It's good to be here this evening
and we are thankful that we can meet together and this will be
our last meeting together this year and I know it has been for
many a difficult year And yet, knowing God governs all things,
we wouldn't want to change anything because all that happens in this
universe is of God. And He governs all things and
works all things together for the good of His people. and we
can rejoice in our Lord, and therefore we rejoice in His providence,
knowing that that which He does fulfills His purpose, and He
assures us that all things are working together for the good
of His people, those that He has effectually called unto Himself,
those who are brought to love the Lord Jesus. We're going back
this evening to the book of Genesis and let me just again ask God
to bless the service and then we'll go into the message for
tonight. It is with thanksgiving, Father,
that we gather with the book of God open before us And as
we have opened the Word of God, we ask that You would open to
us an understanding of that which has already been read to us.
We're thankful that You have left on record Your will, Your
purpose, the Gospel of Your grace, and biblical illustrations of
this glorious gospel. We thank you, O Father, that
we can worship through the Lord Jesus and His sacrifice, and
we worship as Abram did. We worship through the blood
of atonement. But whereas He offered the blood
of an innocent animal, Lord, we come to You through the blood
of the Lamb of God. And You have seen to it that
He laid down His life, a sacrifice for Your people. And that blood
of the Lord Jesus washed us from all of our sins, and we stand
forever accepted in the Beloved. Bless all of your dear people. We thank you for the year that
is closing out. You have directed our steps. You have been with us all along
the way. and even the difficulties that
many of your people have had to endure. Lord, you have always
been with your children, and we're thankful that our lives
and all the things that happen to us are in the hands of our
loving Father, who is full of wisdom, and all knowledge, and
you only bring to pass that which is beneficial to us spiritually. For the goodness, Lord, that
you have showered upon us, we thank you. Every day has been
filled with the new mercies of our Lord. And as we look forward
to beginning a new year in just a couple of days, Lord, we look
to you for guidance, for direction, and though we have no idea of
what the new year has in store for us, we know Him who rules
all things. And Lord, knowing God, knowing
Christ, is the most blessed thing that could ever happen to us. And to know that all things are
in the hands of the Savior who loved us and gave Himself for
us, Lord, it soothes the heart It
calms the anxious mind. And as we begin a new year, we
do so, Lord, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of
our faith. Thank you so much for loving
us. and for being gracious to us. And we ask that you would bless
as we gather together tonight and we look at this portion of
Scripture. Give glory to thy Son, and Lord
bless us pilgrims as we continue our journey toward the land of
promise. These things we ask in the name
of our Savior, And for His sake, Amen. Well, we go back to the
book of Genesis tonight, Genesis chapter 13. Here's my subject I want to talk
to you about, back to Bethel. Back to Bethel. Now, we've been
introduced to a real ruthless man a couple of chapters back
in our studies, a man by the name of Nimrod. He was a mighty
man, a mighty rebel against God. And he founded Babylon, the city
that he gave the name to. And of course he also established
the Tower of Babel, which means confusion. He was very mired
up in false religion and he was very much against God. He had
no desire to worship God the right way. Rather, he approached
this matter of salvation and religion upon the basis of his
own works, his own self-righteousness. He was in opposition to all that
the truth that God had set before him undoubtedly and his forefathers
And as a result of him building this tower, seeking to build
it up to heaven, of course, and seeking acceptance by God upon
the basis of his own righteousness, God scattered the people. Now,
as he scattered the people, and this was the act of God, remember
this, as they scattered, and of course we've studied that
already, but as they scattered, they also took with them error. They took with them a false gospel.
And as they went out, as they were distributed, as it were,
in the purpose and providence of God, they took all of the
doctrine of Nimrod with them. And so Ere was thoroughly established
in the world. I remember years ago reading
something Spurgeon said about error. He said, error will go
all the way around the world while the gospel is putting its
boots on. And I understand what he meant
by that because men are ready to receive error. We're just,
we're open to it. It isn't that we lean toward
error, we just embrace it. We embrace salvation by man's
goodness, salvation by man doing things for God. Whereas the salvation
that is of grace, the salvation is that's by the doing and the
dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is a gospel that is very,
it's absolutely contrary to the natural mind. And therefore the
gospel has to be revealed. But as these people go forth,
they take error with them. But this doesn't in any way frustrate
the purpose of God. because God had already ordained
there would be one man that He's going to use in a mighty way,
and this one man is Abram. Now, he's also mired up in false
religion, but God will give to this man the very truth of the
gospel, and God will deposit the truth in him, and then through
that man, the gospel will continue. Remember this, all the errors
of men will not frustrate the purpose of God. All of the heresy
of Nimrod and those that he instructed, oh yes, it spread like wildfire
and wherever men went, wherever God scattered them, they took
error with them, but it didn't in any way frustrate or hinder
the purpose of God. because God has His truth and
He would preserve it. He will preserve it in a man
that He chose. This is a man whom God sovereignly
set aside to be the recipient of the gospel. And through that
man, God will maintain the truth. And of course, the rest of the
Old Testament, essentially, is about Abraham and his seed. That is, those who are his spiritual
children. Yes, the rest of the Old Testament
is about Israel, his natural seed. But more than that, The
remainder of the Old Testament from here not even halfway into
the book of Genesis all the way to the end of Malachi, we have
Abraham and the effect that all of his seed they would have upon
God's earth as the gospel is spread. Of Abram, we know he worshiped
God. Look back with me in chapter
12 in verse 8. Chapter 12 in verse 8. And he
removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel. What does
Bethel mean? Bethel means the house of God. The house of God. And he pitched
his tent, having Bethel on the west and Hai, later it's Ai,
but now it's Hai on the east. And there he built an altar unto
the Lord and he called upon the name of the Lord. Now we know
that Bethel means the house of God and Hai means a heap of ruin. And here is Abram, and he camps
in between them. So on the one side, here's the
house of God. On the other side, there's a
heap of ruins. And I thought about this. This
is the way it is with all of the people of God. We are the
house of God. The Lord said, you are the temple
of God. And the Lord Jesus indwells us. And yet, not only are we indwelt
by the Spirit of grace and by the truth of God, but we're also
naturally still a heap of ruins. And here we are. Like Abram. There's the new man,
the spiritual man. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And on the other side, here's
Haiyah. A heap of ruins. Don't you at
night when you finish the day and you kind of reflect upon
all the things that have happened to you, don't you reach this
conclusion in your mind and from reading the Word of God, I'm
just a heap of ruins. I'm a heap of ruins. You start
examining your motives. I'm not talking about the things
that you do. See, people judge sinfulness
by the things that they do. But actually, this matter of
sin, it's what we are. And it's our motive. It's the reason we do things.
And you start examining your motive and you say, I'm such
a sinful person. And then your mind, the thoughts
that go through your mind, and how infrequently you think about
the things of God during the day. And if you're not careful,
and if you don't think about it, if God doesn't bring these
spiritual truths to your mind, you'll go for hours and not have
a thought about God. We are indeed a heap of ruins,
and yet we're Bethel. We're the house of God. We're
the temple of God. The Lord indwells us, and like
Abram, there we are, and we know that the new man, Christ, in
us, that's glorious. But we also know about the struggles
of the flesh, and we're a heap of ruins. And here's the thing
about nature, about the flesh. It won't ever get any better
than a heap of ruins. People say, oh, I believe in
progressive sanctification. My old nature's getting better. No, it isn't. It isn't. It's as rotten now as it was
when you were converted. The Lord didn't take your old
nature away. He didn't improve that. He didn't use that in any way.
He doesn't use anything that you have. He puts within you
a new heart. That's what He says, a new heart
I will give you. That's a heart of faith. It's
a heart of belief. To rest in the Savior. To see
that Christ Jesus is all you need. And you're saved by his
blood and by his righteousness. Well, God has, he's drawn Abram
out of Ur of the Chaldees, and now he goes into the land of
Canaan. But then God sends to Abram some
tribulation. He sends him a severe trial. and it is a famine. Will he believe God will provide
for him? Will he stay there in the land
of Canaan? Will he remain there where God
has led him? Will he stay at Bethel, the house
of God, the place of worship? After all, he's built an altar
there. He worshipped God there, he called upon the name of the
Lord there, which means he reverenced the Lord. Will he stay there
in the midst of a famine, believing God will provide for him? No. No. So, where does he go? We studied this last week. He
goes into Egypt. And Egypt is always a picture
of the world in opposition to God. But he goes into Egypt thinking
that this is the best way for me to take care of my family,
to take care of my wife, and those who are with me, I'll go
into Egypt. He takes matters into his own
hands. And all of us know a little something
about that, to walk by sight and not by faith. And so Abram goes into Egypt
and, well, one of the first things that he does on the way is to
tell his wife, now, you're a good looking gal. I'm married to the
most beautiful woman in the world, he says. Now listen, when we
get into Egypt, you tell Pharaoh and you tell all those men, you're
my sister. Because if you tell them you're
my wife, you're so beautiful. Well, they'll kill me and then
take you to wife. So his first mistake was going
into Egypt to begin with. His second mistake was lying,
having his wife lie to spare his own life. He's so, this is
the way it is with us. We're selfish. We're looking
out for ourselves. But there's even another consequence
of him going into Egypt. Look at chapter, go over to chapter
16, verses one through three. chapter 16, verses one through
three. Certainly going into Egypt was
a bad lapse of good judgment. It was not a wise move. It was a foolish move. He lied about his wife, but that
error in judgment resulted in Another mess that Abram will
get into as a result of going into Egypt. Look chapter 16 verse
1. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare
him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian,
whose name was Hagar. Now Sarai said unto Abram, Behold
now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I don't have
a child. I pray thee, go in unto my maid. Go in to the Egyptian. It may
be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to
the voice of Sarai. And Sarai, Abram's wife, took
Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt 10 years
in the land of Canaan and gave her to her husband Abram to be
his wife. And she did have a child by Abram. And that boy's name was Ishmael. And Ishmael grew up and then,
of course, the Lord, as we shall see in our further studies in
the book of Genesis, God's going to give Abram the proper seed,
Isaac, Isaac. And as Isaac grows up, Ishmael
will mock him. And in Abram's, in his own family,
he's gonna have such turmoil and it's going to be such a mess.
And it's another result of him, first of all, going into Egypt
and then lying. And then his wife, when they
leave Egypt, taking with her an Egyptian maid. And of course, Ishmael He will cause much strife and
jealousy and trouble in the family. Learn this. all the sins of God's people
are forgiven. And that's wonderful, isn't it?
All the sins of God's people are forgiven through the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in 1 John, the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. But our sins
often bring with them unexpected troubles. And There are times
when we do reap what we sow and we bring great trouble and heartache
into our families because we've been disobedient to the revealed
will of God. Well, we go back and we look
at chapter 13 tonight. And look at chapter 13, but look
at the last verse of chapter 12. And Pharaoh commanded his men
concerning Abram, and they sent him away and his wife and all
that he had. They sent him away, leave, leave
our country. And you would think that Abram
would have had a mindset, I have messed up. We need to get out
of here, but no, he has to be forced out. And who forces him
out? But Pharaoh and his men. God moved into the mind, moved
the mind and heart of Pharaoh to say to Abram, get out of my
country. But God prevented Pharaoh from
doing any danger or preventing, prevented him from harming Abram
or his wife or Lot. And so we get to chapter 13,
and Abram went up out of Egypt. Shouldn't have been there in
the first place. But now the Lord used Pharaoh to push him
out. So he leaves Egypt, he and his
wife and all that he had, a lot with him, and goes into the south. That is, he goes into the south
part of Israel, land of Canaan. The second verse says, and Abram
was very rich. The word very means heavy. He's
heavy with riches, he's got lots of cattle, he's got silver, he's
got gold. God has blessed him with great
materialism. He is wealthy, but he has another
kind of wealth that is even greater. He's a spiritually rich man.
He has the riches of God's grace. He has the riches of a glorious
inheritance. All that awaits him in glory
is marvelous, beyond the ability to ever describe it. And verse
three says, he went on his journeys from the South, and where does
he go? Back to Bethel. He goes back
to Bethel. And this, I'll give you three
points here. Abram goes back to Bethel. He goes back to where
he met God, where he worshiped God. To me, it's like he's going
back to the place of sacrifice. He's going back to the cross.
He's going back to substitution. He's going back to satisfaction.
He's going back to where he had worshiped the Lord, he had built
an altar there, he called upon the name of the Lord, and to
call upon the name of the Lord is to worship and reverence God. And he goes back, as he begins
his journey from Egypt, in his mind he said, I'm going back
to Bethel. I'm going back to the house of
God. And I wonder if it didn't go through his mind what went
through the mind of David. I was glad when they said unto
me, let's go to the house of the Lord. He said, honey, come
on. We're going back to Bethel. We're
going back to the house of the Lord. We're going back to worship. We're going back to remember
the sacrifice. We're going to go back and offer
to God an animal. that isn't guilty of any transgression
against God, but I'm going to raise the knife. I'm going to
kill it. I'm going to shed its blood. I'm going to build a fire
on this altar that I've already built. I'm going to put this
carcass up there, and I'm going to say, Lord, this is for you.
This is to honor your justice. I'm a sinful man. I have proved
once again to you and to myself I'm just a sinner saved by grace. I need the blood. I need the
grace of God. And there he worshiped God. The scripture says there he called
upon the name of the Lord. Back to Bethel. Back to Bethel. Back to the gospel. Back to Christ
crucified. back to the blood of atonement,
back to honoring God, back to seeking God's glory. And as it were, he just begins
again. He begins again. And I say to
you, if any of you or somebody who's watching this, if you've
left the place of worship, you got sidetracked, and you
find yourself in Egypt, once again entangled with the world,
come on back to Bethel. That's what you need to do. Come
on back to Bethel. Come on back to the worship of
God. Come back to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what
you need to do. Not make a bunch of promises.
Oh Lord, I'll do better. Just go back to the place of
forgiveness. Because I'm going to tell you
something, you ain't going to do better. You're still a heap of ruins.
And the fact that you're a heap of ruins, that's going to plague
you all your life. Go back to Bethel. If we've left the place of worship,
and we've gotten sidetracked, and we've gone into the world,
into Egypt, by the grace of God. Come back to Bethel. And he offers
this sacrifice. It's for God. God's got to be satisfied. His
law's got to be honored. As a matter of divine justice,
it's got to be satisfied. Now we know in the death of this
animal, there wasn't any satisfaction to the law of God, but it did
picture that one who would satisfy the law of God, who would satisfy
justice. And as Abram brought the animal
to sacrifice, he was saying to God, I'm guilty. My wife's guilty. Lot is guilty. Lord, we're just
a bunch of sinners. And in accordance with your word,
I bring you this animal as I look forward to the day when the seed
of the woman comes and he offers himself to sacrifice for our
sins. We deserve to die, but the Lord Jesus died for us. Secondly, not only does Abraham
or Abram go back to Bethel, the second thing is Abram and Lot
separate. It's a sad thing from verses
five through 13. And I won't have a lot to say
about this, but both Abram and Lot were wealthy men and their
riches led to their separation. Now, money or wealth, will not
corrupt you, but it may very well bring out
the corruption that lies hidden from view. Lot, he accumulates a lot also. He accumulates riches, as does
Abram. Riches can have a devastating
effect upon relationships. But Abram, he's a wise and a
gracious man. He was rich, but his riches did
not blind him to that which is right, to that which is fair. So he says to Lot, we can't stay
together. Your men, they're arguing with
my men. Listen, we're going to have to
separate. You choose where you want to
go. Go the right hand, go the left hand. Doesn't matter to
me. But we just can't stay together. I love you. You're my nephew. This is just not working. It's
not working. And so, Lot, look at verse 10,
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 is like paradise.
like the land of Egypt as thou comest unto Zoar. And Lot says, that is beautiful,
that's beautiful land over there. Abraham says, if that's what
you want, that's fine. You go that way and I'll go another
way. And that's what Lot did. He did
exactly what Abraham had done back in the previous chapter.
He walked by sight and not by faith. He walked according to
what he perceived would be the very best place to live and where
he could make lots of money and be successful. After all that
the world preaches is be successful. And in the eyes of the world,
a man who is successful is a man who's got a lot of money, got
a lot of material possessions. And to think of the things of
God, a lot doesn't do that at this point. But we know according
to 2 Peter 2, he was a righteous man. And it's worth mentioning
and studying about sometime in depth even, that when we get
to the New Testament, all of this foolishness that Lot chose
to do, nothing is mentioned about it in the New Testament. And
the reason is because the blood of Christ washed all his sins
away. There's no remembrance of it
in the mind of God. The justice of God has been satisfied
for all the sins of Lot in the death of Lot's substitute, Christ
Jesus. But Lot, he makes a big mistake. He leaves Abram. This is the
man who God has, I've already said, deposited His truth with
Abram. This is a man who knows God.
This is a man God sovereignly set aside to be the one who would
set forth the truth and the truth would be spread and brought through
him. But Lot leaves him. It's like
he leaves the preacher of the gospel. because he sees something
better, something that is more appealing to the flesh. You know, Abraham, he was willing to live
in an area not so pleasant as the plains of Jordan. Didn't matter to him. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you
and me would have this attitude, it doesn't matter what I have
or what I don't have. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you
just didn't care about those things? I know we have responsibilities
and we shouldn't neglect our responsibilities, but Abram,
he just said, choose what you want. I don't care. And it's
like he's learning, like Paul says in the book of Philippians,
I've learned to be content. If I got money in my pocket,
I'm content. If I don't have any money in
my pocket, I'm content. Wouldn't it be wonderful to live
like that? But Lot, he lifted up his eyes
and he saw things that appealed to the flesh. And what did Lot gain by separating
from Abram? Nothing. He gained nothing. Look at the downward steps of
Lot. The scripture says here in verse
10, he lifted up his eyes and he beheld all the beautiful well-watered
plain of Jordan. Secondly, he chose to then dwell
there. Nothing is said about him seeking
God's will. Nothing is said about Lot committing
this to prayer. Nothing is said about Lot requesting
of his uncle, Uncle Abram, let's pray about this. I don't want
to make a wrong decision. No. In fact, though we read of
Abram building an altar and worshipping God, at this point, we don't
read a lot worshipping God too. He's all caught up in materialism. And I'll tell you, it'll bring
out the ruination of a man, bring out the corruption of a man. And Lot, he really messes up. He separated himself from Abram,
the friend of God. He pitched his tent toward Sodom. And then he dwelt in Sodom. And later on, we'll see in chapter
19, verse 1, he becomes a judge in Sodom. He's down there with
the Sodomites. A perverse people. Men with men
and women with women, and God said He'd wipe them off the face
of the earth. And who's down there amongst
all those people? Is that a child of God down there?
Yes, it is. And the Scripture says, His soul
was vexed by all that was around Him, but He didn't leave. He didn't leave. Thank God that wasn't charged
to his account. And I'll tell you one other thing,
and then I'll kind of close out on this. Here's another sad thing
that happened here. Look back at verse 7. The latter
part of verse 7 says, And the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt
then in the land. The heathen saw this division." It's a sad thing when the people
of God enter into a strife. It gives occasion to the enemies
of the gospel to mock the things of God for the sake of unity. Let's not insist upon our rights. Let's get along. I'm not saying
have peace in the world. I'm not talking about that. But
let there be peace in the place of worship. And if you can't get along, just
say, hey, you take the right, I'll take the left or you take
the left, I'll take the right, doesn't matter. But we're not
going to have a fuss. Strife and contentions among
those who believe the gospel. Give the enemies of the gospel
reason to blaspheme. And here's the third and last
thing, Abram and here's the promise of God. Look at verse 14. And the Lord said unto Abram,
after that Lot was separated from him, lift up now thine eyes. Let me just stop right there.
Look back at verse number 10. And Lot lifted up his eyes. And
he looked and he surveyed the situation and he said, I'm going
this direction. Now, God says to Abraham, lift
up now thine eyes. And you look from the place where
thou art. Look north and south and east
and west. Look far as you can see. I'm
going to give it all to you. I'm going to give it all to you.
He didn't want any of it. He told Lyds, whatever you want,
take it. And God says, Abram, I'm going
to give it all to you. Oh, I tell you, God has given
us all things in Christ Jesus. All spiritual blessings are ours
in him. He says, verse 15, 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, all through Christ Jesus. And I know there's
a sense in which this is literally fulfilled through the Jews, the
Israelites, but all his spiritual seed. First of all, Christ Jesus. and from Christ Jesus, an innumerable
seed. And if you can number the dust
of the earth, then you can number the seed of Abraham. That's what
he says. No wonder John says in the book
of Revelation, I saw people out of every nation, kindred, tribe,
and tongue, his morn could be numbered. And yet every one of
them, their name is written down in the Lamb's Book of Life. And God said to Abraham, verse
17, Arise, walk through the land and the length of it and the
breadth of it, for I'll give it to you. And Abraham, he removed his tent. He folded up his tent. He came
and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron. And he builds
another altar. He's going to worship the Lord.
I thought about studying this. Let me spend my days, God willing,
on earth at Bethel. And when I leave this world,
I'll go to the Bethel which is above. That's what David said. He said, surely goodness and
mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell,
where? In the house of the Lord. How
long? Forever. Forever. Oh, how God blessed Abram. And
how God blessed what? He didn't reward him according
to his iniquities, though Lot made some foolish mistakes, as
we shall see as we dig deeper into their history in the coming
weeks. God keep us at the house of worship,
the house of God, the house of sacrifice, the place of sacrifice,
the blood of the Lord Jesus. Father, bless Your Word. This
evening, it's been good to be here in this house of the Lord,
where you have so often revealed yourself to us. And we thank
you for him who is truly Bethel, for our Lord Jesus is the house
of God. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself. We worship him whom to know is
life everlasting. Again, thank you for this year,
and we ask your blessings upon us and your guidance as we shall
embark, God willing, upon a new year. Let come what may, whether
you would have us to go to the left or to the right, it doesn't
matter, as long as you're with us, as long as you keep us worshiping. and keep us ever focused upon
Christ Jesus. We ask these things in His name
and for His sake.