The Outcome of Sinful Choices Genesis 14:1-16

A few years back, when I was coaching at Mount Wistonka High School, which is about 90 miles southwest of here, an event took place that made the local news,

CBS, ABC, and NBC. During the lunch hour of the school day, a dozen students stood on the table and sang and danced to a popular tune at that time, and one of the students caught it on tape with his cell phone.

And as you might imagine, the administrators of the school were not too happy about this.

A few of the players who took part in this foolish action were hockey players. The hockey players had their biggest game of the year that week, a section playoff game, and by the way, hockey is huge where I'm from.

So they had their biggest game of the year, a section playoff game, and the administrators of the school thought that what they did deserved a consequence.

The hockey players who danced on that lunch table would not be able to play in the section playoff game.

And as you might guess, the depleted hockey team lost their most important game of the year.

The players and the parents of the players were angry that the administrators did this to them.

There was a huge outcry. But what the administrators did was demonstrate to the students that there are consequences for their actions.

They crossed the line, and they were going to face the punishment. Last week we saw that Lot sinned greatly by going in the direction the

Lord did not want him to go in Genesis 13. He fell off the path of following God's plan for his life, and now he was going to face the consequences for his sin.

Today we are going to see that Lot, Abram's nephew, is captured by armies to the north, and his uncle

Abram comes to the rescue. So this sermon today is titled, as you can see on the screen,

The Outcome of Your Sinful Actions. And so we're continuing our sermon series through Genesis.

We're in Genesis chapter 14, we're going to look at verses 1 through 16. So if you have a

Bible, I encourage you to turn there with me. And if you don't have a Bible with you, there are the red

Bibles in the pews, and it's on pages 11 and 12. And our big idea today, our proposition, is the

Lord is serious about the ramifications for sin to believers and unbelievers.

We're going to see two ways how. The first way how is believers face earthly consequences for their sinful decisions.

Believers face earthly consequences for their sinful decisions. You'll see that in your outline, in your bulletin.

Last week we saw the story of two godly men in Genesis 13. One demonstrated faithfulness while the other demonstrated unfaithfulness.

A conflict arose because there was not enough land for Abram and his herdsmen and Lot and his herdsmen.

Abram showed his godly character in all of this. He knew that the land of Canaan, which is also known as the promised land, was his land because the

Lord promised that it would be his. So Abram told his nephew

Lot to choose the north or the south. And this is where Lot made a very foolish decision.

Lot did not choose the south or the north. Rather, he chose the east where the

Jordan Valley was. And as we have seen in Genesis, the direction east symbolizes separation from God.

By going against Abram's advice, Lot made the wrong choice and cut himself off from the

Lord's blessing and he would now face the consequences. It's not as if he was going to go east and then things were going to go great for him.

There were going to be consequences. Today we are going to see one of those consequences.

And we will see in this context, we'll see in this context a war that arose in the region where Lot lived, the region of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Lot went east and now there is a conflict in this place between many kings. And while Lot is in this place of conflict,

Abram dwells safely in the land of promise. And he remains right where we saw him last week, in the

Oaks of Mamre, which is in Hebron, which would be south of where modern day Jerusalem is.

And I want to give you a little bit of understanding of this war before I read so that you are able to follow.

And as I explain this war, remember that the whole purpose of this being included is to show what happened to Abram's nephew,

Lot. It's not as if they just want to throw in an ancient war just for the fun of it, that there's a purpose that this is included in this narrative.

There are kings in this region where Lot dwells that are allied with one another. For 12 years, these kings and these people have been under the control of other kings from the north.

So the kings of the north have the power over the kings of the south. And the kings of the south, this would include

Sodom and Gomorrah, where Lot lived, and the other powerless kings with them rebel against the ruling kings of the north.

So this war arises from a conflict between the kings in power, who were in the north, and the kings who did not have power in the south.

And the kings in the south rebel against them. So I'm going to begin by reading the first seven verses that lays out what

I just explained to you. And I'm going to be using a map today, okay, so we're going to see that on the screen here.

And actually, you could just put it up there now. This is the land of Canaan, and it'll kind of give you an idea of what happens in this war.

So I'm going to read verses one through seven. There's going to be a lot of weird names here, so just embrace yourself for that, and I'll do my best to get them right.

In the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Ariac, king of Elessar, Keturlamer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goim, these kings made war with Bera, king of Sodom, and Bersha, king of Gomorrah, Shidnab, king of Adma, Shember, king of Zebuim, and the king of Bela, that is,

Zor. In all these joined forces in the valley of Sidim, that is, the Salt Sea.

Twelve years they had served Keturlamer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

In the fourteenth year, Keturlamer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the

Rephaim in Ashtaroth Qarnaym, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shavah Kiriatham, and the

Horites in their hill country of Sir as far as El -Paran on the border of the wilderness.

Then they turned back and came to En -Mishpat, that is, Kadesh, and defeated all the country of the

Amalekites, and also the Amorites who were dwelling in Hazazan Tamar. I'll take a deep breath here, that was a lot.

So we see that the kings in the south, for twelve years, have rebelled against the kings of the north.

So all of this is taking place, you can follow my laser pointer here, all of this is taking place in this region, right here, in the eastern half, and I'll get into more detail here in a second.

So we see here that the kings in the south, after twelve years, rebelled against the kings of the north. There is one king in the north who seems to have the most power, and that is

Keturlamer. His name is mentioned several times. These kings of the north, led by this man, obviously don't like the fact that these people are rebelling against them.

So what do they do? They try to squash the rebellion. And this might sound familiar, because this is what happened in our country.

In the late 1700s, of course, Great Britain, our country, what it is today, was colonies of Great Britain.

And so they ruled, and what happened is the rebels, who were the colonists, they wanted their own country.

The British were taxing them, there was of course the Boston Massacre, there was lots of reasons why they were upset, and they wanted freedom.

And so what happened is the Revolutionary War. And this was a fight for several years, the

Declaration of Independence was written, and then after that, the Americans, the colonists, defeated, eventually, the

British, as George Washington led the way. And so the British effort was to squash the rebellion, but it was unsuccessful, and that's why we have a country today.

Now, Ketterlammer and these other kings are trying to squash this rebellion, and early on, they have much success.

Their military campaign runs mostly north to south, you'll see here, this is called the

King's Road, this would have been a main highway at that time, and these kings of the north, they come from this region up here, the map doesn't get that big, but they actually come from an area up here, where Syria is, where Damascus is, and what they do is they march down here and defeat their foes.

Now, in verses 5 through 7, they defeated the Rephaim, the Zuzim, the

Emim, the Horites, and defeated them north to south. Then verse 7 says they headed northwest, so they defeat all these people along the

King's Highway here, the King's Road, and then they go down below where the map is, and then they go northwest, up to here, to defeat more foes.

And you see here the Salt Sea, that would be the Dead Sea, as we know it today. And verse 7 says that they defeated the

Amalekites and the Amorites as they went northwest. So what we can see here is that they had early success, and nobody stood in their way, and they defeated everybody.

But at this point, they have not yet made contact with Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah would have been located right about here, right down in this region, right south of where the

Salt Sea is, or the Dead Sea. And the author Moses here, again, the reason he includes this account is not just to tell us of an ancient war that took place in ancient times, but to give the background of how

Lot got into trouble, and how Abram rescued him. And at this point in the narrative, trouble is on the horizon for Lot.

The powerful kings of the north have just defeated every people that opposed them. Now they're coming for the kings where Lot resides.

And now I'm going to read the trouble that Lot found himself in, in verses 8 through 11.

Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboim, and the king of Bala, that is

Zor, so this is the rebelling faction, went out and they joined in battle in the valley of Sidim, with Keterlammer, king of Elam, Tidal, king of Goim, Amphipol, king of Shinar, and Ariak, king of Elessar, four kings against five.

Now the valley of Sidim was full of bitumen pits. And as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the hill country.

So the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way.

Actually, I'm going to stop right there, at 11. So we see four kings against five.

The powerful kings of the north have four, while the rebelling faction of the south has five.

We can go to the next map here. So this is the Salt Sea, you saw that on the bigger map, so this is kind of zeroing in on that area.

Sodom and Gomorrah, you see Sodom up here, and you see Gomorrah down here. So with these kings of the north, what they do is they go north to south, right, they go south down here, and then they go northwest, and then they make their way over here to Sodom and Gomorrah.

And they're defeating everybody in their path. And once again, it's a train wreck for the rebelling faction.

And by the way, we should be grateful that this did not happen to the colonists during the

American War, because this country would very well be under British control right now, because of that.

And so we should be thankful to the Lord that they won, and he providentially wanted America to become a nation.

And as we just saw, the kings of the north plowed through everyone in their path. And what they do is take

Lot, his people, and his possessions with them. And so verse 12 says, they also took

Lot, the son of Abram's brother, who was dwelling in Sodom, and his possessions, and went their way.

Now Lot runs into trouble that he never should have faced.

At this point, Abram is back safely in Hebron, in the promised land, safe from all of the military action, but Lot finds himself right in the midst of it.

Verse 12 actually says, the kings of the north took Lot because he was in Sodom.

He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he and his people were taken captive. All of this happened because Lot did not listen to Abram's advice to take the land to the north or the south in the land of Canaan.

You can go back to that map, please. So what Abram promised, he said, you can have this land, or you can have this land.

Instead, Lot chose this land over here. That wasn't even one of the options. So he makes a huge error.

And I can't think of many worse circumstances that can happen for a person or a people than being forcefully taken from your homeland.

And this happened to peoples throughout history, and in fact, it happened to Israel later in their history when the

Lord judged Israel by using the Assyrians and the Babylonians to take them from their land and deport them to a foreign land.

And this is how the Lord punishes Lot, by allowing him to be captured. And I mentioned last week, and in the intro, that there are consequences for our sins.

Verse 12 explains Lot's consequence. He was taken from the new place where he lived, and his people and his possessions were taken along with him to captivity, to a foreign place.

And we, in our own lives, face consequences for our sinful actions, don't we? This is our experience when we sin.

Unbelievers, those who remain unforgiven for their sins, face eternal consequences in hell.

And praise be to God that believers don't face eternal consequences. But we do face earthly consequences.

Several years back, there was a pastor that I enjoyed listening to. And not only me, but a lot of people.

He actually became very well known. And it became revealed that there were some serious sins in his life.

So these private sins became public, and so he lost his ministry. He became unqualified, and obviously he dragged his church through a horrible time.

He dragged his family through a horrible time. And eventually they actually had to move out of the area where they lived, because he couldn't do any ministry or anything because of the black eye that he had caused because of his sin.

And this gentleman, I think he's a true believer. And I hope he's on his way to heaven.

And so the consequence that he faces is an earthly consequence. He won't face hell because his sins are forgiven, but there is an earthly consequence.

And Lot experienced firsthand the pain of an earthly consequence of making a sinful decision.

The process is hard that the Lord puts you through when he disciplines you. But the Lord is kind even in the consequence.

Because the Lord uses it to bring one back on the path. We've talked about that the last several weeks.

You're off the path and the Lord brings you back on the path. Psalm 119, verse 67, this is what the psalmist says.

He says, Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word.

So the Lord disciplines us for our good. So this is the first way how the

Lord is serious about the ramifications for sin to believers and unbelievers. Believers face earthly consequences for their sinful decisions.

The second way how the Lord is serious about the ramifications for sin to believers and unbelievers is the

Lord delivers severe consequences to enemies of God's people. The Lord delivers severe consequences to enemies of God's people.

What you will notice is that these conquering kings from the north were content to keep alive the people who stood in their way.

We don't get the picture that they were trying to pillage towns here. They were just trying to stop the rebellion.

And while certainly there were casualties along the way, the main goal of their fighting was to vanquish the threat from the rebelling kings.

And verse 10 says that as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into pits, presumably to hide, and the rest fled to the hill country.

And we know that these kings did not die because the king of Sodom reappears in the narrative following this one that we'll see next week.

But the problem for the powerful kings of the north is that they got greedy. For the most part, they were content just taking the spoil of the kings they defeated.

But in at least one instance, they strayed from this. And what they did is they crossed the path of Abram.

We know what happens when you cross God's blessed man. Abram is

God's blessed man, and they crossed his path. And I'm going to read verse 12 again to show you how these conquering kings of the north crossed the line.

It says they also took Lot, the son of Abram's brother, who was dwelling in Sodom, and his possessions, and went their way.

So while the rebelling kings fled, the kings of the north were content to let them go as they took their supplies and their possessions.

But at that point, there was no mention of them taking any people along with them. But the text says here that Lot was dwelling in Sodom.

So Lot did not flee, and the kings of the north took him, his people, and his possessions.

So he's just hanging out here, and the other rebelling kings, they hide in pits in this area.

And then they flee to Zor to stay away from any more conflict, while Lot stays here, and he's captured.

And what we're going to see is that he's taken back where they came from, to the north. So while the rebelling kings fled,

Lot stays. And further down in verse 16, we see the full scope of what they took. And that is where it says that Lot's people were taken with him.

So this would have included his wife, and anybody else who was associated with him. Now how are the kings of the north crossing the path of Abram?

You know the answer to this from our sermon last week. Lot was

Abram's nephew. Even though Lot did not heed Abram's advice last week, but instead went to the land to the east,

Abram is still devoted to him. And if Abram is devoted to you, that's a good thing for you, because Abram is

God's blessed man. Genesis 12 .3 said that those who bless

Abram will be blessed, and those who dishonor Abram will be cursed. So the

Lord is committed to this man. And if you cross his path, then you're going to face the consequences from the

Lord. And every difficult circumstance Lot faces in Genesis is because he separated himself from the

Lord's blessed man, Abram. But because Abram is still devoted to Lot, if you dishonor

Lot, you dishonor Abram. And the Lord's consequence is coming for you.

So Kedarlamer and the kings of the north would have been fine if they would not have taken

Lot. They probably would have held their power. But now they are going to face the

Lord's judgment. Enemies of God's people face consequences. God is watching and ready to deliver the punishment.

And once again, what we are going to see here is that the Lord keeps his promises. He said it would be this way when you dishonor

Abram. And now we will see this play out. After the kings of the north defeated their rebelling kings and took

Lot and everything he had, a man from Sodom came to Abram to tell him what happened.

Specifically that his nephew Lot had been captured. And this is what it says in verse 13.

Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew who was living by the oaks of Mamre the

Amorite, brother of Eskel and of Aner. These were the allies of Abram. So Abram hears the news from this man who fled

Sodom. And Abram devises a plan to rescue Lot. And this plan that Abram plans pleases the

Lord because he is not being selfish like he was in Egypt. A few weeks back we saw that story in Egypt.

Abram came up with a foolish plan by lying to the Pharaoh saying that his wife Sarai was his sister so that they wouldn't kill him and steal her away.

The Lord, of course, did not bless that plan. He brought it to an end and brought Abram out of Egypt back to the promised land where he belonged.

But now Abram is genuinely concerned for the welfare of his nephew

Lot. And what helps this too is that Lot is a believer. We know this because 2

Peter 2 says that Lot was a righteous man. So he had the Lord's favor even though he made a foolish decision by going to Sodom.

But the primary reason Lot will be helped is because the Lord is going to honor Abram's selfless desire to rescue his nephew from trouble.

The Lord is behind Abram's plan. And so those who are in the way of Abram's God -blessed plan will certainly lose.

They will lose because those who dishonor Abram will be cursed. And in this case, the kings of the north are opposing

Abram. And so they are going to be defeated. And let's see how that happened in verses 14 and 15.

When Abram heard that his kinsman Lot had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.

And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north to Damascus.

So Abram gathers men together to accomplish this mission of defeating these kings and rescuing

Lot. And the first people he gathers are not those in his household, but allies of his.

In verse 7 it says that the king of the north defeated the Amorites, who were dwelling in Hazazan Tamar.

Now in verse 13 it says that Abram is dwelling among some other Amorites. And two of the

Amorites here, brothers of Mamre, ally themselves with Abram. And presumably, remember the kings of the north, they defeated the

Amorites already. And so there's Amorites who live where Abram lives. And so the reason they ally themselves with Abram is because these kings are opposing their people.

And so they found one who is also opposing the kings of the north. And I mentioned last week that Abram was very wealthy.

And Abram was not only wealthy, but he was also a military expert. When we think of Abram, that doesn't typically come to mind, that he was a military leader.

But this account tells this about him. The world at this time was different than it is today.

All the men pretty much had to have some fighting ability because their survival depended on it.

Because obviously if there was an army that came through here, I know that I would be toast because I don't have any of that training. But back then, they do because they had to have that training.

And Abram had trained men in his household who were prepared for battle.

And the text tells us the exact amount here, 318. You think they care about details?

They didn't say about 300, they said 318. These would have been his servants.

And remember at this point, he did not have any children. So his wife Sarai was barren. But these would have been people who were in his household.

Now Abram and those fighting alongside him pursued the kings of the north as far as Dan. Okay, let's look back at the map here.

Let's go back to the other one. Okay, so they're down here.

This is where Sodom is. And what Abram does is he comes from this

Mamre. You see right there? That's where Abram lived. And he comes with his men down here up to this area.

And then he drives these people north, chasing them north.

And then eventually he settles in Dan. And in Dan, which isn't on the map here, that is where they came up with a plan to defeat the kings of the north.

This would have been close to the region where these conquering kings lived. The conquering kings lived in an area not even on this map where modern -day

Syria is. And so he comes up with this plan. And what a wise military tactician does is he comes up with a plan to give himself the advantage, especially if he's going up against a force that's much more powerful than they are.

And that's what Abram does here. It says that Abram divided his forces by night.

He's planning a sneak attack here. They're going up against an army much more powerful than they are, and they need to surprise them.

And the result of this is that they pursue them as far as Hobah, which is north of what the map says there.

And to this day, they pursue them to Damascus. There's still a city to this day in Damascus.

So we sometimes hear about that place on the news. That's the place where they pursued them to.

So Abram's plan succeeds as we knew it would. And why does it succeed? Because the

Lord is behind him. He's invincible here because the

Lord, he's God's blessed man. The promises that the Lord made to Abram in chapter 12, he's going to deliver these promises to him.

And one of those promises the Lord delivered to Abram, besides that he was going to have the land of Canaan and that he was going to have offspring, he also said, those who dishonor you will be cursed.

So that's a promise the Lord made to Abram, and so he is going to fulfill this promise. And it's interesting, when you read the

Old Testament, you see the Lord stand by his people over and over again. The Lord would enable

Israel to be victorious when they went up against foes bigger and mightier than they were.

And one author commenting on this account in Genesis 14 said that later Israel would be able to read this and see that the

Lord was with Abram and wiped out his enemies before him, and so they would be able to drive out their enemies too.

So once Abram and his men drive out these forces, he is able to accomplish his mission.

And remember what the mission is? To bring his nephew Lot to safety.

Verse 16, Then Abram brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsmen

Lot with his possessions, and the women and the people. So the first clause says that Abram brought back all his possessions, and the second one says that he brought back the people,

Lot specifically. And the Lord was with Abram, and because the mighty kings of the north opposed him, they met their demise.

Those who dishonor Abram will be cursed. The kings of the north were enemies of God's people and the plans of God's blessed man

Abram. And as we think about what is this application for you, in the 21st century, in the

St. Croix Falls area, what is the application? As a believer in Christ, you have enemies too. And they will meet their consequences.

The Bible just assumes that you're going to have enemies. It doesn't say if you have enemies, it just says love your enemies.

It assumes that you're going to have enemies. And the Lord notices your enemies. And you might say,

I don't remember experiencing any persecution from anybody. And so you might have to ask the question, well, number one, are you a true follower of Christ?

And the second question is, how closely are you following Jesus? The closer you walk with Christ, the more conflict you will run into with unbelievers.

2 Timothy 3 .12 says, All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

That's a powerful verse. All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

That doesn't mean death, necessarily. It doesn't mean physical harm, necessarily, although it could. But it means insults would be persecution.

Being maligned in some way. You may receive verbal insults at school, in the workplace, from a family or friend.

You might not get a promotion at your workplace because you're a Christian. You might lose your job because you're a

Christian. That would be persecution. And a day may come where you may be harmed physically for standing with Christ.

Millions of people have died for the name of Christ, down through church history, and those who have died in faith enter safely to the presence of God, while the enemies of God who harmed them will face eternal consequences if they do not repent.

In 2 Peter 2 .9 says this, It says, The kings of the north who stood in the way of God's people,

Abram and Lot, faced the earthly consequence of humiliating defeat against a much smaller army.

And if those kings never became a believer in the one true God, they would too face an eternal consequence.

And that's what happens, the consequences of God's enemies. It's an eternal, it's not just an earthly consequence.

But with a believer, it is just an earthly consequence. So this is the second way how the Lord is serious about the ramifications for sin to believers and unbelievers.

The Lord delivers severe consequences to enemies of God's people. So what we've seen today, as an overview, is the

Lord is serious about these ramifications for sins for believers and unbelievers. Believers face earthly consequences.

Unbelievers face earthly consequences and eternal consequences. And all this happens because the

Lord is just. And He is faithful to His people. He is just because He's not going to overlook sin.

He loves you too much to leave you, as a follower of Christ, in sin. And sin deserves punishment.

And what is amazing about the Gospel is that Christ paid for the sins of anyone who would believe in Him when

He died on the cross. God's justice took place as Christ bore His Father's holy wrath. And through Christ's substitutionary death,

God made it so that you could be forgiven. That's the greatest news in the world.

And what is also amazing is that when we get ourselves into trouble by sinning, like Lot did, God is kind enough to rescue us and get us back on the path.

And this shows God's faithfulness, which is a theme we're pretty much seeing every single week as we go through Genesis.

And so we see His faithfulness and we see His judgment of the ungodly. And we see that He disciplines

His people and stands with them and gets them back on the path. Now next week, we will look at the story of Abram and Melchizedek.

Melchizedek is kind of a mystery man. Who is this guy? Because the New Testament talks about him. Who is this guy?

We're going to find out the identity of Melchizedek next week. And I look forward to opening that with you.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, as we close here,

I am so grateful, Lord, for the opportunity, Lord, to dig into Your Word. Because, Lord, Your Word is relevant to us.

Genesis 14 has something to say to us who live in the 21st century.

And Your Word has power. It has power to transform our lives.

And so, Lord, every week as we open up the Bible, I pray that we would remember that, Lord. Man's wisdom cannot change anybody.

Your Word changes people. So that's why we go through the Bible. To see the treasures that are there.

To see the impact that it will have on our lives. That we would become more like You. And so I pray that this would take place, not only today, but week after week as we open up Genesis.

As we open up the Word of God. In Jesus' name, Amen. So I'm going to come...