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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/jim-beattie/after-these-things/
I want to read with you in Genesis chapter 15. I'm just gonna read with you three words right now, and we're gonna read those three words in two other places. We will read more later, but I just want to read these three words because they give emphasis to what I want to speak about.
Genesis 15, verse one. After these things. Let's go to Genesis chapter 22, and verse one. Now, you'll notice it has a statement before that, so we'll read that. And it came to pass after these things.
The same in verse 20. And it came to pass after these things. I want to speak about after these things. That will be the emphasis that I will be having in what I have to say. Interesting, by the way, oftentimes when we have an expression in the English Bible, we don't have the same expression in the Hebrew or the Greek, but it's interesting here, the six times you have the expression after these things in the book of Genesis, in every case, they are identical to the Hebrew, after these things.
Exactly the same expression in the Hebrew language. You have it three times, this expression in the life of Abraham, and three times in the life of Joseph. The three times you have it in the life of Abraham, it divides his life into four parts.
Beautiful work that the Spirit of God has done. And three expressions, four times. In the first section, it goes back to Ur of the Chaldees up to chapter 15, and we will look at that a little closer. And the struggles of Abraham's life at that point are over about a certain matter in his experience.
From chapters 15 and verse one, up to the end of chapter 21, you have other struggles. And when they are done, the Spirit of God puts a marker down and says, okay, we're done with that after these things.
And then you have that beautiful section from verses one to 19 in chapter 22, and that is another section in the life of Abraham. And then the Spirit of God says, fine, after these things. Now, when it comes to this conference, I'm thinking along the same line as I was at Stout, what difference will this conference make to you and me?
Years ago, I heard a preacher tell a story about a sister who worked in an office, and the boss came up to her and said, you haven't asked for time off, and isn't this the time that your church conference takes place?
She said, yes, but she said, we've been so busy this year, I didn't really wanna ask for it, I don't think it's fair. He says, I want you to go. He says, you work better after you come back from wherever that happens at that church than you do before.
So he said, I want you to go because you're a better employee. Well, I wonder, will we be better? I'm away without my wife right now, we're going to be together in Oregon in May, Lord willing. I wonder if she'll say, after I get home, well, you're easier to get along with, or am I still as grouchy as ever?
What difference will this conference make to you and me? When you go back to your home assembly, will the Christian say, you know, I don't know what happened to him, I don't know what happened to her that weekend, but something did, and after that, after these things, after that conference, she, he was a different person, and really they've never gone back.
I wonder, and I'm stressing it, what difference will this conference make? As I said last weekend at Stout, if nothing happens in my spiritual life or yours, this has been a waste of time. You might as well just sit at home on your easy chair and read a book or do some gardening.
This conference is to change us, not only what we call ordinary Christians, there is no such thing, but you know what I mean, but the preachers have to be changed as well. I have to be changed, and I know you didn't say it, but a lot of you likely are thinking, amen.
I have to be changed, and I want to be different, and I don't want to be the same when Sunday night comes around as I am right now, and I would say last weekend at the conference, I did get help, and during the week at the Bible studies, I got convicted.
I began to look at myself a little differently and found out when I looked in the mirror on Monday morning, I said to myself, I don't really like the way you are, so I hope that it becomes a permanent change.
Now, with Abraham, it did. From Ur of the Chaldees to chapter 15, verse one, he is dealing with possessions. From chapters 15, verse one to chapter 21 at the end, it's to do with dealings with persons.
That short section in chapter 22 is dealing with a promise and promises, and from 22, verse 20 on, it is dealing not with his growth, but with the growth of his servant. See, Abraham sent his servant of his own house out to bring back a bride, and it's beautiful in chapter 24.
We can't go into it, of course, but when a servant comes to where he has to be, he says, oh, Lord God of my master, Abraham. He has watched Abraham all these years. He has seen Abraham and his dependence upon God, and now he's at a crisis.
He has to find a bride, and he says, how am I gonna find this bride? Well, my master trusted Jehovah, and that's the term he uses. Oh, Lord Jehovah God of my master. So he says, I can trust him, and there's something beautiful that I'll have to tell you that is so wonderful about that section.
If you look up in older lexicons, they will tell you that there are 14 forms of the Hebrew verb, but around 1925, they found a 15th form, and that 15th form is used exclusively with one verb, and that is the verb to worship.
It's not used with any other word in the Old Testament, and that particular form of the Hebrew verb is what they call a reflexive causative, and it is something that a person can only cause, but they cause it to themselves so that when a person worships, no one else can help them worship.
That has to come from the heart. In fact, the first Hebrew professor that I had who was a believer, he also was a pastor of a church, and he said to me, Jim, he said, you know, I am beginning to think it is wrong in our church to have facilitators of worship and a worship team because no one else can cause someone to worship, and I really wonder if the servant was saved after God answers his prayers, he bows, it says, and he worshiped, and he caused himself to worship, and so he was worshiping the living God.
Going back to these sections, we're gonna look at the first section only from chapters 12 to 14, but there was progress in the life of Abraham. I have often said I don't mind carnal Christians. They don't bother me, the kind that bother me are the carnal Christians who stay carnal, but we all start out as babes in Christ, but God intends that day after day, week after week, month after month, there will be growth in our Christian experience, and when we're to stand still or moving backward, that is a sad thing, and so again, I emphasize, let's pray that this weekend every one of us will be different on the Lord's Day evening from what we are right now.
Now let's take a look back at Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12. I have trouble opening these pages because it's a new Bible. Usually I can read from Genesis to Revelation in a week, but this week's been busy, not really, so I don't know, I haven't opened some of the pages yet.
Now let's go to chapter 12, and we're just going to start reading at verse nine. And Abram journeyed going on still toward the south, and there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land.
Now we don't need to read any more there. Here is a difficulty. Abraham has great possessions. What is he going to do? There's a famine. They have herds, and they need pasture land, grazing land, and likely it was dry as well.
The natural thing would be for him to go down into Egypt. The problem is it caused him all kinds of grief, and brethren and sisters, when we step outside the will of God, we are asking for difficulty.
Someone has said many times, I heard as a young Christian, if you think the price of obedience is heavy, think of the price of disobedience. And here's Abraham, and to this day, the world has been affected by the step that Abraham took in going down to Egypt, because out of that came Ishmael, and the difficulties that have affected the world because of that.
But in chapter 12, what does he do? He's got possessions. He's going to keep them. And he says, I'll have to go down to Egypt, the breadbasket of the world at that time. Now let's go over to chapter 13.
Chapter 13, and reading at verse five, he comes up out of Egypt, and verse five, Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents, and the land was not able to bear them that they might dwell together, for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.
And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren.
Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or, if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.
And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.
Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves one from the other. And Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.
But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. Now notice verse 14, the Lord said unto Abram, after the Lot was separated from him, lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art northward and southward and westward and eastward, for all the land which thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever.
Now let's read in chapter 14. You will recall that Lot was carried away in the battle that takes place in chapter 14, and later on, Abram delivers him, and after that, verse 17, the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Gerolamomer and of the kings that were with him at the valley of Sheba, which is the king's dale.
And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him and said, blessed be Abram, the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth.
Let's go down the chapter. The king of Sodom comes, and in verse 21, the king of Sodom said unto Abram, give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread, even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou should say, I have made Abram rich.
Now you'll notice in verse 24 that Abraham's faith was not going to be pushed onto his young men. What they did was their business. He was just making sure of what he did. So in verse 24, he says, save only which the young men have eaten and the portion of the men which went with me, Anaresqol and Mamre, let them take their portion.
If they wanted to do it, that was up to them, but Abraham wasn't going to decide for them. But what I want you to notice is this. In chapter 12, Abraham, he has all these possessions and he's going to hold onto them.
And I would say this, that more than anything else, our possessions test who we really are. What we want in this life tests who we really are. And we live in a world where there is so much. And by the way, the Lord has blessed my wife and I and our family.
I'm not pushing for skimpiness. I remember one time I was thinking about a cassette player when they first came out, that I think was several centuries ago. And I was thinking about it and I said to my wife, you know, I wouldn't even pray about that because that's not our greatest need, but it's nice.
It would be nice when we're going back and forth to Wallaceburg where we were seeking to do a new work if I had something like that. But I said, we have other needs. I wouldn't even pray about it. Well, the next week someone sent me the state of the art cassette player and I hadn't even prayed about it.
And later on, I mentioned that in ministry and I said, I didn't even need to pray about it. Mr. Dougherty was in the audience and he was like a father to me. And he always kept me straight or tried to.
And he came up to me afterwards. So he says, so that's what you think about that? I said, yeah. He said, well, you're wrong. I said, okay, tell me. And he could speak to me like that, never bothered me.
And Brother Sharp knows that that's the way he spoke. He didn't use extra adjectives if he could avoid it. And he said, you know what the Lord showed you? I said, no, tell me. He said, the Lord showed you, you could have prayed about it because God isn't stingy and he just doesn't give us necessities.
He gives us luxury sometimes. So I want to point that out that Abraham here, he held onto his possessions. That wasn't necessarily wrong, but it did cause him a lot of trouble. And it's still helping to cause us trouble with our gasoline prices.
But in chapter 12, he holds onto what he's got. Chapter 13, here's a strife between Abram and Lot. And what does Abraham say? He says, you pick first. So chapter 12, I'm going to hang onto what I've got.
Chapter 13, he says, you pick first. And chapter 14, he says, I'm taking nothing. See the progress? Chapter 12, I'm hanging onto what I've got. Chapter 13, you pick first. Chapter 14, I want nothing. And right away, the spirit of God puts a marker down and says, after these things, that's done.
That's taken care of. I would hope for all of us, including myself, that over this weekend, that the Lord would convict us of something that needs correction or a new direction, and that we would deal with it once and for all.
And when this conference is over, the spirit of God looking down upon this audience would be able to say about every one of us, well, we've got that taken care of, and we'll put a marker in your life after these things, and you'll move on to new lessons and better things.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if wherever you come from, whatever assembly, they were able to say, well, boy, I don't know what happened to her at that conference at Cedar Falls, but she is different now. Or some brother.
Maybe some younger person who's struggling. When you get home, your parents will say, well, you've resolved that. Good for you. But this conference is for change. And it would be wonderful if God, at the end of this conference, could put a marker.
He put a definite marker in the life of Abraham and marks it out three times. After these things, first with possessions, then with persons, and then with promises, and then with the passing on of his faith to his servant.
Four sections in the life of Abraham marked out distinctly by the expression, after these things. May the Lord help us as we spend time this weekend to have an open heart that the Lord will show us something that needs to be fixed or a new direction that needs to be taken.
And when the conference is over, our blessed Lord, looking down from heaven, will be able to rejoice over what we have learned and what we've determined. And we do pray that we will never quite be the same again.
And it will be after this conference at Cedar Falls, something happened and you and I are changed people.