He took it upon himself to ask
the Lord to do something. And we're told over and over
by our Lord to pray. We're told to give thanks, to
offer supplication, to pray and to have intercession. I'll read
you a verse of scripture, you don't have to look at it, but
it's said here in 1 Timothy 2. Verse 1, I exhort therefore that
first of all supplications, asking for things, prayers, intercession
and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for
all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable
life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Savior." So here Abraham, if you look
at this, what he's doing, he's praying. He's interceding. That's what he's doing. He's
interceding. And if I can say it this way, he poured his heart
out to the Lord. He poured his heart out to the
Lord. And he is making intercession for one of the godless places
on the face of the earth at this particular time. He's making
intercession for a city of Sodom and Gomorrah. And the privilege
of interceding for others. And the word intercede, men,
is to put yourself in their position. And really, really ask God to
do something for that individual or person or place. And the privilege
of interceding for others is one of the most blessed, blessed
features of a believer's fellowship with God. That we can actually
intercede for somebody else. And the Lord's announcement concerning
Sodom and the impending judgment is what led Abraham to intercede. God said, I'm going to go down.
Now God is talking language for us to understand. God didn't
go down and go down there and see if it was like he said they
thought it was going to be. And he's going to learn something
when he goes down there. He went there with the intention of destroying
the place. But Abraham, when he was fixing to go down
to Sodom, the two men that was with our Lord Jesus Christ, they
took off and went down to Sodom. And our Lord Jesus is still there.
And look what happens. Look what intercession is. A
privileged position. A position, excuse me, a privileged
position. And the men turned their first
22, 18, chapter 18. And the men turned their faces
from then and went towards Solomon. And look what it says. And Abraham
stood yet before the Lord. Now, here's the thing about it.
You've got to have a relationship with God before you can intercede
for anybody. You've got to have a relationship
with God. And that comes before anything
else. You can't pray, you can't do anything, you can't supplicate
until you have a relationship with God. And Abraham had a relationship
with God. And it's in God's presence, the
scripture says there, that he stood yet before the Lord. Now
he was still there in front of his tent, those two men headed
off towards Sodom. And he's standing there, and
he's standing before the Lord Jesus Christ. He's standing before
the Lord. And he is in God's presence. Two men went on, and
then look what it says in verse 23. And Abraham drew near. He
drew near. He drew near to the Lord. stood before him, then he got
up close to him. And he stood near to him. Got
up close so he could have an intimate relationship with him,
an intimate conversation with him, and expose his heart to
him. And that's why the scripture
said, let us draw near with a full assurance of faith, our hearts
being sprinkled from an evil conscience. And Abraham comes
here and pours his heart out to God. He knows God's will. He knows God's will. He had been
told what the Lord was about to do. He's going to go down
to Sodom. And this, knowing the Lord's
will and knowing what God was going to do, this led him to
pray. And he did this because of the
relationship and his fellowship with the Lord. You can't pray
if you don't have a relationship with Christ. You can't intercede
unless you have a relationship with Christ. You can't intercede
and actually get before God and say, Lord, do this for this person. Lord, this person is in this
condition. This person is in this situation. And Lord, if you don't do something
for them, if you don't stop, if you don't intercede, if you
don't come and get between them and the trouble, it's going to
be awful. And that's what Abraham's doing.
But you've got to have fellowship with the Lord. That's why, you
know, people think that, you know, prayer doesn't change God.
It changes us. And you'll see that's what happens
to Abraham here. But he had this heart. He had this compassion. He had this willingness to see
that something happens and God would do something that the judge
of all the earth would do right in a given situation. And he's
earnest in his spirit. Look what he says in verse 23.
He stood before the Lord, and Abraham drew near. And here's
what he says. His compassion is manifest. He
prays for the whole city of Sodom, not just his nephew. In fact,
he never mentioned his nephew Lot in this prayer. And he said,
Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? If there's any righteous people
down there, if you go down there and destroy that, you're going
to destroy the righteous with the wicked? Would you do that
if you're going to go down and you're going to bring judgment
and you're going to destroy this place? What about the righteous
people down there? Are they going to have to bear
your judgment too? When you burn that place up,
are you going to burn them up with it? And oh beloved, His
prayer is definite. He asked for what He wanted.
And oh, he goes on to say, per adventure there be 50 righteous
within the city. So he's praying for the whole
city. Will thou also destroy and not
spare the place for the 50 righteous therein? Oh, this is not the
way you do things, Lord. You're not that way. To slay
the righteous with the wicked, that the righteous should be
as the wicked, that be far from thee, shall not the judge of
all the earth be right? You see, his prayer is definite.
He's got one thing in mind. God spare this place. God spare
Sodom on account of the righteous that are there. He's bold in
his prayer. There's no hesitation in what
he says. No fear in his attitude. He stands
before the Lord, and he's honest, and he's frank, and he's fearless. And he has no attitude, and he
is courageous for what he knows, whom he believes. Now I want
to show you something over here in Luke chapter 18. Here's the
situation. We're talking about interceding.
In Luke 18, here's Abraham. He's before the Lord. And he's
bold before the Lord. He knows what he wants. He knows
what he's asking for. And his prayer is definite. He says, Lord, spare Sodom if
there's righteous people down there. It's not right. You know,
you're a judge. You're the judge of all earth
and you'll do right. It's just not right for you to
store the righteous with the wicked. And look what he goes
on to say here. It's our Lord speaking now. And he spake a parable unto them
to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint, saying,
There was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded
man. And there was a widow in that
city. And she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. You judge my adversary and avenge
me of him. You give him justice and avenge
me of him. And he would not. And he would
not for a while. But afterward he said within
himself, though I fear not God nor regard man, now listen to
this, yet because this widow troubleth me, troubleth me, she
just would take no for an answer. I will avenge her, lest by her
continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said this, Hear
what the unjust judge saith, and shall not God avenge his
own elect, which cry unto him day and night, though he bear
long with him? I tell you that he will avenge
them speedily, nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh. Now
listen to it. Will he find faith on the earth? When He comes you
will find faith and that's what Abraham is doing over here. That's
what he's doing. He's just going to keep coming
to the Lord and coming to the Lord and coming to the Lord.
God is the judge of all the earth. And I tell you, He doesn't regard
man. He's not afraid of anybody. And then look what an urgent
plea that He makes. And he started out talking about
50. And then he goes down in verse 26. Oh, verse 50, righteous. Yes, I'll spare the place. I'll
spare this place. Back over in Genesis 18. You
see, this was a problem to Abraham's mind. And he tells God about
it. His problem is, if there's any
righteous people down there and you go down there and destroy
this place. I know that's what you said you were going to do.
If you go down there and destroy this place, what are you going
to do with the righteous people down there? What are you going
to do for them? Are you going to destroy them
with them? And that was a problem in Abraham's mind. And I tell
you, whenever you have a problem, when you have a problem, sometimes
we get in some problems. Bring it to the Lord. He read
back and saw it. And who read back there tonight?
Gary Spracker read back there tonight. Psalm 62 and eight. Oh, poor, all you saints pour
out your heart unto the Lord. Trust in the Lord and pour out
your heart to Him. And that's what Abraham's doing
here. If you have a problem, bring it to the Lord. And He'll
resolve it. He will resolve that problem
in your mind. Or else He'll give you sufficient
grace to wait for the solution to it. He will. I remember when
I had a dilemma in my mind. And let me give you that dilemma.
Two dilemmas have really faced me since God began teaching me
the gospel. The first one was this. Is holiness
something man produces or God produces? Is salvation partly
grace or partly words? And God was starting to teach
me the gospel. And you know how He answered that prayer? He gave
me one verse of scripture and it answered. It settled me down
on the gospel. One verse of scripture. And it
was probably three, four, five months after that was the problem
in my mind. Because I know that if what I
was learning was so, that means that everything I'd been doing
was wrong. And I had to know. And I didn't
go to no man and ask him. I didn't go to no preacher and
ask him. I didn't find somebody. I didn't read a book to find
an answer. God came to me and in his sovereign mercy, he gave
me one verse of scripture. 2 Timothy 1.9. God, that's where
you started. God, who has saved us. That's the first thing I learned.
God, who has saved us. Not according to our words. Words
was gone, right there and then. But according to His own purpose.
Oh, you mean God does things on purpose? And according to
His own purpose. And grace. Which was given us. And He called
us with the holy calling. Not according to our works. That's
with my holiness. It went out the window. And then according
to His own purpose. And grace which was given us.
And the whole Bible opened up to me right then. I had a problem. Let me tell you another problem
I had one time. I read over here and I believe it's going to be
in Genesis 22. I think that's where it's going to be. But when
Abraham went down into Egypt, he told again, he told, he said,
Sarah, you tell them that you're going to, you're my sister. Cause
if you don't, you're so beautiful. They're going to kill me and
take you. Well, he got down there and the king of Imalek took her
into his house. God troubled him, troubled him
in trouble, said, I'll kill you if you lay hands on that woman.
He said, that's Abraham's wife. He said, I'll kill you. And he said, God said this, he
said, I kept you back from sinning against me. Now here's my problem.
When he said, I kept you back from sinning against me. I remember
when Adam sinned, then Adam fell. Why didn't God keep him back
from sinning? That's the problem I had. You
ever had a problem like that? That's a real problem to deal
with. I'm going to tell you how that solution, how that was answered. I sat in an old wooden swing,
swinging one day. And I meditated on that thing
and meditated on that thing and kept it to myself. And it come
to me. And another scripture again. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. So He let, He willed for one
man to fall. And how many times has He kept
us back from sinning against Him? And He let that man fall. in order to manifest His grace,
worlds without end, in saving some of Adam's fallen race. That's
the way He gets more glory to Himself than damning a whole
bunch. And He brings glory to His own grace. That's two dilemmas that I've
had. And probably Abraham had a dilemma in his mind. He had
a problem in his mind. And he understood that the righteous
The salt of the earth he understood that that the righteous are the
salt of the earth and that keeps them from corrupting the whole
world from corrupting And how often has God spared a believer's
family because he's the salt of the earth and he interceded
for his family? How many children have been withheld
from great sin because of a mother's tears and intercession on behalf
of her child? And that's what Abraham's doing
here. And he knew God could not be unjust And this plea rests
in the sure confidence of God. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? God's got to do right. How could
He destroy the righteous and the wicked together? How could
He couldn't do that? And so what He does, He makes
His appeal to God's righteousness rather than even His mercy. And
this touches the very foundations of things when you start pleading
the righteousness of God. Oh, it's one thing with us, we
trust His mercy, we trust His grace. But if He's not righteous,
then there's no hope for any of us. Because if He judged His
Son in our room instead, and Christ was punished for our room
instead, then He could not be righteous and come back and punish
us a second time. It couldn't be right. When He's
going to destroy this world, would it be right for Him to
destroy us with it? No, no. And I tell you what,
when we are confronted, confronted with great mysteries of life,
you know what we do? We take it to the Lord in prayer.
That's the only thing we can do. Look at Psalm 36 with me.
Look at Psalm 36. Psalm 36. And here's Abraham, you know,
he's interceding. Look what it says here in verse
4. Psalm 37 verse 4. Delight thyself also in the Lord. Oh, don't you delight in Him.
Don't you delight in His power and His sovereignty and His sovereign
grace and His free grace and His blessed mercy. But don't
you delight in all that He is. And He shall give thee the desires
of thy heart. Listen to this. Commit thy way
unto the Lord. Trust also in Him. And what does
it say here? He shall bring it to pass. You trust in Him. He'll bring
it to pass. And oh, look in verse six, seven, excuse me. Rest in
the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because
of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who bringeth
wicked devices to pass. He said, trust him and he gonna
bring it to pass. And that's what he does here.
So Abraham starts praying and he says, would you destroy the
righteous with the wicked? And the Lord said, and you know
verse 26, and the Lord said, the Lord answered every time
he said something, Abraham said something to the Lord, the Lord
answered him. Every single time, the Lord answered him. And God encourages him, look
in verse 26, and the Lord said, if I find 50 righteous within
the city, I'll spare them all the place just for their sakes.
I say that's the reason why the Lord's sparing this world right
now. That's the only reason the world's sparing this place because
His people's here. And just the last time He's doing
it, He saves His last birth. This thing's over. It's over
just like that. But every time Abraham mentioned
something to Him, the Lord answered him. The Lord answered him. And
then He said, and He answered His servant. Look what He goes
on to say here now. If He said, if I find, I'll spare.
And he says he gives Abraham a definite promise for their
sakes. For their sakes. Whose sakes?
The righteous sake. God spares the wicked for the
righteous sake. God lets wicked men go on and
on and on for the righteous sake. The reason our children ain't
in hell is because we're righteous and God will spare the wicked
for the righteous. And ain't you grateful he does
that? Ain't you grateful that he don't take your children,
and my children, and your family, your brothers and sisters, and
just take them into eternity? He can do that just that quick.
Scott used to say God can choke you to death with your own spit.
And He can. And that's what Abraham knows
here. He said, Oh Lord, if there's righteous down there, spare the
whole bunch. And God said, I will. If I can
find 50 righteous people, I'll spare them. And that's the reason
God spares this world today. Because of His elect that's in
this world. And it don't take many. You know
how many thousands, hundreds of thousands of people's inside
them? God said, if I can just find 50. I'll spare the whole
outfit. That's what God's doing right
now, Joe. He's just sparing the whole world just because of the
righteous. And oh, look what he goes on
to say. And then he got, look at his deep humility in verse
27. And Abraham answered, said, behold now, I have taken upon
me to speak unto the Lord. And I'm just dust and ashes.
I've took it upon me to go in the presence of the Lord and
speak to Him, and I'm just dust, and I'm just ashes. He's everything, and I'm nothing.
He's great, and I'm nobody. And yet, even though He was a
friend of God and had fellowship with God, He knew His true position,
He knew His true self, He knew His utter dependence upon the
Lord. And I'll tell you, all the Lord's
people know this. They know God's holiness and
our own sinfulness, His greatness and our nothingness. That's one thing we know, that
when we come to the Lord, we come to Him because He's got
the ability. We don't. We come to Him because He's right
and He'll always do what's right. And He'll answer us. And when He tells you, when He
gives you an answer, you'll know it. And oh, look what He does.
But He just persists now. Oh, He knew. Look at His deep
humility. I'm just, I'm taking upon me to speak to the Lord
and I'm just dust and ashes. I'm going to try to speak to
the Lord and I'm nothing and nobody? Oh, listen, he just keeps on
keeping on. And six times Abraham intercedes
for this wicked city. His heart's drawn out in compassion
and pity. He pleads again and again and
again. And he goes on to say in verse
28, If Whatever lacks five of the fifty righteous, wilt thou
destroy the city for the lack of five? And he said, If I find
there forty-five, I'll not destroy it. And he spake yet again, maybe
there'll be 40 down there. He said, I'll not destroy it
for 40. He answered him every single time he spoke to him. And he said it again. He said,
oh, let not the Lord be angry. Don't be angry with me. Don't
get upset with me. I've just got to say one more
thing to you. Don't be angry with me, Lord.
I've just got to do... Maybe there'll just be 30 there.
Just 30. He just kept going down. If there's
30 there, He said, I'll not do it if I find 30. And he said,
behold now, I've taken up on me in verse
31 to speak to the Lord. What if there's just 20 found
there, Lord? What if there's just 20? He said,
I'll not destroy it for 20's sake. There's 20 righteous men down
there I'll not destroy. That's what our Lord meant when
He said, when He comes will He find faith on the earth? Yes,
He will. He will. If He came tonight,
if He came tonight, He'd find faith in an awful lot of people
right here tonight. And then He said in verse 32,
six times He did this, oh Lord, Let not the Lord be angry, and
I'll speak yet but this one time. Maybe there'll just be ten found
there. Ten. He went from fifty to ten. He wanted this place spared.
He wanted God to have mercy on this place. He didn't want righteous
people to be treated wrongly. And he said, I will not destroy
it for 10's sake. For 10 people's sake. And listen
to what happens now. And the Lord went his way. And
the Lord went his way. And as soon as he had left, listen
to this now. Communing with Abraham. That
was called communing. He said, Abraham and I were communing. We're communing. And Abraham
went back to his tent. Went back to his tent. And I'll
tell you what. Abraham said, I'll speak but
just this once. But look at Hebrews 7.25. Look
at Hebrews 7.25. There's no end to our Lord's
intercession. Abraham said, I'll just say this
one more time. I'll just say it one more time.
I'll just ask one more time. I'll intercede this last time. Oh, my. Would you like to have a heart
like that when you thought about your children, thought about
your community that way and thought about your neighbors this way
and when you had like, you know, that you just kept bombarding
God, just kept bombarding him, just keep telling him, Lord,
will you spare, will you spare, will you spare? Is there somebody in here that
don't know Christ? Will you spare them? Will you
spare them? And look what it says in Hebrews
7.25. is able to save to the uttermost,
and here's the key, that come unto God by Him. Now listen to
this, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for us. Abraham
said, I said, my last time. Our Lord never stops. There's
no end to His intercession. There's no end to Him pleading
for us. There's no end to Him coming
in the presence of God for us. Like he read tonight, I am wisdom. I'm understanding. And I've always been with the
Lord. But look what a gracious, gracious answer. The Lord went
His way. The Lord went His way. And Abraham
interceded six times. Now look down in chapter 19 and
verse 27. Oh, look at the gracious answer
that the Lord gave Abraham. Now there in verse 27, and Abraham
got up early in the morning. Genesis 19, 27. Abraham got up
early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord.
He went back where he was having this prayer with the Lord and
interceding with the Lord. And look what he said. And he
looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the
plain and behold and lo, the smoke of the country went up
as the smoke of the furnace. and it came to pass when God
destroyed the cities of the plain now listen to it that God remembered
Abraham God remembered Abraham and sent
Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities
in which Lot dwelt one righteous man down there and he destroyed the wicked but
he saved the righteous out of it You know why? I remember Abraham. I remembered Abraham. I remember
his prayers. I remember his intercession.
I remember his heart. I remember his communion. I remember
his fellowship. I remember his humility before
me. And he wanted, if I could have
found ten, but I found one. I found one. And I took him out
before I destroyed them. And that's the way God's going
to do us. He's going to take us out of here. And when he does, everybody's
worried about, you know, whether them Koreans are going to bomb
us or not. That's the least of my worries. People, you know,
they get stressed out about stuff like that. Oh, my goodness. God's
not going to let this place get blown up with atomic bombs. He's
not going to do it. You know why? Because he says
the elements are going to melt with a fervent heat. It wasn't atomic bomb that destroyed
Solomon and Gomorrah. It was the wrath and judgment
of God. He ain't going to let that. You
know what? He's going to wait. Everybody's going to know. Every
soul on this earth is going to know that the Lord runs this
world. And He's going to melt these
elements. When He takes us out of here,
He's going to melt this with a fervent heat. He created it
with the Word. He just got to speak it and set
it on fire. And He's going to melt it. And
then when it's gone, He's going to make a new heaven and a new
earth And you know who's gonna live there? The righteous. No wicked, just the righteous.
And you know we'll be as righteous there as we are right now. Ah, what a gospel, what a gospel. Our Father, oh blessed Father,
in thy Lord Jesus' name, Praise your holy name for meeting with
us tonight, giving us your word. Thank you for the scriptures
that's been read in the study and scriptures been read here,
the prayers that's been offered. And thank you for your word.
Lord, when your word's read, that's sufficient, so sufficient,
sufficient to speak to us, sufficient to instruct us, sufficient to
give us understanding and light and take away the darkness from
our minds. And Lord, bless this word. Thank
you for the day. Thank you for the fellowship.
Thank you for the grace. Thank you for the love. Thank
you for the unity we have in the Spirit of Christ. We bless
you and praise you in Christ's name. Lord, give us a heart.
Give us a heart to intercede, really intercede. and get in
your presence, draw near to you, and bring those who our hearts
are heavy for. And just keep bringing them and
bringing them and bringing them and bringing them. Give us grace to do that, O Lord
Jesus, for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. He's the Savior of
my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. my soul. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul.