Genesis #14 - The Gospel According to Abraham #4 - "Faltering Faith, Faithful God (2)" (Genesis 13)

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continuing in our sermon series that we've been in now for the last few weeks called The Gospel According to Abraham, The Gospel According to Abraham.
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And what we've been doing is marching our way, slowly but surely, through really the life of Abraham, and we've been paying special attention to the ways in which we see the gospel applied in the life of Abraham in some very profound ways, and we come this afternoon to Genesis Chapter 13.
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Genesis Chapter 13, so if you have a Bible, and I hope you do, take it and turn with me to Genesis Chapter 13.
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If you grabbed one of the red hardback Bibles we give away, that's still on page 9.
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Page 9 in those red hardback Bibles, and by the way, if you don't have one and you'd like one, those are our gift to you, so please take them.
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We have boxes of them, so help yourself. Genesis Chapter 13, and if you're able to do so, can
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I invite you to stand with me as we read this portion of God's Word out of respect for God's Word. Genesis Chapter 13, and we will read the entire chapter together.
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Genesis Chapter 13, brothers and sisters, these are God's words. Abram went up from Egypt to the
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Negev, he, his wife, and all he had, and Lot with him.
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Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold. He went by stages from the
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Negev to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had formerly been, to the site where he had built the altar, and Abram called on the name of Yahweh there.
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Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents, but the land was unable to support them as long as they stayed together, for they had so many possessions that they couldn't stay together, and there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.
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At that time, the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land. So Abram said to Lot, please, let's not have quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, since we are relatives.
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Isn't the whole land before you separate from me? If you go to the left, I will go to the right.
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If you go to the right, I will go to the left. Lot looked out and saw that the entire plain of the
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Jordan, as far as Zohar, was well watered everywhere, like Yahweh's garden and the land of Egypt.
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This was before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose the entire plain of the
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Jordan for himself. Then Lot journeyed eastward, and they separated from each other.
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Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot lived in the cities on the plain and set up his tent near Sodom.
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Now, the men of Sodom were evil, sinning immensely against Yahweh. After Lot had separated from him,
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Yahweh said to Abram, look from the place where you are, look north and south, east and west, for I will give you and your offspring forever all the land that you see.
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I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.
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Get up and walk around the land through its length and width, for I will give it to you.
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So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to Yahweh.
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Pray once again that God will bless that reading of his word and grant us understanding. Let's pray, ask for the
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Lord's help, and we will get to work in this text. Well, once again,
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Father, our hearts are filled with thankfulness. That's another opportunity to gather to worship. We thank you that your word is evergreen and always ready to teach us something about who you are and what you have done.
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And so, Father, we simply ask that as we open up your word now, that your word would shine light into the darkness, that your word would create faith where faith isn't.
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It would strengthen faith where faith is, and that ultimately our eyes would be turned away from ourselves and turned to you once again.
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Father, as we pray for ourselves, we pray for Ashland Bible Church this afternoon. Pray for Pastor Nate Shin, and thank you for his witness in Ashland, just like everywhere, a place that needs the gospel.
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Pray that you would bless his ministry in the word and the outreach of that church, and that in everything they do, they will glorify you.
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Father, that's our prayer for ABC, and that's our prayer for us here now as we open your word.
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We ask all these things in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Please be seated.
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Well, family, I want to bring to you part two of a message that I began last week entitled Faltering Faith, Faithful God.
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Faltering Faith and Faithful God. All of us at some point in our
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Christian lives are going to have to ask ourselves the question, how do
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I get back after a collapse in my faith? Let's just be clear.
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We're all going to have moments where our faith stumbles. We're all going to have moments where we're not exactly, like, on top of the mountain, so to speak, if we're going to use that language.
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And the reality is when those moments come, we have to ask ourselves the question, well, what do we do?
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What can we do? And maybe that question might not be germane to you, but if you are doing what the
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Bible says and you are seeking to encourage one another and to build one another up, then you're going to have times where you need to minister to brothers and sisters who are struggling in their faith.
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I think I've said this a few times because it's something that's always heavy on my own heart, but if you are surprised when that happens, then you'll be no good to help anybody when it happens.
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And so we've been, as we've been walking our way through the life of Abram, we've been paying close attention, this and the last message, to thinking about Abram's own journey of faith.
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We began this series with God reaching out to Abraham and initiating a relationship with him.
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And in initiating a relationship with him, he made promises to him, and Abram responds in the beginning with faith.
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But as we saw last week, we move from the faith of Abraham at the end of chapter 12 verse 9 to a moment where his faith struggles, and he makes a decision that has some rather massive implications.
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And so as I was thinking this week, I was going to title this message something else, and I began to realize that, hold on, this whole section from 12 .10
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through to the end of chapter 13 is actually one unit. It's actually presenting to us one seamless story.
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And in fact, when you look closely at this text, the theme arises, as we've titled this message, the theme arises of what happens when faith falters in the promise of God.
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When you look closely at the text, it has quite a clean shape to it. So it starts with Abraham in the land as he obeyed
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God and left his land and his people and his father's house and went to this land that God would show him.
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He's in the land that God told him to be in. But then he makes a diversion into the land of Egypt.
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We saw last week what happened when he got there, and now he begins to work his way back,
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Abraham, excuse me, begins to work his way back slowly in stages to the land of promise once again.
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And as you read the book of Genesis, it becomes apparent that Moses, writing under the inspiration of the
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Spirit, writing perfect scripture, is crafting this in such a way as you're supposed to see some parallels between Abraham and the people of God.
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For those of you who are joining us, we've said that the original audience of Genesis would have been that generation of Hebrews who are getting ready to cross into the land of promise.
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They're on the verge of the land and Moses is giving them this written history of God's dealings with his people.
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And so as you read this book, you'll see all kinds of hints and parallels with Israel's own experience, and you see that here.
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Jacob and his sons, we'll see later on in Genesis, are in the land when a sudden and swift transition moves them to Egypt.
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They're there for a very long time, and when they finally leave, they leave in stages ending up in the land of promise.
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It mirrors perfectly what you see here in Genesis chapter 13. And so the first generation of readers were supposed to see the links between the patriarch of their nation and themselves.
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And in doing so, I think I said this last week, they're being faced with a very simple question. The question they're being faced with is, will you respond to the challenges that come
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God's way or your own way? Will you follow God's way or your own way?
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And in looking at Abraham, we can learn a lot about ourselves. Again, not in the kind of way that says we are
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Abraham and reads ourselves into this passage. But if we read this properly, what we will see is how it is that God deals with sinners like us who struggle and at times falter in our faith.
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How is it that we find ourselves in those situations? And as we'll see in this passage, how do we find our way back?
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As one pastor, R. Kent Hughes, put it on this very chapter, he said, Abraham was like us, a paradoxical mixture of self -centered reliance and trust in God.
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And the author Moses makes no attempt to gloss over Abraham's failures. In fact, the stories, first of Abraham's failure in Egypt with Pharaoh, then his success in Canaan with Lot, explore the seeming contradictions within this man of faith.
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By this studied contrast, Moses will help us to explore our own hearts.
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And that's really why I want to happen this afternoon. I want you, as you hear this message, to look at your own heart, to look at your own walk with the
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Lord, and to see what it is that we can learn about how God deals with us from this passage.
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In the last passage, we dealt with, as it were, the faltering of faith, the collapse of faith, and now we're going to see the restoration of it as it plays out in Genesis 13.
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Faith family, you need to ask yourself the question, how is it that faltering faith can be restored?
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How can you and I, or any believer for that matter, recover when it seems our faith has missed a step, or two, or ten for that matter?
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Well, to help us in thinking about that, here's the big idea of this message. If you don't remember anything else, remember this.
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That faltering faith can be restored through the methods
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God shows us through His Word. That faltering faith can be restored through the methods that God shows us, change that word through to in His Word.
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You see, just because we struggle in our faith does not mean that that is where we have to stay.
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Because we have a moment of faltering faith doesn't mean that that has to be the end of the story. Our God is good, and He is gracious, and He loves
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His people way too much and way too deeply to leave them in a place of faltered faith.
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And so for the rest of our time this afternoon, I want to consider three methods from the life of Abram that God uses to restore faltering faith.
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We're going to follow the progression of this text, and as you follow this text, you will see three methods from the life of Abram that God uses to restore faltering faith.
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Three methods. The first one that we see in our passage, the first method that God uses to restore faltering faith is that restoration involves returning to the start.
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Restoration involves returning to the start. This won't be a long point, but it's still an important one to make.
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Pick up with me in verses 1 through 4 as Abram starts his return to the land. So chapter 13, verse 1,
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Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev. He, his wife, and all he had, and lots with him.
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Now, pause for a moment to give you an idea of the geography here. He's kind of moving in a northeastern direction.
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It's up. It's several hundred miles, and actually it's a few hundred feet in elevation. Pretty quickly.
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So it's, when it says he went up, it literally, he was going up. And so he's leaving
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Egypt and he's crossing over into the Negev, which is the desert in the southern area of Israel.
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Abram was very rich in livestock, silver and gold, verse 2. He went by stages from the
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Negev to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai, where his tent had formerly been.
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Once again, a little geography for you. So the Negev is in the south. Bethel and Ai are kind of slap in the middle.
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So he's got another long journey. That's why the text says he makes this journey in stages. And so it says that he went by stages from the
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Negev to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai, where his tent had formerly been, to the site where he had built the altar.
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And Abram called on the name of the Lord there. So here we are following the sorry
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Egyptian affair that happened at the end of chapter 12. And the first thing that Abram does is that he makes a journey.
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It's a long journey and he does it in stages, but he makes his journey back to the place where he had first worshipped the
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Lord. It wasn't enough for him to leave Egypt or just to be in the general area.
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Abram makes the journey to where initial faith in God began with him.
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So in Genesis chapter 12, we know this because it says that he passed through the land to the site of Shechem, which is in this general area at the
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Oak of Morah. At that time, Canaanites were in the land. Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to your offspring,
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I will give this land. So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.
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He goes right back to this place. This place where God had spoken and he heard God clearly and he responded in faith.
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You see, before Abram could move forward in faith, this is one of the great paradoxes of the
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Christian life. Sometimes for us to make progress in our walk with God, we have to go back. We have to go back to where it began.
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Sometimes we can fall into this mindset that, you know, if we find ourselves struggling in our faith, we need some big grandiose gesture to get us back on track.
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Almost as though we need to jumpstart our relationship with God by doing something big and amazing.
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And to a degree, some of that is just a learned behavior. We deal with humanity and at times there are some people who, when you mess up, they are going to make you pay for it.
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We typically call those people high maintenance. And it's impossible, not impossible, it's actually very possible for us to kind of view
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God as being that kind of a high maintenance person who needs really big gestures to get them back on side.
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And so, again, let's think practically about this. In our own walk with the Lord, it's possible for us to think, okay, you know, part of my problem was
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I wasn't reading my Bible. So, I'm going to go from just reading one chapter of the Bible, I'm going to start reading five a day.
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Or, you know, I go to church once a week, I'm going to double up. We'll go twice. Or, I need to pray longer. I need to do more of the spiritual disciplines.
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Now, personally, I do wish Christians in general read their Bible more. I do wish they went to church more. And I do wish they prayed more.
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Those are all good things. All good things. But they're only good things if they're done with the right motivation.
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They're only good things if they're done with an understanding that they are the fruit of faith in Christ.
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If we're doing them with that motivation, that's great. That's wonderful. Keep on keeping on. But if faith is absent, and we think, well, by doing this big grand gesture, by doing these big spiritual things,
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I'm just doing them to be doing them, or worse, I'm doing them to curry favor with God.
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Might I suggest, this may sound very counterintuitive for a pastor to say out loud, but may I suggest you just stop.
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And might I suggest that the best place to restart when faith falters is not with some big grandiose gesture, but it's simple faith, like at the beginning.
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Tell me it's Revelation chapter 2. Let me show you something there. I think Jesus makes this point quite well.
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Revelation chapter 2, if you know something of the contents of Revelation chapter 1, is the vision of the glorified
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Christ. And then chapters 2 and 3 are seven letters. Jesus, as it were, through the apostle
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John, takes pen in hand, and he sends seven letters to seven churches.
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You look at it on a map, they form a nice, neat postal route. And the first church he speaks to is the church at Ephesus, quite a renowned church, founded by Paul himself, at one point had
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Timothy serving as a minister there. This is a lot later on in that story. And when you look at Revelation chapter 2, the church that's mentioned here has a lot going for it.
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They're doctrinal and discerning. They've got very sound doctrine, and they keep an eye out for those people who corrupt the doctrine.
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They can spot a false teacher a mile away. And for some, they would look at that and say, well, that's great.
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They're doing all the things they're supposed to do. They're in the word. They're keeping an eye out for false teaching. They're making sure that the doctrine is pure, that they're walking with Christ, and it all looks good on the surface.
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Pick it up with me in chapter 2 and verse 4. Revelation chapter 2 and verse 4. Jesus says, all these wonderful things that they're doing.
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People are persecuting you, and you're enduring it. It's great. Good job. But verse 4, he said, but I have this against you.
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You have abandoned the love you had at first. Similar translations would say, you have left your first love.
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Same idea. Somewhere between their initial faith in Christ and where they were at that point, something had happened.
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A disconnect had taken place to where they were going through the motions, but love for Christ was absent.
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And Jesus gives a straightforward remedy. Verse 5. He says, remember then how far you have fallen.
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Look at where you are now, and look at where you once were, and look at the distance. Some will read this passage and take it to me, okay, there's all the passion that you used to have at the beginning.
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You need all of that. I don't think that's Jesus' point. I think Jesus' point is much simpler.
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Remember the place of simple faith that you had in me at the beginning? Somehow this whole thing got complicated, and you need to find your way back.
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Abram makes the journey back to the place where God had begun to deal with him, back to the place where he had initially worshipped the
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Lord. End of verse 4 says, and Abram called on the name of the Lord there.
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Worship. And worship that flows not from a sense of duty, but from a sense of faith.
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I'm going back to where I started. And I put it to you that when our faith falters, sometimes it's not big, grandiose things we need to do.
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It's the simple things that we've often abandoned that we need to do. Sometimes it's the simple gospel message that we need to preach to ourselves every day.
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And I say that because I know the circle in which our church theologically runs in. It's very easy to think that what you need is,
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I need to read this next book, or listen to this next message, or I need this next big idea. Sometimes it's not big theology you need.
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It's simple truths. For Abram, it was not a massive, grandiose journey he needed.
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He just needed to get back to the place where faith began. And that's the first method that God uses in restoring faltered faith.
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He brings us back to the start. But there's a second method that we see in this text.
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A second method that God uses. Yes, restoration involves returning to the start, back to simple faith in Christ.
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Secondly, restoration involves recovering some perspective. It involves recovering some perspective.
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Verses 5 through 13 form the heart of our narrative. If there's one word I'm going to use a bunch in this next section, it's the word perspective.
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So look at me at verses 5 through 7. Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents, but the land was unable to support them as long as they stayed together because they had so many possessions that they could not stay together.
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And there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.
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At that time, the Canaanites and Perizzites were living in the land. Faith may be in the process of being restored as we come to these verses, but that doesn't mean that faith won't meet with challenges.
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And here is, in this moment, one of those challenges. It would seem that during their time in Egypt, which the text seems to suggest was quite some time, during their time in Egypt, Abram and Lot had gotten significantly rich.
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All of it tied up, like it would have been the case for most people in the ancient world, in their flocks and in their herds.
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And I'll be honest, I don't know much about farms. I'm a city boy and I'm somewhat proud of being a city boy. But I gather that animals need space and food.
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I think I know enough to know they need those things. And the text seems to imply that the land wasn't able to provide enough space and enough food for these animals.
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In fact, it gets so bad that the text says a dispute starts to break out between essentially the household staff of these two men.
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Well, Kofi, why does that matter? Why does the text go out of its way to say that a fight broke out between these, or a rivalry, or a feud of some sort broke out between these two houses?
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I mean, what's the big deal about that? That happens all the time. Need I remind you that, brother and sister, this is a narrative.
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Little tip for reading narratives well. Narratives don't just tell you things.
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Most of us are used to hearing, particularly in preaching, typically we spend time in Paul's letters. Paul just tells you stuff up front.
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There isn't a lot of thinking you need to do. Really, what you have to do is just think about how this applies. A narrative is a little bit different though.
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A narrative works more on the principle of it shows you things, and you're supposed to kind of pick up things for what it shows you.
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Well, you see example of that here in this passage. Think about this. Is this the first trial that Abraham has endured already?
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It's not, is it? Chapter 12, verse 10 began with a trial, the famine. He's already had to leave everything he knew, or thought he needed to do that.
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It took him to Egypt. That was another trial, and he failed that one miserably. And now here's another trial.
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Now the trial has come closer to home. Let me see if I can make this clear.
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Beloved, faith can and will be tested, even when faith is on the road to restoration.
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Just because Abraham has said, God, okay, I know I've missed it, and I'm coming back to simple faith in you, that doesn't guarantee that the road will necessarily be easy.
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Right here. Here's another test of faith in the Lord. We're about to find out if Abraham can actually, well, not can he, has he learned the lesson he needed to learn the last time?
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Well, let's look at the answer, verses 8 and 9. So Abraham said to Lot, please, let's not have quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, since we are relatives.
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Isn't the whole land before you? Separate from me. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right.
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If you go to the right, I'll go to the left. Abraham defers to his nephew.
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Back in chapter 11, that little genealogy. Basically, Lot is his nephew. He defers to his nephew, and he says, you know what?
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You decide. Now, that might not seem like much, but think about this again with me for a moment. Think about how precarious this could end up being for Abraham.
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What if Lot chose the best plot of land, or the best area, and left
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Abram with nothing? How would Abram provide for his family? Why would he even make such an outrageous offer?
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You know what? We don't need to beef about this. We're family. We can fix this. You know, land is all there.
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You pick where you want to go, and I'll go the other direction. It's okay. Why would Abram even make such an outrageous offer?
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Here's that word again. Perspective. Somewhere between the debacle in Egypt and this moment, somewhere in that season,
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Abram has seemed, it seems as it were, he's come full circle. And he's come full circle to this idea of God actually keeping his promises.
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So much so that he is willing to be shortchanged, as it were, in the here and now.
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Because after all, he has this promise from God that he's going to inherit this land. Abraham, I would argue from this passage, has come to the place, imperfect as he is, where he is perfectly happy to pass up on the presently easy for the divinely promised.
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He could have said, you know what? Let me make things easy for me. I see this land is well watered. It looks good. I'm going to take that.
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You go somewhere else. And I think there's a lesson for our faith that we can learn as a result of this.
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If we as God's people believe God is who he says he is, and if we believe that God delivers on what he promises, if we do, here's a question to go home and think about this week.
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Why wouldn't we trust him enough to let go of the temporary so that we can lay hold of the eternal?
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Abraham had that decision. Do I lay hold on that which is temporarily good for me? Or do
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I lay hold on that which God has promised, which will be for my ultimate good? I think
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Abraham's learned the lesson. Again, he's imperfect. We're going to see later on in Genesis. He's going to mess this up again.
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But at least for right now, he's learned the lesson. And that's why he could let Lot, as it were, have his pick of the land.
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Because he had something better waiting for him down the line. And so they make the decision in verse 10.
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So verse 10, Lot looked out and saw that the entire plain of the Jordan, as far as Zohar, was well watered everywhere, like Yahweh's garden and the land of Egypt.
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This was before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose the entire plain of the Jordan for himself.
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Then Lot journeyed eastward, and they separated from each other. Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot lived in the cities on the plain and set up his tent near Sodom.
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Now the men of Sodom were evil, sinning immensely against the
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Lord. The narrative shifts for a moment from talking about Abram, and we focus on Lot's decision for a moment.
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Because I think you're seeing, again, two different perspectives here. Whereas Abraham is choosing in light of God's promise,
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Lot is choosing based entirely on what he can see. You see those two descriptions there in verse 10?
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Don't sleep on those. The text describes the land as being well watered. It gives two descriptions.
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Number one, it's like Yahweh's garden, the garden of the Lord, a reference to the garden of Eden. We don't have time, but if you're taking notes,
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Genesis chapter 2 verses 8 through 10 gives us a description. And in verse 10 it says that a river went out from Eden to water the garden.
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So when he uses that language, it's well watered like the garden of Eden. It's lush. It's got vegetation. The other description that's used is the land of Egypt.
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Again, Egypt at this point was a very well watered land because you had the River Nile and its delta system that ran through the land, basically.
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Both of those descriptions are not here just to fill space. They're not just hyperbole. Remember Moses' first readers?
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They're in the wilderness. It's hundreds of years at this point after these events. The author goes out of his way to describe
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Sodom and Gomorrah because he's cluing you into the fact that Sodom and Gomorrah weren't around at this point.
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Something's going to happen, spoiler alert, chapter 17 and 18 and 19. Something's going to happen where Sodom won't be around for much longer.
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But I think there's more to it than even just that. Think about what happened in both those places in the story of Genesis so far.
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Eden was where a fleshly choice, a choice based on what could be seen, it was where that choice led to utter devastation for mankind.
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That was Eden. Egypt, we've already seen in our narrative, Abraham makes another fleshly choice and it nearly all falls apart.
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Do you see a pattern that's being given to you in this narrative? Over and over and over again.
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If we want to zoom out, look at scripture as a whole. Scripture repeatedly commends to us the principle of viewing life from a perspective that is driven by what we can see.
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So Paul can say in 2 Corinthians 4, 18 that we don't focus on what is seen because what, but on what is unseen because what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal.
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For instance, as a Christian, our perspective is an eternal one, not a temporary one. Yes, temporarily you can see things but eternally you can't and that's what we choose to focus on.
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Paul could talk about the fact that it's good for the believer to be with the Lord and he says in 2 Corinthians 5, 7 the reason why we say that is because we walk by faith not by sight.
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In fact, if you want the greatest example of this, the greatest example of a person who had the right perspective and was willing to follow through on that perspective, well, join me in Hebrews chapter 12 for a moment.
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Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews is a great letter written to encourage these
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Christians who were being tempted to fall back into Judaism and the author basically writes this message of encouragement to say, no, hold on to Jesus, persevere, keep on believing because what you have in Jesus is better than anything that the old covenant has to offer.
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Hebrews chapter 12. Look with me at verses 1 through 3. Familiar verses to you, I'm sure. Hebrews 12, 1
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Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us.
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Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
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The author and the finisher of our faith. So the author of the
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Hebrew says, guys, guys, guys, guys, guys, don't lose your focus. Keep your perspective in the right place.
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Keep looking to Jesus. But he doesn't just say keep looking to Jesus.
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He now gives you a gospel example. Verse 2, For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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So you can say, verse 3, For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won't grow weary and give up.
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Christian, every time that you're tempted to, as it were, go off the spiritual map and lose your way, can
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I encourage you to remember the ultimate perspective? And can I remind you not just to remember the ultimate perspective and to remember the only one who held it perfectly.
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You will hold it imperfectly, but Jesus never failed. For your sake, he was willing to unite to his divine nature, a human nature.
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For your sake, he was willing to enter into his own creation. For your sake, he was willing to obey the law that we had broken and was willing to suffer in himself the penalty for our sins.
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In fact, the Bible gives us an insight into this. In Matthew chapter 26, Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane, and he's there and he's praying.
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Verse 38, he said to the disciples, I am deeply grieved to the point of death.
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Can I pause and say, this is why when Christians tell you, oh, you should never be worried about anything. Let's nuance that.
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There is sinfully being worried, but there is the reality that situations arise that push us to our limits, and that doesn't make you a sinful person or weak.
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Jesus goes on, remain here and stay awake with me. Going a little farther, he fell face down and prayed, my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.
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If Jesus had ended there, do you think the father would have told him no? No. The father would listen to him.
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The father would have said, okay. But that's not where Jesus ends, is it? Text says, yet not as I will, but as you will.
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Where I would have folded, and where you would have folded, and where any mere human would have folded,
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Jesus never did. Ultimately, any attempt at recovering our perspective, much like Abraham seems to have recovered here, any attempt at doing that is only possible because Christ did it first.
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If I can draw your attention back to Genesis 13, if you notice, the text doesn't explicitly tell you who made the right decision and who didn't.
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Again, it's a narrative. Narratives teach in what they show, not necessarily in what they say. But I think
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Moses, at this point, enters a couple of editorial comments in the Christian Standard Bible, which is a translation
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I preach from. It has these comments in brackets. Look at verse 10. Right at the end of verse 10, it says, this land was well watered like the
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Lord's garden in the land of Egypt. This was before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Verse 13, another set of comments in brackets.
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Now the men of Sodom were evil, sinning immensely against Yahweh. We'll come back and see the fruits of Lot's decision in Genesis 18 and 19.
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But here's the thing. If you read this and think that, well,
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Lot makes a bad decision, that's kind of what Abraham's telling you, not Abraham. Moses is telling you by saying, Sodom and Gomorrah ended up being destroyed and the men of Sodom were evil.
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This was not a great decision in the long run. But if you read this and think, whoa, well done, Abraham, good job.
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Round of applause for you. You figured it out. If that's how you understand this passage, if that's what you see at the end of this passage, can
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I just simply point out that nothing in this passage says that Abraham was necessarily greater than Lot, he's wiser than Lot or more holy than Lot.
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The only thing that differentiates Abraham and Lot is faith.
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There's nothing in Abraham that made him think, oh, this would be a good idea. You know what? Let me just do this and keep
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Lot happy. No, I would argue that the only reason he's able to make that decision is because he has faith in the promise of God and Lot doesn't.
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And so if we are going to have a recovery following the faltering of our faith, it's going to require returning to the start, recovering some perspective, and finally, recounting the promises of God.
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Recounting the promises of God, verses 13 through to 18. So up to this point, all we've seen is
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Lot and Abraham. God hasn't really said too much, but now he does. Genesis 13, look with me at verse 14.
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After Lot had separated from him, Yahweh said to Abraham, look to the place where you are, look north and south, east and west, for I will give you and your offspring forever all the land that you see.
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I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.
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Get up and walk around the land, through its length and width, for I will give it to you. God reaffirms his promise.
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And this is a promise that Abraham knew already. I don't think he forgot it when he made his bad decision. So why does
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God give him the reminder? In my opinion, one of the greatest commentators of all time,
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Matthew Henry, he gives this very insightful answer. He says, quote, after Lot had chosen that pleasant, fruitful valley and had gone to take possession of it, lest Abram should be tempted to envy him and to repent that he had given him the choice,
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God comes to him and assures him that what he had should remain to him and his heirs forever, so that though Lot perhaps had the better land, yet Abram had the better title.
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Lot had the paradise, such as it was, but Abram had the promise. And the event soon made it appear that however it seemed now,
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Abram had really the better part. God graciously reaffirms his covenant promises to Abram, precisely because that's what
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Abram's faith needed. And can I put it to you that that's precisely what your faith needs?
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If you're here and you're a believer and you're under the sound of my voice this afternoon, what does the
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Bible tell us? Romans chapter 10, verse 17, so then faith comes by hearing, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.
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Peter could write this in his second letter, 2 Peter 1, 3 through 4, his divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
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By these, he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them, through the great and precious promises, you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.
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Beloved, faith is nourished and it's sustained by the promises of God.
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God speaks and like a flower that is hit with the first rays of spring sunshine, faith blossoms to life.
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That's why here at Redeemer, we believe in the Reformation concept of the means of grace. If you aren't familiar with that concept, on our
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YouTube page, there is a sermon series called Simple Church. Those are the means of grace in detail.
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I also preach on that in our most recent sermon series where I did a message called What Are the Means of Grace? In our gathered worship, as we hear and we read the word, as we pray, as we sing, as we will do in a few moments, as we do every week, as you partake of the table, all of these means are used by the spirit of God to bring faith to life and health in a way that's not too different, at least in principle, if not in practice, from the way that the reminders of the blessing of the covenant served to bolster
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Abram's faith. On a note of practicality, that's why we constantly affirm the importance of taking every opportunity to gather as God's people.
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This is not just a tradition we do because we're religious people. No, it's a critical way.
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When we saw this Hebrews 10, 24, this is how we still went up to love and good works. It's a critical way that we are reminded of God's promises in Christ.
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Faith is created by the word and it's nourished by the word.
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And look at Abram's response, verse 18. So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the
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Oaks of Marmory at Hebron where he built an altar to Yahweh. Another expression of faith -filled worship.
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He hears the promise of God, he believes it and so he responds in an act of faith.
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Faith, I mean, Abraham is what you could call a saint with the shakes. At times his faith can wobble and if you think this is the only time it happens, keep reading with me.
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We'll see more opportunities where his faith stumbles. But can
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I leave you with this thought as we end? Isn't it good to know that God doesn't just discard his saints every time that their faith falters?
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Isn't it good to know? I don't know for you, it is good for me. Isn't it good for you, for me, for all of us who know the
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Lord to know that just because we stumble in our faith, God doesn't say, oh, for heaven's sake,
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I can't deal with this anymore, I'm done. No, through his gospel,
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God picks us up. He reaffirms, he strengthens our faith and he showers his gracious blessing on us.
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And if you're here today and you don't know the Lord, you can know this. Maybe for you, faith has never started.
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You've never trusted in Christ. Can I invite you to just where you are, acknowledge what the
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Bible says, that God is the creator, he creates a man in his image, man of sin, but God in his gracious mercy has provided a way of salvation whereby those who don't know him can come to know him.
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That way of salvation is not a plan, it's a person. His name is Jesus. And for all who will place their faith in him, he promises to keep and to sustain and to strengthen and to bring all the way home.
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And you can know that as a guarantee, not as an if, not as a conditional, no, as a guarantee.
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Father, we thank you so much for the fact that you in your goodness and you in your mercy strengthen the faith of those who may be wobbling at times, who may be faltering at times, who may be in one way or another in need of a little help.
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Oh, how good it is to know that as our father, you love us, that you care for us and that you do everything that is possible to keep us walking with you.
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And so father, we ask that we would simply respond in faith, believing you and taking you at your word, resting and receiving the promise of God in Christ.