attributed the success of his
ministry, and we know it's to the Lord first, but he said the
people prayed for him. They prayed for him. They interceded
that God would give him a message, that he would enable him to preach
the gospel, just as Frank prayed there. cannot put a value on the importance
of prayer. David said, O thou that hearest
prayer. O thou that hearest prayer. Abraham makes a statement in
this chapter, verse 25. He says, shall not the judge
And he's calling the Lord whom he is standing before. He recognizes
him as the judge of all the earth. He recognizes the one whom he
is standing before. And he is enabled to speak so
freely to him. So freely. The Lord enables him
to do this. I find it to be a great comfort,
as I read this today and down through the last week, I find
it to be a great comfort to really know in the very depth of your
soul that God will do right. He'll do right. When you look
to the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Scripture says, And thou
shalt be saved. Will he not do right and be saved?
He that comes to me, I will no wise cast out. Will he not do
right and honor his word? I find great comfort in it. Shall
not the judge of all the earth do right? There is great comfort,
and that's truth to God's people. Great comfort. Now, we have before
us The judgment of God against sin. That's never a pleasant
subject. Never a pleasant subject to talk
about. It's really not. Not for me. It's not a pleasant
subject. But it's a true subject. And
if we would be honest with men, we'd tell them God's going to
judge sin. It's in His Word. How many times did our Lord say
so in the Gospels while He was walking upon this earth? So we
have before us the judgment of God. He does not hide this from
Abraham. Seeing that Abraham is to inherit
the land of Canaan, and this city was in that land, so God
reveals to Abraham. Abraham didn't have this word.
Moses wrote this, the first five books. God came down in the form
of a man and spoke to Abraham face to face and revealed to
Abraham what he was about to do. To me, this is an awesome
experience that the God of heaven and earth would come into this
world, assume a body there, and him and those two angels and
sit down and sup with Abraham and reveal to Abraham what he's
going to do to that city. He reveals here a fixed purpose.
This is not just a chit-chat. This is not just a chit-chat.
This is a mission. This is a mission. After revealing
to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son, at a fixed
time of a year from that time. The Lord then reveals the second
part of their mission. The first part was grace in favor
to Abraham. The second part is judgment on
Sodom. His judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah
for their great wickedness And he says, come up before me. And
he said, I'm going to go down and see. And as I said, he's
speaking in our language, a language that we can understand. He's
speaking in a language that you and I can get a hold of. He doesn't make snap judgments.
He searches it out and then passes judgment. We have this one single
example in the Word of God against such wickedness, against such wretchedness. A whole city. You see, God doesn't
have to destroy city after city after city to prove that this
is a wickedness, you know, sin is sin. Here's an example. He flooded the earth one time.
We have on record, God flooded this earth one time because of
sin. We have on record that God, in God's Word, that God destroyed
a city for homosexuality. We have in God's Word that He
punished His Son one time for sin. So God will punish sin. And, of course, as you read through
the Scriptures, there are many other examples of God's judgment
against sin. And here He's going to destroy
this one city and achieve sin of it. And we'll see it in the
next chapter, in chapter 19. The chief sin of it was homosexuality. This is not gay bashing. It's
not gay bashing. It is a biblical example of God's
judgment on such who go that way. That's what it is. It's
a biblical example, a biblical declaration of God against sin,
all sin. And in their case, that's what
they were given to. And he says, shall I hide from
Abraham the thing which I do? He's already considered it as
done. He said, it's done. It's done. Abraham was his friend. Abraham
was his son. Shall a father hide such a thing
from his son? We have in God's Word, now listen,
we have in God's Word a clear revelation of God's judgment
against sin. The cross being the clearest
declaration of God's judgment against sin. He spared not His
own Son. Can't even begin to grasp the
fullness of that. He spared not His own Son but
delivered Him up for us all. that He may freely give us all
things through His Son. God has revealed from heaven
His wrath against sin in the flood, in Sodom, at the cross,
and other instances. And the Lord reveals to Abraham,
before He reveals this judgment against Sodom, that He's going
to go down and wipe this place out. Before he does that, he
reveals to Abraham what he's going to become. What he's going
to become. And how he will conduct his affairs.
Do you know how you'll conduct your affairs tomorrow? Next week? What about when you get older?
What about when I'm 60 or 70? Or however long I live. However
long you live. Do you know how you will conduct
your affairs? God does. He knows. And he tells Abraham how he's
going to conduct his affairs. And he's going to become a great
nation. Abraham is in the present all
the time. But with God, everything is present. The end is present
as well as the beginning. It's always present with him.
So he reveals to him what he's going to become and how he's
going to conduct his affairs. before he ever reveals his judgment. Before he reveals judgment to
Abraham on Sodom, he reveals his grace and favor to Abraham.
Abraham, you're going to become a great nation. A great nation. He's going to become a great
and mighty nation. And the reason the Lord knows this is this.
He foreordained it. That's God's foreknowledge. He
knows the end from the beginning. He knows every thought that I
ever had before I ever think it. That's our God. That's our God. And He says here,
He will command, look here in verse 18, seeing that Abraham
shall surely become a great nation and all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed in him. And we know that that has reference
to the Lord Jesus Christ through the seed of Abraham. Through
Him, all nations of the earth will be blessed. For I know him. It's not like I've heard of Abraham. You know, you and I have heard
of Abraham. No, the Lord says here, I know you. Abraham, I
know you. I know him, that he will command
his children and his household after him. And they shall keep
the way of the Lord to do justice. and judgment that the Lord may
bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken." He said he will
command his children. He'll be a head of his house.
And he will guide his house in the fear of the Lord. I know
that. Boy, what an example for all of us men. What an example. He said, Abraham,
you'll guide your house. You'll guide them in the fear
of the Lord. You'll command your children. I'll tell you what,
Joshua said, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the
Lord. We are going to serve the Lord.
But I also believe this applies to the spiritual seed. That spiritual
seed. You know, Abraham is called the
father of the faithful. They will do justice. They'll
do right. They will do right. And judgment.
And notice how certain the Lord speaks of His children, and that's
because He knows them. I know them. They're His. He
said in Ezekiel, I'll give them a new heart and a right spirit. I want you to turn over to Hebrews
chapter 8. Hebrews chapter 8. In verse 10, this is the covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord.
I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their
hearts. And I will be to them a God and
they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every
man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord, for all shall know me Least or the greatest. Oh, he said,
I know your children. He's not just speaking of those
Arabs over there. He's speaking of the Lord's children. That
spiritual seed. He said, I know. I know them.
I know them. They will do justice and judgment. And then he says here in verses
20-21, he speaks of Sodom. He says the cry of Sodom and
Gomorrah is great. It's great. He says their sin
is very grievous. Very grievous. The sin of the
wicked cries out against them. Men don't realize that. You know,
men do their dirty work in the darkness. Thieves and robbers
and the wicked. They do it in darkness. They
don't realize that their sin cries out. Cries out against
Him. He says here that the cry has
come unto Me. It's great. There in verse 21,
I'll go down now and see whether they have done altogether according
to the cry of it, the wretchedness of it, the stench of it. Oh, the sin of the wicked cries
out against Him. Sin never goes unnoticed by our
Lord. Just because He does not quickly
punish sin doesn't mean that somebody just got away with it.
Nobody gets away with anything. Anything. There's a time set
for judgment, as he said concerning the sea. Hither shalt thou come,
and no further. He allowed it to come to a certain
point, to rise to a certain point. And he says, now we'll put a
stop to it. We'll put a stop to it. When the measure of sin
is full, judgment will come. Judgment will fall. And it will
be in God's time. And to show how wicked and depraved we are
by nature, men and women, and all of us by nature now, until
the Lord saves and gives us a new nature, we fall into the same
category. Children of wrath by nature,
even as others. But to show how wicked men and
women are by nature, they take a sin. That the Lord has clearly,
clearly demonstrated in the Bible His wrath against. And say it's
a preference. Say it's a preference. And dare
not call it a sin. Dare not call it a sin. Even
in the light of God's Word. The Word of God, now remember
this. The Word of God is always the
standard. I don't care how modern or how
educated we become. The Word of God is always the
standard. It never changes. Sin is sin. And we call it what it is. As
bad, as grievous as this is. And God put his judgment on it. He stamped it with judgment.
You know, he said they will fare better in judgment than the self-righteous
Pharisees. You know, when people start to
shoot at someone like this, like you're a Sodom, they start to
just, oh! And you know, God said that they'll
do better in judgment than a self-righteous. He said they'll do better. They'll
fare better. But now we've come to Abraham's intercession. And
he intercedes here for the righteous. But I believe he also intercedes
here for this city. Listen to this prayer as we go
along. It says, first of all, Abraham
stood before the Lord. That's what Frank did just a
few minutes ago. Stood before the Lord. That's
what Gary did back there in the study. I think sometimes, and I'm going
to speak for myself, I forget what I'm doing. I forget before
whom I am standing. He stood before the judge of
the heaven and earth. The judge of all the earth. It
says He stood before the Lord. Let us always, always realize
in private or in public whose presence we are in when we pray. Whose presence. Prayer is, and I don't really
know how to put it, but it's the most awesome thing that you
will ever do. It truly is. That and preaching is the most
awesome thing in this life that we'll ever do. Preaching and
praying. Abraham said, I have taken upon
me, there in verse 27, I have taken upon me to speak. To speak
unto the Lord. I've taken upon me to intercede. To have an audience with the
Creator. To have an audience with the
Judge. Have you ever had an audience
with the Judge? We kind of had one, I guess, when we went down
to the meeting down there. Although it was kind of mixed
in the crowd. But you know, when you just walk in that place,
if you have any sense about you at all, there's a sense of respect. You know, that one, there was
four men up on there. One of them was the judge. There's
three angels here. One of them is the judge. To have an audience with its
Creator and the Judge and our Savior. And not only did He stand before
the Lord, listen, He stood before the Lord, but then it says, Abraham
drew near. Has not our Lord Jesus Christ
drawn near unto God for us? Does He not stand before the
Lord and intercede for us? Does He not do that even now?
Right now? I don't believe He's saying words.
His very presence is intercession. He's there as a lamb as though
it had been slain. He's there in His sacrificial
character right now. Interceding for us right now. You know, this service right
here, the prayers that's been prayed, this message would be
nothing if it didn't pass through His intercession. If He didn't
intercede for us. If it didn't go through the blood
and righteousness of the Son of God, this would be awful. If He did not intercede for us.
If He did not make intercessions for transgressors. It's like I told someone years
ago. I told this before. It was my
brother, James. I had made a profession when
I was 20 years old. He said, well, you're a sinner
saved by grace now. I said, no, I used to be a sinner.
I'm not anymore. Well, when I heard the Gospel,
that changed. It didn't change until I heard the Gospel. When
I heard the Gospel, that changed. No, I used to be a sinner. No,
he makes intercession for transgressors. I used to be a transgressor.
You still are. I promise you. I guarantee you'll break the
law before you get too far. You won't take too many steps.
That's why when they brought the ark back, they'd take so
many steps and they'd slay an animal. They'd take so many steps
and they'd slay an animal. Take so many steps and they'd
slay a lamb. Blood. Blood. Intercession for the transgressors. That's what our Lord does. And
it's what Abraham's doing here. So let us always remember that.
Whose presence we're in, and draw near to Him. Draw near. You know, Abraham was serious. Abraham was serious. He wanted
to be heard. Lord, hear my prayer. He was
making intercession. And he's not just making intercession
for Lot. Because I believe he would have
said, Lot. I believe he would have said, Lord, would You deliver
Lot? He called him his brother at
one time. My brother, would you deliver him? Well, he would have
asked that. But Abraham's concern, there
might be ten righteous there, or fifty righteous. But he's
also concerned, Lord, would you spare that city? Can you imagine
that? Can you imagine what the Lord
prayed in sparing us? He said, I wouldn't spare that
bunch of That city of homosexuals? Oh my. We haven't yet seen sin,
have we? If we have that attitude. Look
in the mirror. There's sin. You want to see
sin? You know, the law is like a mirror. It reflects what you
are. And you can't bend the mirror.
You're not going to bend the mirror. You know, what you see is what you
are. And in Abraham, He intercedes
for them. He draws near and He wants to
be heard. We do not pray to be seen of men. That's what the
self-righteous do. But to be heard. To be heard. True prayer is drawing near to
God through the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I'll tell you what, in His intercession
for us, It's also the blood. He pleads his own blood. He pleads
his own righteousness. He doesn't pray apart from the
blood. But let us draw near to God. It's going to the throne. Listen,
it's going to a throne. Let us never forget that. It
is a throne. But it's a throne of grace. It's
a throne of grace. that we may find help in time
of need. Through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we can draw near to God and cast all our cares upon Him
and rest in this, the judge of the earth will do right. Leave
it there. Cast our petitions there. The
judge of the earth will do right. And know for whom he prays here.
Abraham, verse 23. Wilt thou destroy the righteous
with the wicked? No. You know, he knew God wouldn't
do that. He prayed for the righteous there
that they'd be delivered. But he also prayed if there were
just ten of them there, if he'd just spare that city. Spare that
city. You know why I think he prayed
that way? Abraham knew, he knew, but for
the grace of God, there go I. He knew that but for the grace
of God, Lot would be standing there and he'd be in Sodom, but
for the grace of God. But he was praying for the righteous.
He was praying that the Lord would deliver the righteous from
that judgment, in which He'll do, in which He does. But He
delivers a lot. No matter how sinful men are,
we ought always to pray for them. When you see a sinful wretch
that just has nothing to do with God, whether it be religious
or not, looking into his face is like looking into your own
face. It's like looking at your brother, your twin. It's like
looking at your twin. You think, that would be me.
That would be me. We ought always to pray for them.
We are all brothers and sisters in Adam, if not in Christ. Scripture
says He is made of one blood, all nations. If you needed a
blood transfusion, would you reject it? If it were from a certain race,
would you reject that blood transfusion? I've never heard of anyone rejecting
a blood transfusion because it was of a certain race or a certain
color. It wouldn't matter if it was
pig's blood we'd take it. Especially as men. It wouldn't matter. Oh, He's made of one blood, all
nations. The same blood flows through
our veins, flows through everyone else's veins. But notice His
humility here in prayer. Look in verse 27. And Abraham
answered and said, Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak
unto the Lord, but I am just dust and ashes." He didn't say,
I'm Abraham the patriarch. I'm the one to whom the promises
were given. I'm the one to whom the covenant
was made. He said, I'm dust and ashes. Lord, remember our frame is dust.
He recognizes What He is before God, before the One He's standing
before. Dust and ashes. Look in verse 31. And he said,
Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord again.
Oh, what humility. And then he said in verse 32,
Oh, let not the Lord be angry. Oh, don't let Him be angry at
me for speaking, interceding. Lord, be patient with me. Didn't
our Lord teach that in the Gospel? And he talked about that unjust
judge and that woman who kept coming. He said, you do the same. You do the same. Note his importunity. He starts
with 50. And he gets all the way down
to 10. And that's when he stopped. I believe this intercession,
just like all true intercession, all true prayer, all true prayer
is of God. It is the Spirit of God moving
upon the heart to move a man or woman to pray for a certain
thing, a certain matter, whatever. And Abraham was moved to pray
this prayer. And he got to ten and he wasn't
moved any further. But notice his confidence here
in his prayer. Notice his confidence. Shall
not the judge of all the earth do right. Is that not our confidence
in all things concerning God, concerning life? Yes, He will do right. Can He
do any less? He must do right. His judgments
are just. Abraham's not questioning his
judgments as far as what he's going to do to Sodom. He's not
doing that. He's declaring his character.
Righteous. He'll do right. He's righteous. He will not destroy the righteous
with the wicked. I know he won't. I know you won't. I know you won't do this. But
this is a picture. This is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ on a much higher level. You see, Abraham interceded
for the righteous. And he did deliver the righteous.
A lot. But he didn't deliver that city.
But now Christ, if you put this on a higher level, if Christ
had prayed for that city, that city would have been delivered.
He said, I know you always hear me. And we say, I am but dust
and ashes. Lord, please don't be angry.
The Lord Jesus Christ says, Father, I will. He stands up and says,
I will that they be with me where I am. They behold my glory. He didn't beg. He does not beg
like we do as beggars. We are mercy beggars. But He's
the God of heaven and earth. And when He intercedes, I'm telling
you what, it's answered. It's answered. You always hear
me. Always. So it's on a much higher
level. It says over in Isaiah 53, that He maketh intercession
for transgressors. Yeah. Here's the believer. He's righteous. Lord, would you
deliver the righteous? Yes, I will. And yet they're
transgressors. And he makes intercessions for
transgressors. And they're the same person. Same person. Now, we're not confused. That's
just who we are. That's just who we are. He said over in John 17, I pray
not for the world. You know why? If he had, he'd
have got it. He said, I pray for them which
thou hast given me. We pray because we don't know
the whole counsel of God. We don't know that. He does.
We pray, thy will be done. He prays, I will. Big difference. Big difference. As much as I desire your prayers,
and I do, pray for me to study and stand here
and preach and when Frank is standing here and teaches and
these ladies in the class, I'm saying pray. The Lord will give
wisdom, understanding, and utterance. I have been, this is off the
subject here, I've been reading a great book by A.W. Pink on
the prayers of the Apostle Paul. I'm telling you, Paul said about
those Ephesians, I pray that you be filled with the fullness
of God. Pray that God would, in study
and preaching, that I be filled with the fullness of God. Now
there's one thing I know about that. If you're going to be filled
with the fullness of God, you're going to have to be empty of
self. You know, this glass is full of water. Now, if I want
to put pop in it, soda, I'm going to have to empty this out, aren't
I? Because there's only about another third left and it's full.
And our problem is, we're so full of self, that's why we had
the Spirit by measure. You know, Christ did not have
the Spirit by measure. And the reason why is, He was
filled with the fullness of God. We have it by measure because
we're still too full of ourselves. Well, that's kind of off subject
there. You can be sure of this. And
I close. The judge of all the earth will
do right. He'll do right. He will not condemn
the righteous with the wicked. Oh, take courage. Take courage. He'll not destroy the righteous
with the wicked. And even though we're transgressors, In Him we're
righteous. We are made the righteousness
of God in Him.