And so, when God's trials cause
us to cling more closely to Christ, then we should be thankful. But,
if the circumstances of our lives also discover our sin to us,
we should also fall on our face. We should fall on our face before
our Almighty Sovereign Savior, that we might be saved from our
sins. I want you to look at a couple of verses. Look at this. This
is one of my favorites in Psalm 65. I don't know if I've given
this one to you as a memory verse or not. In Psalm 65, verse 3,
the psalmist prays like this. He was honest about his sins
and he was He was, in this prayer, he shows us how that even though
we're sinners, by God-given faith, we always go to Christ. He says,
oh, iniquities prevail against me. That means they're encroaching,
they're getting closer and closer and taking over. Prevail against
me, as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away, cut
them off, remove them from us. And how does God take away our
sins? Through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the circumstances
of our lives prove that we have this proclivity, this tendency
in our heart to want and desire the things of this world instead
of the things of Christ, then we should fall on our face and
say, Lord, iniquities prevail against me. Or like our memory
verse last week, when I said, my foot slippeth, thy mercy,
O Lord, help me up. That's our hope, isn't it? That
by God's grace, sin shall not have dominion over us. God has
been so gracious to us in Christ that He has seen, because of
His love for His people, He has seen our very sins as His enemies
and ours because they separate us from Him. and he's done something
about it. And that's what we cry. We can't
do it. We say, Lord, iniquities prevail against me. As for our
transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. We should come again
to the throne of God, which by the blood of Christ to us is
a throne of grace. And we come there to find grace
and help in time of need. And in light of what we are and
who we are, there's no time that is not a time of need, is there?
Every time is a time of need. The realization of our sins should
bow us down low, because we're entirely dependent upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. We should come to Him in order
to find a crumb of His mercy, because the Lord Jesus Christ
is the one who gives out His mercy. That's the crumb. That's
the crumb that the woman prayed for of the Lord Jesus when she
came when her daughter was troubled by a devil. So in everything,
give thanks. In everything, call upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. In everything, do justly, own
that you are a sinner, and a great and helpless sinner, and come
to the Lord Jesus, honor His word, trust Him, love His mercy,
and walk humbly with your God. That's what the message of Micah,
chapter 6, verse 8 says. What does the Lord require of
thee but to love, to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with your God? To do justly is to own our sins.
It's to own our only hope of salvation is in Christ alone.
It's to trust Him and it's to love God's mercy in Christ and
to walk humbly as we do, as we see Abraham and Lot having to
do here. And know that when we do so, when we walk this way,
that our only acceptance with God, our only blessing with God,
is what He gives us in Christ. Our acceptance and blessing is
all in Christ, so we have no reason to boast, even in the
circumstances of our life that uncover our sin, or the blessings
of life that do the same thing. But Lot chose the best for himself. He left Abraham, he left the
fellowship of God's people, the chosen people of God, the redeemed,
believing people on this earth. Lot left Abraham on friendly
terms. Why wouldn't he? Why wouldn't
he leave on friendly terms? Remember, he had been delivered
from the idol-worshipping family in the Ur of the Chaldees. Lot
was blessed because he was with Abraham. And Abraham gave him
the choice of the land, why wouldn't he leave on good terms? But it's
interesting that though they departed as friends, because
they were friendly, Lot's choice in departing, he put himself
first before Abraham. It was a self-serving choice,
don't you think? Now, we do well to see our own motives and choices
that are reflected in our sinful tendencies. It's important for us to recognize
in all these things that God is using the circumstances of
our lives together with His Word to reveal to us ourselves, so
that we would come to Him. like this, daily, to bring our
wretched selves to the Lord that He might subdue our sinful self,
our great enemy. But Lot left the place of the
altar. He left the worship of Christ,
the Lord Jesus, the place of the altar. Lot's greatest loss,
I think, when he left Abram, His greatest loss was he left
the place of worship and the fellowship of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In Hebrews 10, verse 25, let
me read this verse to you. It says this, "...not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but
exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the
day approaching." Now that scripture in Hebrews 10 is given at the
nearly end of the book of Hebrews, after the whole revelation that
Christ is the fulfillment of all of God's purpose and his
law in the Old Testament scripture. And then he tells the Hebrews
to whom he's writing, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.
I think the Hebrew Christians had started thinking along the
lines that I can't see anything in the gospel. It's all just
by faith. They wanted something tangible.
They liked the old covenant where there were rules and outward
forms of service. And they liked that so much and
they didn't necessarily like meeting with the Gentiles. And
so some of them had began to draw back. They had began to
think that the Old Covenant was a better, or maybe it was good
to supplement the new with the old. And the writer warns them,
he says, no, no, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves
together. Because when you do that, you leave yourself exposed. The exhortations that come from
our brethren in the fellowship of the gospel to point us to
Christ is lost. And then we are exposed to what
follows. And in Hebrews chapter 10, if
you want to look at that, let me read to you the great warning
that follows that verse in Hebrews 10.25. Hebrews chapter 10, I'll
read to you from verse 26. He says, This is what happened. This is
why we need to meet together. This is why we need to exhort
one another. He says, "...for if we sin willfully after that
we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for
of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries."
So the point here is that God has revealed in these last days,
at the end of the Old Testament era, that Christ is all. He's
fulfilled it all. God's Son has been sent. God
has spoken by Him. There's no other salvation, no
other Savior. And if you leave Him, if you
depart from Christ, then there is no hope. And so he says this
here, he says, there's no other sacrifice for sins. There's nothing
else. If you leave that, and he goes
on, he says, he that despised Moses' law died without mercy
under two or three witnesses. How much sorer punishment shall
he be thought worthy who has trodden underfoot the Son of
God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he
was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the
Spirit of grace." You see, that's why he gives that exhortation.
Meeting together under the exhortation of the gospel guards us against
departing and thinking that we can live apart from the gospel.
Well, Lot did that. He left. there's no greater treasure
on earth i'm convinced there is no greater treasure on this
birth than the blessing of hearing the gospel of christ and telling
telling with one another, speaking to one another, the great things
the Lord has done for us. If we depart from hearing the
gospel, we leave the gathering of God's people and the worship
of Christ. The gathering of God's people
and worship is the most prominent way that we publicly honor Christ
in this world. the most prominent, the most
evidential way that we can honor Christ is by coming together
to worship Him. What's the most important thing
we can do in life? Isn't it to honor the Lord Jesus
Christ? Doesn't He say in 1 Corinthians
10, verse 30 or 31, in all that you do, do it to the glory of
God? Didn't the Lord Jesus Himself
say, I have glorified thee on the earth. Everything we do is
to honor the Lord Jesus. And so to leave the fellowship
of Christ's people puts us at the risk of losing that safeguard
and takes us away from that opportunity to do what is the greatest thing
we've been given on this earth. To hear the gospel, and to fellowship
in it, and to tell of the wonderful things God has done for us. But
the other thing we see here, if you look in Genesis chapter
13, in verse 13, It says that the men of Sodom
were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. So when
Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom, he left not only Abram in the
fellowship of the gospel and the worship of Christ, but he
also did what he did to have the things of this world at the
compromise of living with these men who were described here as
sinners and wicked, or wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.
Compromise. These men lived in open, shameless, self-degrading perversity. That's what this was. There's
no question about it. God eventually is going to destroy
those cities. because they were wicked before
the Lord, exceedingly wicked. And God teaches us in Romans
chapter 1 that their sin was an evidence that God had turned
them over, had removed all restraint and given them over to do what
was in their heart. Jesus said, out of the heart
of man proceeds evil thoughts and adulteries and fornications
and all these things. It's out of our heart that wickedness
comes. And if God doesn't keep us and
hold down that tendency in us to do that, then we will also
serve sin in whatever way. And that's what these men were
doing. And Lot compromised the gospel in order to have what
looked like blessings in his world. He looked, and man, look
at that. It's well watered. The soil is rich. I've got enough
here. I can stop digging wells now.
I can stop plowing. Man, things grow here without
effort. And so he saw that natural blessing in the earth, and he
thought about the temporal blessing, and he forsook the eternal blessing. in that sense, and he did it
at this great compromise. He not only did it by himself,
but he took his family there. He took his servants there. He
took his herdmen there. These all were affected by what
he did. A father, especially has the
greatest influence over his children and his family, and not only
his immediate family, but his extended family, those he has
influence over. Because God has designed that
role of the father to lead his family in the worship of Christ. And so Lot, he compromised the
gospel, and he pitched his tent toward this place, and look what
happened. When the Lord finally sent the
angel to warn him to leave the city, he said, go. Do you have
any sons and daughters in this place? And he goes to his sons-in-law
and his daughters, and he tells them, we need to get out. And
they thought he was mocking them. They wouldn't hear him. So his
action here resulted in the total loss of everything that he had.
He tried to hold the blessings of this world and he lost all
the blessings of this world and gave up the blessings of the
gospel. And that's the result of doing
that. Wherever your treasure is, that's where your heart will
be. And so Lot had a desire for the things of this world. But
I want you to also consider this. That Lot was presumptuous. Now
that's a big word. What does it mean? It means he
took for granted God's blessings. He had been with Abraham, he
had riches, and he looked around and he thought, man, I'm doing
well. I can just strike out and I can increase, I can have an
easier life, things will be a lot easier for me and my herdmen
and everybody. I'm just going to do this. It
seems like the best thing to do. He was presumptuous in thinking
that he could do without the association with Abraham and
still have the things of God. He expected blessing from God
while living for himself with the wicked. That's presumption. That's taking for granted the
grace of God in our lives. We presume on God's grace when
we think He will bless us though we live in pride and foolishness
because of our unbelief. But God is not mocked. We should
fear His goodness, not presume upon His goodness. True faith
doesn't say in our heart, well, God is gracious, I can do what
I want, He'll save me no matter what. True faith owns itself
to be a sinner. And true faith causes me to look
to Christ and come to Christ to be saved, to be kept. True
faith realizes my only acceptance and blessing from God is what
He thinks of Christ. And true faith knows that I have
nothing and I can do nothing to attract God's sovereign grace
or retain it. And therefore, true faith is
humbled to find that I must be saved for Christ's sake alone. True faith knows I have nothing
but what I have in Christ. When we find that all that we
have is in Christ and God has saved us by His grace alone,
it humbles us. When God does that work in us,
it gives us true faith. It humbles us. It doesn't make
us presumptuous. We don't think, well, you know,
I've got all this stuff. God's been good to me. He's going
to continue being good. I'm just going to go presume
on His grace and go forward and prosper on the earth. There's
nothing wrong with blessings in the earth. What's wrong is
setting your heart on them. Now, Lot was a righteous man. This is the most amazing part
of this whole account here. If you read this, you would conclude
Lot must be lost. An unbeliever. A complete lost
man. Don't you think? But in 2 Peter,
God says that he was a righteous man and he vexed his soul day
to day by their unlawful deeds. These men of Sodom. So he was
a righteous man. He obviously believed on the
Lord Jesus Christ. But this problem was that he
lived his life in such a way that he made this world his pursuit. The world was his treasure. And
so he lost so much because of that. He lost all the blessings
of the eternal inheritance, at least, in his own assurance of
it. And he wasn't living in hope
of that. He was living in hope of temporary
gain. And so he wasn't growing in the
grace of God. This is a sad thing to see and
his family was lost because of it. Lot sought gain in this world
and he lost all of the gain he sought. Jesus said, what shall
a prophet of man if he gained the whole world and lose his
own soul? Now it was of the Lord's mercy
that Lot was not destroyed with the people of Sodom. God's mercy
also took away his vain confidence and upheld his hope. Scripture
doesn't record it, but I have no doubt that When Lot lost everything,
he called on the Lord. I have no doubt of that. Because
the Lord said he was a righteous man. And the Psalms, Psalm 34,
17 says, the righteous cry. The righteous cry. God says in
Psalm 50, 15, call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver
you and you shall glorify me. That's what the righteous do.
They cry. Now, I could talk about the wickedness of the men of
Sodom, and I should say at least a little bit about it, because
nothing's being said about it in today's world. I just heard
a survey was done, and over half of the people in this country
think that, quote, gay marriage, unquote, is a good thing. Well, gay marriage is nothing
but homosexual perversity. Homosexuality is wrong. God says
it's wrong. He evidenced it clearly by destroying
those two cities and by using it as the sin He turns men over
to in Romans chapter 1. So there's no question that this
is sin. It's a shameless thing. Homosexuality
today is shameless. It's brazen. immodest shamelessness,
open perversity, men debasing themselves lower than beasts."
And this is God turning men over to this to show us what we are
in our nature and show us what we are without the grace of God
in order to shut us up to Christ alone. We can only be saved by
God's mercies. In the scripture it says, if
the Lord had not left for Himself a very small remnant, what would
we be like? We would be as Sodom and Gomorrah.
That's what we would be, exactly. We deserve the same punishment
because in our hearts we're no different. And if God didn't,
by His grace, give us faith in Christ and subdue our iniquities,
we would live the same way. What people do in the world,
when I was a young person, homosexuality was never talked about. Of course,
you're a young person, you should never hear about it. But now
it's so prominent that they actually talk about it in elementary school. Ridiculous. Because what they
want to do, what men want to do, is they want to lower the
standard so low that they still can be righteous in the eyes
of others. Isn't that what open shamelessness
does? It's an attempt to make themselves,
men, appear to be righteous, even though they're sinful. In
other words, cast off the evidence of my perversity by making it
seem like it's okay. That's the height of self-righteousness. And God, in Ezekiel 16, says
that was the sin of Sodom. Pride! Pride. The pride of self-righteousness
is the worst kind of sin. So we have to be warned by that.
This man, Lot, who was a believer, was overcome in this city. He pitched his tent towards it.
He lived that way. There's so much that we could
say about that, but we're just going to continue going. I want
you to look at what Abraham did. Actually, let me read to you
a psalm. Turn to Psalm 137. Let's take a turn here toward the brighter
light of God's mercy in Psalm 137. Listen to what the psalmist
says here. If you remember, the people of
Israel and Jerusalem were taken away captive in Babylon. Babylon
in scripture is a name that really represents the kingdom of Satan.
The religion of this world and all that's in it that would detract
God's people from Christ. So here they are, taken captive
because of their sin. In Psalm 137, verse 1, it says,
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when
we remembered Zion. Zion is the city, the mountain
of God, the kingdom of God, the church where God sheds forth
the message of Christ and Him crucified. And gives faith to
sinners to look to Christ and be saved. To rescue them from
the plague of their own heart. Zion. When I remember Zion, the
beauty of Zion is the beauty of Christ. His jewels of obedience
to God in His sacrifice of Himself is the robe He places on His
people. And that beauty, His own beauty,
is the beauty of His people. That's the beauty of Zion. So
when I remembered Zion, I wept. We hanged our harps upon the
willows in the midst thereof, for there they that carried us
away captive required of us a song, and they that wasted us required
of us mirth or happiness, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I
forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof
of my mouth. If I prefer not Jerusalem above
my chief joy." And what is Jerusalem in Scripture? It's the Church
of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ loved the
church and gave himself for it. Here the cry of the psalmist
is reflecting the heart of Christ. If I don't hold Jerusalem above
my chief joy, then let me not even be able to speak. I have
no other desire. Back in Genesis chapter 13, now
I want to turn the attention to Abram. Because here we see
in these two men something that's quite phenomenal. If you think
about it, if God had not given us Lot in this example, If God
hadn't given us Lot, we might think that all Christians behaved
like Abraham and all lost people behaved like Lot. Wouldn't you
think that? That's what I would have been
taught as a young person in Sunday school. But God shows us Lot
and Abraham. What is He doing? I believe He's
showing us the natural old man, the man after the flesh in Lot,
and the new man the man after the Spirit, the man who has put
on Christ in Abraham. Because when we look at Abraham,
we're going to see a completely different picture here. Now,
we're to be ruled not by our flesh, but by the Spirit of God. And there's this constant tension.
And so we see here in Abraham, remember, God tried, He tested,
He put Abraham under a trial when he was in Canaan. I promised
all the land of Canaan to Abraham, and then he sent a trial of a
famine, drove Abraham to Egypt. Then Abraham experienced trouble
in Egypt. His own fear, his own unbelief
and hypocrisy, which we saw last week. The trial put his wife
in danger, and he lost confidence that God's promise could be fulfilled
because Sarai was now with Pharaoh. And yet God recovered him by
his grace and brought him back. Don't you love those places in
scripture where God uses these conjunctions of grace? Conjunctions
are like the words but, nevertheless, and yet. In scripture it says
this all the time, but remember that most famous one in Ephesians
chapter 2? When we were under the wrath
of God and children of wrath by nature, it says, but God. But God. God, for His great love
wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins. And here,
God, we see that in Abraham's life. Nevertheless, He saved
them for His name's sake. Psalm 106, verse 8. He remembered
for them His covenant. Psalm 106, verse 44. In Hosea,
chapter 1, it says, The Lord said to Israel, You are not My
people, and I will not be your God. And the next word is, yet.
Yet, the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand
of the sea." That's the grace of God. The buts and the yets
and the nevertheless in Scripture. So Abraham, or his name now is
Abram, with Lot, was brought again to the altar. He was brought
again to Christ. And that's God's work of grace
in our lives. Isn't it? To bring us by trials,
to refine us as we went over this But these two things go
hand in hand. What two things? Faith and humility. Faith and humility. What is humility? Denise and I were on our vacation
in Oregon. We heard this man in the booth
in the cafe next to us. He was really agitated. He was
talking. Humility? This is what humility is. And
he was talking and talking about it. And I kept kind of listening.
I didn't hear a really good explanation of what humility was, but he
was driving a point home about humility in a very kind of a
stubborn way. But humility, I think the best
definition of humility is, humility is a fair estimate of who I really
am. And that's what faith does. It
teaches us what we truly are before God, doesn't it? What
are we? God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's humility.
When we see what God sees about ourselves and see that God thinks
only Christ is worthy. That's humility, isn't it? It's
to bow before the Lord Jesus Christ. But God uses all the things in
our life to do this. He uses these things in Abraham's
life to give us faith. But this humility before God
also makes us humble before our brethren. It makes the things
of this world, as the hymn says, grow strangely dim in the light
of God's glory and grace. So when strife arose between
Lot's herdman and Abraham's herdman, Abraham, in humility, determined
to do whatever was necessary to remove the cause of strife. Now that's a humble thing, isn't
it? Abraham was the older. Abraham was the uncle. Abraham
was the blessed one. Abraham was the one God gave
the promises to. All the land was promised to
him. He was the one that was called. He had every God-given
right to assert his right, didn't he? If you want to call it right.
He could have said, look Lot, God's given this land to me.
I'm going to go forth and prosper and you find a way to deal with
it. He could have said anything like that. He didn't do anything
like that. Abraham was more concerned for
the glory of God, and the gospel of His grace, and the worship
of God, and especially the love between brethren, than his own,
quote, rights. In the United States, there's
something called a Bill of Rights. Where in scripture does it ever
talk about man's rights? Doesn't it require of us? Doesn't rather it say in scripture
that we have the obligation to give God His due? That's our
right. That's our privilege to live
to the honor and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
our privilege. And to think that we have rights
is exactly the opposite of what scripture teaches. Yes, we have
a right to obey God, to trust His Son, And so in Romans chapter
12 it says, "...as much as lieth in you is, live at peace with
all men." As much as lies within you, live at peace with all men.
Though God had given the whole land to Abraham, Abram offered
it to Lot. He said, take the best. Take
the best. Abraham's heart was large, wasn't
it? You know why his heart was so large? Because God's heart
had been shown to Abraham as a large heart. God had given
to Abraham out of pure grace. And what had he given him? He
had taken him out of idolatry. He had given him his own righteousness. He had justified Abraham by faith
without any contribution on his part. Pointed him to Christ.
He had given him the gift of eternal inheritance in Christ,
and by faith had caused him to walk in hope of that in his life.
He had heard from God concerning his son. What would you rather
have? The land, the plain of Jordan
that was well watered as the garden of the Lord on earth?
Or to hear from the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the fountain of
living waters, who is the bread of life, I'll give everything
to hear from Christ by God-given grace and faith. That's what
the heart of a believer says. It constrains and compels us. Give me Christ or I'll die. If everyone The thief on the
cross is a beautiful example. Here he had nothing, like all
of us, hanging on the cross, dying for his own sin. And everyone
else is mocking and denying and deriding and acting as if the
Lord Jesus has no strength. And the thief turns to him and
says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. You
reign over all things, and you're the Lord. Remember me, and I
need nothing else. Oh, remember me with the favor
that you show toward your people. Visit me with your salvation. That's what the Lord's people
say. And so Abraham had that, and that made his heart large.
You cannot give away God's blessing. You can't. Abraham had been given
all this land and he said, Lot, you take the best of it. Did
he give away anything? He couldn't give away what God
had given to him. God had given it to him. God
gave everything to his son. Why? Because God's son gave everything. He gave himself. And this is
amazing. The Lord Jesus Christ gave everything
that we might have everything. I want you to listen to these
Proverbs. In fact, turn to some of these with me. These are beautiful
Proverbs. In Proverbs chapter 18, look
at this one with me. We're going to see in Abrams,
because of the way faith works in our lives, we actually reflect
the heart of our Savior. In Proverbs chapter 18, verse
23, listen to this very carefully. The poor useth entreaties, but
the rich answers roughly. Have you ever seen someone who
really needed something? They were hungry and thirsty.
Maybe they needed clothes. They needed help. They were sick
and they couldn't do anything and they asked for it Did they
ask in arrogance? Or do you see them more asking
in humility as a beggar? Don't you know that the poor
beg? That's what the poor do he says
the the rich I mean, sorry, the poor use entreaties. That means
they supplicate. They ask as a needy person. They beg. That's what the poor
do. But the rich answer roughly. Now, Abraham could have answered
roughly to Lot, but he didn't. He was poor in spirit. Wasn't
he? Look at this other Proverbs in
Proverbs chapter 13. Proverbs 13, verse 7, listen
to this and see if you can recognize who this is talking about. There
is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing. There is that
maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches. Now think about
that. Who makes himself rich and has
nothing? Well, in this particular example,
Lot. Lot made himself rich. And what
did he end up with? Nothing. Spiritually, he was
deprived of the sweetness, of the fellowship, of the gospel.
And he was living in misery and Sodom, vexing his soul daily
because of their unlawful deeds. And he ended up losing everything.
So he tried to grasp hold of things in this world. And who
else makes himself rich? Satan tried to make himself rich
when he asserted himself and said, I will be like the Most
High, and yet he has nothing. And proud, self-righteous men
make themselves rich when in their own heart they presume
that they have something by which they can come to God and find
salvation and acceptance in their own person by something they
contribute. But look what it also says, "...but
there is that makes himself poor, yet has great riches." Here's
the principle. You can't give away God's blessings
because God gave them. And the Lord Jesus Christ, it
says in Philippians chapter 2, He says, "...who being in the
form of God, being equal with God, didn't count it robbery
to be equal with God. He made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a man and the form of a servant. Now that is a man who makes himself
poor. And what was the result of that?
It says that God exalted him and gave him glory because God
blessed him because of what he did, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
at Philippians chapter 2. I'm going to underscore this
by having you read it with me. I know this is something that
is familiar. There's no question about that.
But how often we forget it. And here it's being given to
us in the example of Abraham. He says in Philippians chapter
2 verse 5, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus. Let this mind. Have this mind. Have the mind
of Christ. Think like he thought. Thinks. who being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." There
was no reason for him to consider being equal with God, robbing
God. He is God. But he made himself
of no reputation. The one who made himself poor. And he took upon him the form
of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also
hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above
every name. And you know the rest. So here
we see, there is that makes himself rich and has nothing, and there
is that makes himself poor, yet has great riches. And that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at John chapter 13 while
you're in the New Testament. John chapter 13. I want you to
see the humility of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, In my
opinion, and I think this is true, there's nothing more beautiful
than humility. The humility of love. I don't
think there's anything more attractive than the humility of love. Here
was a man, Abraham, who had God's promises, God's blessings. He
had rights, you would think. And he humbled himself and gave
Lot the very best choice. That's humility, isn't it? But
in John chapter 13, listen to what it says here about the Lord
Jesus. Because all that Abram did was only pointing us to Christ.
He says, Now before the feast of the Passover, verse 1, when
Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should depart out
of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were
in the world, He loved them to the end. That's love. But listen
to His humility. and supper being ended, the devil
having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son,
to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all
things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went
to God, That's amazing. He knew everything was his. What
did he do? He riseth from supper, and laid
aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself. And he poured water into a basin,
and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the
towel with which he was girded. That's humility, isn't it? He
who had everything, exalted by God to the highest place, God's
own throne. And he stoops and takes off his
clothes and takes a towel and water and washes the feet of
his disciples. That's humility. And we see that,
we see that especially in what he did in his death on the cross. He humbled himself, made himself
the servant of all. of his people. He gave himself
for us. That's humility. That's what
Abraham's doing here. The humility that God taught
him by faith caused him to give Lot the best choice. And we see
that. And it's a beautiful thing, this
humility. It causes us to lay down our lives for our brethren.
It caused Abraham to give up everything in order to keep peace
between himself and his brethren. And that's an amazing thing.
Remember when Nathan the prophet was sent to David and David said,
you know, I want to build a house for the Lord. And the Lord came
by Nathan the prophet and said to him, will you build me a house?
And in so many words, He said, I'm going to build you a house.
I'm going to build you a house. And when Jesus said this in John
14, He says, I go to prepare a place for you. In my Father's
house are many mansions. What can we give of God's blessings
and lose anything? We can't. And so Abraham knew
that, and he walked by faith in that, and he acted as the
Lord Jesus Christ, giving all. The greatest humility is seen
when the one who has the right, who has the authority to execute
judgment and to take his things that belong to him, actually
defers to the one who has wronged him in order to make reconciliation. And you can see that in the story
of the prodigal son. The father, who had every right
to get angry at his son, received him with all of the love in his
heart. And when his older son complained,
and he said, why have you lavished all this on this younger son,
this prodigal son, who wasted your living with harlots? His
father still used entreaties with his older son. He said,
son, all that I have is yours. You're ever with me. You see
the humility of God? There's nothing that's more dear,
endearing in God than His humility, the humility of His love in which
He gave Himself for us, Christ, and God gave His Son for us.
When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son. That's what we see here. And
so, unless we think ourselves to be something, God has given
us the example of Lot to show us our sin. And He puts circumstances
in our lives to show us what we are. Unless we think that
we can live our lives as great sinners, hey, I'm a great sinner.
I'm going to just live as a sinner. God has given us a living picture
of what it means to walk by the Spirit in Abraham. To live with
this mind, the mind of Christ, to give ourselves for our brethren.
for Christ's sake, because of what He's done for us. Let's
pray.