Here's the subject that I want
to speak on this morning or this evening. I'll give it this title,
Abraham and a Remarkable Visitor. Abraham and a Remarkable Visitor. Now, you could say Abraham and
three remarkable visitors, but really only one of them deserves
to be labeled as remarkable. And that's the Lord Jesus. Now,
Abraham was an amazing man. There's no question about that.
In fact, other than the Lord himself, no man in the Word of
God is set before us as an example of faith, quite like Abraham
is, except for our Lord Jesus, of course. Now, Abraham was a
sinner saved by the grace of God. But God gifted him with
faith, and he walked with God. In fact, the scripture says,
James says, in James the second chapter, that he was called the
friend of God. He was God's friend. Imagine
that, the Lord saying he's my friend. He's my friend. Later we shall see in this chapter,
and we'll see it next week, the Lord is going to say before he
pronounces the doom upon Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord says,
shall I hide this from Abraham? Abraham who loves me, Abraham
who believes me. Abraham was a man of faith. He's
an example of faith. He's said to be the father of
all them that believe. Not that he's the origin of faith,
because our Lord is the origin of faith. Faith is a gift of
God. Hebrews chapter 12, our Lord
Jesus is the author and the finisher. He's the origin, He's the beginning
and the end of our faith. So this is not when the scripture
says that Abraham is the father of those that believe. It's not
saying that our faith originated with Abraham. It didn't originate
with Abraham any more than Abraham's faith originated with Abraham.
Abraham's faith and your faith, if you believe, originated with
our Lord. It's a gift of God. Faith doesn't
naturally dwell in the heart of men. The scripture is very,
very clear in Ephesians chapter 2. For by grace he is saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. Did you hear it? That not of
yourselves. It's the gift of God. It's the
gift of God. We read that not all men have
faith. Well, who are those that have
faith and who are those who don't have faith? Well, those who don't
have faith haven't been given faith. And those who do believe
have been given the gift of faith, the sovereign prerogative of
God to give faith to whoever He wants to. But Abraham is spoken
of as being the father of all them that believe. And then the
Scripture says that through this man all the nations of the earth
would be blessed. Now, that has reference to the
seed of Abraham, that is our Lord Jesus. Matthew begins, Matthew
chapter 1, talks about Abraham. Abraham was the father of our
Savior in a spiritual way. He traced, our Savior traced
His lineage back through Abraham. He's the son of Abraham. And
the Scripture says that through Him should all the nations of
the earth be blessed. There's a people out of every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue on this earth who are blessed
through Abraham's seed that is the Lord Jesus. There are no
blessings that come to anybody on a national level. Nobody's
blessed because they're a Jew. Nobody's blessed because they're
a Gentile. Nobody's blessed because they're
men. Nobody's blessed because they're women. If we're blessed,
we're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. And those blessings originated
with God. God's not giving out any new
blessings. He's not assigning any new blessings. All the blessings we have, which
are too numerous to even begin to number, were given to us in
old eternity by our God through our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Abraham was indeed an unusual
man. But we must not give credit to
Abraham. We must give credit for Abraham's
faith and Abraham's greatness to the God of all grace. Abraham
was just like you, you men here this evening. You who are watching
by way of the internet, this man preaching to you, Abraham
was just like us. He's a sinner by nature. He was
born alienated from God. He was born a stranger to the
things of God. Abraham didn't seek the Lord.
Abraham was salt of the Lord. The Lord appeared to Abraham
in Ur of the Chaldees. It was the Lord who went after
Abraham, not the other way around. It wasn't Abraham who was seeking
the Lord. It was the Lord who was in pursuit
of Abraham because Abraham was one of his lost children. Abraham
was one of the lost sheep. The shepherd was coming into
this world to save that lost sheep, Abraham and all the other
lost sheep that belonged to the Savior. No, we give no glory
to Abraham. We give all glory to the God
of Abraham that is the God of all grace. Now, Abraham would
have been the first to have said, I attribute all of my salvation
to God. He would take no credit for it.
He would not pat himself on the back and say, the only difference
between me and the others in my family was that I said yes
to the Lord and they said no. He would never do that. Abraham
would attribute all of his salvation, his faith, the grace that was
given to him, that justification that he had. He believed God. He was counted righteous for
Christ's sake. Abraham would attribute all of
that to the goodness and the grace and the purpose of God,
and he would take no credit for himself. Yes, from conversion,
his life was a life of faith, but it wasn't perfect faith.
While we've already seen in studying about Abraham that when he went
into Egypt, he didn't walk by faith, He said to his wife, Sarah,
honey, you're a good looking woman. And I'll tell you, if
you tell people that you're my wife, they're going to kill me
to take you. So why don't you just say you're
my sister? Abraham, a man of faith, talking
like that? Yeah. Yeah. Because you see,
Abraham was a sinner saved by grace. There is no perfection
in Abraham except the perfection of the righteousness imputed
to him, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. That's the only
perfection that he had. But in himself he was a sinful
man. Yes, from conversion his life
was a life of faith. But make no mistake about it,
and I thought about this a good bit today. Abraham's life was not a life
of amazing self determination. It wasn't a life of tremendous
discipline. It wasn't a life of marvelous
willpower. It wasn't a life of amazing perseverance. The life of Abraham and the life
of every child of God and your life is due to the amazing grace
of God. That's the bottom line, folks. God's not going to share any
glory with any flesh. I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory will I not give to another,
neither my praise to a graven image." He's not going to share
it with you. And we want Him to have all the
glory, don't we? We want Him to have all the recognition. Like the psalmist, we say, my
soul shall make her boast in the Lord. It's the Lord who chose
me. It's the Lord who set me apart
to be His own. It's the Lord who bought me.
It's the Lord who redeemed me. It's the Lord who satisfied justice
for this poor sinner. It's the Lord who was raised
again because of my justification. It's the Lord who sent a preacher
to me to tell me the truth. It's the Lord who made the Word
of God to be effectual to the salvation of my soul. It's the
Lord who preserves me. It's the Lord who keeps me. It's
the Lord who provides for me. It's the Lord who's someday going
to glorify me. He must get all the glory. He
has to. Now, just a couple of things
in this message tonight. First of all, hear these. these three men who appeared
to Abraham. One day Abraham's sitting at
the tent door in the heat of the day and the scripture says
in verse one, and the Lord Jehovah appeared unto him. God paid him
a visit. Now this is our Savior in what
we would call pre-incarnate form. We've spoken in times past about
the angel of the covenant, the angel of the Lord, and He appears
to Abraham just kind of out of the blue. And this is quite an
amazing thing. It reminds me of our Lord's visit
to the woman at Jacob's well. And that was in the heat of the
day. Our Lord, little did she know, she had no idea what was
going on, but our Lord must needs go through Samaria because one
of His lost sheep was there. And He must needs on this occasion
come down from glory and take the appearance of a man and then
reveal Himself to Abraham. Abraham's sitting in the tent,
in the door of the tent, kind of minding his own business.
I don't know. Sarah's in the tent and she's
doing wifely duties. Whatever she's washing ditches
or whatever it was, she's in there. And here Abraham, all
of a sudden, verse 2 says, he lifted up his eyes and looked
and suddenly he saw, the scripture says, lo, three men stood by
him. All of a sudden. And when he saw them, he ran
to the tent door and he bowed himself to the ground. It is always a blessing when
the Lord makes, and you won't misunderstand me, but when the
Lord makes a personal visit to you through his word. Now, we know that our Lord does
not anymore appear in a visible body to us. We have all of the
Word of God. He's presented in the Scriptures.
We know the Book of God is the Book of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And He appears to us by His Spirit as He enlightens our hearts and
as He puts the searchlight upon the Scriptures and we see our
Lord Jesus and He visits with us. It's a blessed thing when
the Lord visits with His people. And the Scripture says where
two or three are gathered, gathered in His name, He says, I'll be
in the midst, a husband and wife, opening the Word of God, seeking
God's face. The Lord can certainly appear
to you, not in a dream, not in a physical way, I'm not talking
about that, but in a way that you know He's there with you. You know what I mean? Only the
people of God know what that means. And He speaks to you. And He reveals Himself to you. And you just know He's with you. And through His Word, He reassures
you of his everlasting covenant love for you, that you're one
of his own, that all things are working together
for your good, for his glory. See, if he wasn't sovereign over
all things, how could we ever be sure that all things are working
together for the good of God's people? He's governing all things
and He visits us personally. The Lord visited with Him first
in Ur of the Chaldees. Stephen, when writing about Abraham's
conversion, and he says this in the book of Acts chapter 7,
the God of glory. appeared unto Abraham when he
was in Mesopotamia, the God of glory. That's our Savior. Because
the glory of God is seen in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The God of glory is the Son of God. And here He comes to visit Abraham
again. Will the old man receive Him? Will Abraham welcome him or is
Abraham so, even though he's a believer, is he so wrapped
up in the materialism and the things of this world as Lot was? Is Abraham also so caught up
in the fast pace of the world and getting and wealth and all
of those things that Abraham will not pursue Go out and meet
and greet and welcome this divine visitor? You know, there's a verse that
is all the time misused. But it's written to one of the
churches in Revelation chapter 3 verse 20. Behold, the Savior
says, I stand at the door and knock. And if any man hear my
voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with
him and he with me. And here is Abraham. The Lord, as it were, appears
at his tent door. Abraham, do you want to visit
from me? Will you sup with me and I with
you? Do you welcome fellowship with
me? And Abraham is ready, he's willing,
and he's anxious to receive this heavenly visitor. Oh, how precious
it is to spend time with the Master. Think of it. The Lord of glory stepped out
of eternity and He comes down to the plains of Mamre to visit
with Abraham and with Sarah. Our Lord took upon Him the visage
of a man. And there He stood before Abraham
to visit with him. Before Abraham he's going to
eat and he's going to drink and he's going to have fellowship
with his servant. And here we see that Abraham
is a man of hospitality. Hebrews 13 verse 2, be not forgetful
to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained angels
unaware. The Lord puts His stamp of approval
upon receiving and doing for His children. In Matthew chapter 25. Turn over
there with me. Look at Matthew 25. And you know, as to that passage
in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 20, The apostate church has no interest
in supping with and fellowshipping with the Lord Jesus. Laodicea
was a lukewarm church. They had no desire to spend any
time with Him. He's not knocking on the hearts
doors of sinners. That which is portrayed in Revelation
chapter 3 knocking on the door of a church. Do you want to fellowship with
me? Do you want to worship me? Do
you want to hear my doctrine? And most churches, if our Lord
Jesus were to come to them and reveal Himself as the sovereign
Christ, here's a sad reality, they would say, we don't want
you. No. You're not the Jesus we want. We want the Jesus who can be
manipulated. We want the Jesus who needs us. We want the Jesus who needs our
assistance, who needs our cooperation in order for His eternal purpose
to be fulfilled. No, we're not interested. People
have said, if only He had come in our time. Well, if He had
come in our time, He would have received the same kind of non-welcome
that He received when He did come. He came into His own, His
own world, His own nation, His own family, and His own received
Him not. And nobody will ever receive
Him until they are born again by the will and grace of God. all that God would work, that
God would work in the hearts of men. Here in Matthew chapter
25, let me show you this real quick. Look at verse 31. When the Son of Man shall come
in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He
sit upon the throne of His glory. Before Him shall be gathered
all nations, He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king
say unto them on his right hand, he will say, come ye blessed
of my father, blessed from eternity. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. Now watch this, watch
what he says. For I was unhungry, and you gave
me meat. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger, you took me
in naked, and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me.
I was in prison and you came unto me. And then show the righteous. They're righteous through His
righteousness, correct? That's the only way we're right.
We're righteous through the Lord our righteousness. His name is
the name that He gives to us, the Lord our righteousness. Then
shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee
an hungred, and fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and
clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or
in prison, and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and
say unto them, Verily I say unto you, insomuch as ye have done
it unto the least one of thee, the least of these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me. God's people show hospitality. And we do for the people of God. We reach out. When we see a need,
we do what we can to meet the need. That's not the reason for our
salvation, but it is the evidence. It's one of the evidences of
the saving grace of God. Then shall he say also unto them
on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry,
ye didn't give me anything to eat. I was thirsty, ye didn't
give me anything to drink. I was a stranger, ye took me
not in, naked, ye clothed me not, sick, and in prison, ye
visited me not. Then shall they also answer him,
Lord, when saw we thee unhungry? or thirst, or a stranger, or
naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Insomuch
as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not
to me. And these shall go away into
everlasting punishment. But the righteous in the life
eternal And here are three visitors that show up at Abraham's door. Well, how is he going to treat
them? He's going to treat them royally.
And he's going to tell his wife, fix him some food. Three loaves
of bread. Three visitors, three loaves
of bread. And then he tells one of his
servants, I'm going to go get a calf. and that I want you to
prepare it. Then Abraham sets the food down
before these men, and one of them is our Lord Jesus Himself. And look at the last statement
of verse 8, and they did eat. Abraham stood by, he waited on
them, he served them. What an honor to serve the people
of God. What an honor to serve the cause
of our Lord Jesus. I think of a widow woman in 1
Kings 17, and she's down to her last meal. She's out gathering
sticks. Two sticks. A little fire. That's what Scripture says. Two
sticks. Of course, Elijah has been fed
by the ravens food in the morning and food
in the evening. He drank from the brook and everything
was fine with him until the brook dried up. And the Lord said,
go to this woman in Zaretheth, a widow woman, for I have commanded
her, she's going to take care of you. And so Elijah sees her
at the gate of the city. And he says, would you give me
a cup of water? And she walks, starts to get
a cup of water. And he said, and while you're
at it, would you fix me a little bit of bread? And she said, sir,
I only have a little bit of meal left, just enough for one little
cake. My boy and I are going to eat
that. I'm getting two sticks to build
a little fire. He said, You give me something
to eat first. And then she found out of God's
provision. She showed hospitality to a man
she didn't know. She had no idea she's feeding
a preacher. She's feeding one of the prophets
of God. And so, she fed him, and then
there was meal left over for her son and herself. And the
same the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the
cruise of all didn't fail, and the meal didn't fail. And of course, God had purposed
that. He ordained that. He moved upon
her heart to cause her to be generous to this man she didn't
know. And she was rewarded for her
faith. Because then her boy got sick
and died. And Elijah, the prophet of God,
was there and a miracle was performed and her son came back from the
dead. Hospitality is a good thing.
It's a good thing. Here, Abraham says, get you some water, a washing
of your feet. That's more than that Simon the
Pharisee did for the Savior. Remember when our Lord went to
eat with Him and then a woman who was a sinner came in. Of course, our Savior was kind
of reclining as they did and His feet was behind Him and she
came behind Him and she saw that His feet had not been washed.
She began to weep and then she washed His feet with the hair
of her head. Then she had some expensive ointment
and she anointed his feet. And Simon thought to himself,
if he really is a prophet of God, he'd know this woman is
a sinner. But you see, this is what Simon
didn't understand. Our Lord Jesus Christ receives
sinners. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came in the world
to save sinners, of whom I'm chief, Paul says. Who are these other two angels?
Now, we know one's the Lord of glory. Who are these other two
angels? Well, I would liken them to ministers
of the gospel. If you would permit me to stretch
my imagination a little bit and the typology. These two angels
are typical of ministers of the gospel. They certainly spend
time with the Lord and they're preachers. In fact,
does not the book of Revelation chapter 1 identify our Lord Jesus? He had these seven angels in
His hand. They're identified as being preachers
of the gospel, messengers with the message of redeeming grace
and love. These two will later be sent
on their way of the Lord of Glory to Sodom and Gomorrah on an urgent
mission to escort Lot and his family out of Sodom and Gomorrah.
And they warn, these messengers warn of coming judgment and God's
preachers do that. But there's one thing God's preachers
can't do. And not even these heavenly messengers
can do. Can't change the heart of a rebel. Lot's wife. Couldn't change her. For where her treasure was, that's
where her heart was. And she looked back. God's preachers
can do a lot of good. We can tell you the truth. I'll
tell you the truth about God. I will. I have. I'm doing it
now. The truth about God, the truth
about you, and me, and all of us, we're all in a bad way. We've
fallen in Adam. Through his transgression, we
spiritually die. And we need the grace of God,
and God doesn't have to give us grace. That's up to Him. Truthful with you about Christ
Jesus. the glory of His person and the
wonders of His work. But I can't do anything about
your rebellious heart. Only God can take away the heart
of stone and give a heart of flesh. Behold our Savior. He visits
Abraham and Abraham converses very freely
with the Lord. Aren't you glad as a child of
God that you can speak so openly and so freely with the Lord? We're not irreverent, we're reverent
toward Him. Listen, we come to our Father
as His children. Speak freely. And come boldly. Not arrogantly, but boldly. You see, you come to God through
the Lord Jesus, that's the appointed way. And you can come with the
expectation that God will hear you. He will receive you. The psalmist said, the Lord's
ear is always open to our cries. There may not be another soul
interested in what you've got to say, but I know somebody who's
interested in what you've got to say. Your heavenly Father. Our Lord spoke to Abraham through
real lips and listened to Abraham. with real ears. And of course,
this is just a prelude to His incarnation. Because on this
occasion, our Lord didn't need any food. He didn't need it. But when He came into this world,
He needed food. He had to eat. He had to drink. Abraham said, rest here under
the tree in the shade. Well, the Lord Jesus there in
pre-incarnate form, He didn't need to rest. But I tell you
what, when He came to this world to seek and save that which was
lost, He had to rest. Because He was made just like
we are without sin. He had to have flesh. He was
made flesh. He had to have a body to suffer
for our sins and to die. It was by His death that He redeemed
us. By His death, He satisfied God. He had to have a real body. When
our Lord Jesus appeared to Abraham, He couldn't die. But when He came into this world
2,000 years ago, The reason he came was to die,
to give his life a ransom for many. And then here's the second
thing, and I'll give it to you quickly. Sarah is rebuked for
her unbelief. Well, they said to him, where
is Sarah, your wife? Now, the Lord never asks a question
for information. We know that because He already
knew her name. He gave her her name, Sarah. Abraham said, Bill, she's in
the tent. The Lord said, I will certainly
come back about this season of the year, not physically, but
by His omnipotence. in a miracle-working fashion. Sarah, thy wife, shall have a
son. And of course, Sarah's listening
behind the tent door. And they were old, and verse
12 says, Sarah laughed within herself. She didn't laugh out
loud. That would be rude. But she did laugh within herself,
saying, After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord,
being old also? And the Lord, the ever-existent
One, Jehovah, and the Lord said unto Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh? saying, Shall I of assurity bear
a child which am old? And the Lord says, He says to
Sarah, or He says to Abraham, and so He says to us, Is anything
too hard for the Lord? Huh? Is anything too hard for
the Lord? Is there any heart too hard but
what He can't break it? Is there any will too stubborn
but what He can't subdue it? Is there any sinner too lost,
but what, he can't find them? Is there any child of God so
hurt and bruised and worn and crying, but what, he can't help
them? Is there anything too hard for
the Lord? Now you ask religion out here, anything too hard for
the Lord? Oh, there's a lot of things too
hard for Him to do. But you ask the people of God,
is there anything too hard for the Lord to do? There's nothing
too hard for Him. Nothing. He saved you, didn't
He? Saved me. Saved you, didn't He,
Joe? They didn't save you. I could go all the way around
the room. He saved us. Anything too hard
for the Lord? Hey, He spoke the world into
existence. He said, Light be! And all of
a sudden, the lights came on. Anything too hard for the Lord? This is His omnipotence. He's all-powerful. Yet in the Word of God there's
two kinds of laughter. There's the laughter of joy because
of the blessings and the goodness of God. We read in Psalm 126, when the
Lord, when He turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like
them that dreamed. Then our mouths were filled with
laughter, our tongue with singing. Then said they among the heathen,
the Lord hath done great things for them. That's what the heathen
said. The Lord's done great things for those folks and then we say,
the Lord has done great things for us. We're glad and we just
laugh. This is the laugh of uncontrollable
joy. Hey, one thing about the Thompson
family, they laugh a lot. Y'all laugh a lot, don't you,
James? Y'all laugh a lot. I tell you what, all the people
of God, we laugh. We laugh. We're so overjoyed. We're so happy in Christ Jesus. The Lord brings us to laughter.
Not an irreverent laughter, but just a joy that just overflows
from the heart. But there's another kind of laughter,
and it's the laughter of unbelief. It's laughing at the promise
of God, which is a mockery. And that's what Sarah did. And
first of all, she laughed, and then she lied about laughing. But when you get to the book
of Hebrews and you read about Sarah, it just says, by faith,
Sarah. It doesn't record the sinful
unbelief and laughter, mocking the Lord. It doesn't record her
lying. All of that is under the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because here is a one of the
promises of the New Covenant, your sins and your iniquities
will I remember no more. Isn't that wonderful? No more. Well, we're thankful for the
honesty of Scripture. The failures of Abraham are set
before us and the failures of Sarah. And when Abraham is a
good example, the good example is set before us. But that example
which is altogether perfect is our Lord Jesus Christ. And in
the flesh He always pleased God. He always believed Him. He was
a man of perfect faith. And then that man of perfect
faith went to the cross of Calvary. He was the offering for our sin.
God's sacrifice for our iniquities, and by His stripes, we're healed. Enjoy the visits of the Lord
to you. And we're so thankful that when
we gather together, as we gather together tonight, We've had a
very special visitor. I'm thankful that you're here.
But there's one whose presence we must have. Otherwise, there's
no need to meet. And that's our Lord who meets
with us by His Spirit. And we rejoice in Him and for
His goodness and His grace to us. Let's close in prayer. Oh, how good it has been to assemble
together, Father, and to repeat again the message of the glorious
gospel of your free and sovereign grace, to be reminded of our Lord's
visit with Abraham and Sarah. Oh, Lord, we welcome your presence. We're nothing without you. Oh, God of grace, by your Spirit,
please come into our church and bless us with the glory of
your grace. Reveal to us your perfections,
your glorious attributes that we might worship in spirit and
in truth. Refresh our souls. Lord, visit
with us as we go our way. Visit with the moms, the dads,
those here who may not have children, And Lord, you visit with them
because they're your children. And where the children are, the
Father is always close by. And we rejoice in you, Lord.
We give thanks to you for your free grace to us through Christ. We bless you and we say you're
always welcome, Lord, in this assembly. magnify yourself among us. May
we grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Send us home rejoicing in the
God of all grace, the God of all mercy, the God of all comfort,
the God of all grace. In the name of the Lord Jesus,
I pray. Amen.