Book of Genesis - Ch. 18, Vs. 1-22 (09/17/2000)

Before I get to the lesson, in that wonderful message of David this morning, there was two or three things popped into my mind.

I'd like to share them with you. He was discussing the word obtained, and it means by divine allotment.

When I think of allotment, I think of reservation. And David, the picture that came to me was that in eternity of infinity,

God had allotted a space for every one of his children.

There was a space just for you, or there is a space just for you in heaven.

Jesus himself told us that there was a place reserved for us. That's individual.

No one else can fill it. That's how sure he was that you would be there. Then he spoke of foundation.

And I mentioned this Friday night, but I want to mention it here. The foundation of our

Christian life is what? Christ.

And it is applied to us by grace and faith, right? I think one of the problems with so many

Christians, they don't understand that. And they're trying to build the foundation with stones that belong in the building.

Those things that belong in the building will not work in the foundation, such as love, prayer, obedience, patience.

This is part of the building, not the foundation. Then he spoke about knowledge.

And I saw several pipelines. We have a line that through it oil flows, another one gas flows, another one water flows.

Now the one that has the oil, what do we call that line? No, no.

You're out in the field now. What do we call it?

Oil line. Boy, I tell you, if one is bringing water, what do we call it?

Now you got it. Is gas called a gas line then?

All right. We have some flowers, make -believe flowers in a bouquet.

They come to us in the form of a bouquet, but that's not the flower. The bouquet is not the flower.

The flower is in the bouquet. You with me? We have then patience, love, understanding, study that comes to us.

How? In what kind of a pipeline? He told you this morning.

What? No. It's what?

No, this is a guessing game. You have to guess what I'm thinking of.

You use the word knowledge so many times.

Knowledge is not the study, the obedience, the prayer.

That's what comes by knowledge, through knowledge. Knowledge is just the pipeline. In fact, that's what you said this morning, is the conduit through which it flows.

So don't think that just because you have knowledge, you have anything. You don't. Knowledge is nothing.

It's only a carrier. Okay. Well, it's not worth anything unless there's something in it.

All right. Now chapter 18, verse one, and the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre.

And he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. Verge, what time was it?

Okay. Here it'd be from 12 to five sometime in the afternoon.

And in the tent, in the doorway of his tent. Bill, why was he in the doorway?

Why? Okay. So here he sits now, waiting to entertain any weary traveler, as well as communing with God, with reflecting on his own thoughts.

Wondering why he didn't have a son yet. Thought he did have a son. And he saw three men coming.

Now, we know they are heavenly beings. And we know, since Abraham or Abram did not have the privilege of reading verse one, we also know that the

Lord is in this group. Because it says, the Lord appeared unto him. Well, he's one of these three that's coming.

And he lifted up his eyes and he looked, and lo, three men stood by him.

That's not right. They were still coming. But it's presented to us as though they were standing there.

And lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground.

This is customary when an important person comes.

If it had not been an important person, he would have simply stood where he was and waited for them to come to him.

But there was something different about these. He ran to meet them.

He went toward them. So he could tell by their dress, later by their speech, and later yet by a spiritual connection.

But he knew these were of a superior rank. The custom, as I said, is to advance a little toward a stranger.

Then after a very low bow, turn and lead him to the tent, putting your arm around him or touching him to assure him that he is welcome.

So David, we see that religion does not destroy our manners, it improves it.

Verse three, and said my Lord, and the word is Adonai, if now

I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. Let a little water,

I pray thee, be fetched and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree.

Greg, why in the world did he want to wash their feet or have their feet washed?

All right. But they had high top boots on. What did they wear?

Sandals. This was very necessary.

It exposed his hospitality. It's difficult for us in this day and time, in this place, to understand the hospitality that the

Eastern people have, even to this day. He says,

I will fetch a morsel of bread, comfort your hearts. After that, you shall pass on.

Now listen, for therefore are ye come to your servant.

And they said, so do as thou hast said. Now David, in that fifth verse,

Abraham says, for therefore are you come to your servant.

What's that mean? All right.

Anyone else have any thoughts on his statement? Yes? No, not yet.

He knew they were different. Well, it's written that way for us, and perhaps he did.

We're not told, but I rather suspect that he did not. But what does he mean?

This is why you've come to me. You learn anything?

All right.

The lesson I saw here was that everyone that comes to us comes because of one or two things.

One, God ordained it. Two, that we can express our

Christian duty. He brings no one to us to ignore.

Now, that does not mean you have to take them in. It does not mean you have to agree with them, but you must handle them.

You must do something. Every one of us are exactly where we're supposed to be.

If Abraham had not been here, look what he would have missed. But God saw to it that he didn't miss it.

Abraham didn't know that. He didn't know what was coming. He would just perform in his duty.

That's all we're supposed to do. Just perform our duty with whatever he gives us, wherever we are right now.

Don't worry about anything else. Six, and Abraham hastened into the tent unto

Sarah and said, make ready quickly three measures of fine meal.

Knead it and make cakes upon the hearth. Three measures of fine meal. Who can tell us how much?

Everybody? Six and a half bushels. Three measures of fine meal.

Now, six and a half bushels of flour to make bread. How much bread would that make?

One famous doctor said 56 pounds of bread, yes.

Well, it measures all the way from a peck up to three bushels. All right.

All right, this thought is bared out in the fact that he offered them a whole young calf, butter, milk, bread.

So this leads me to believe that the people in that day and time, Greg, were hearty eaters.

But yes, again, it's the abundance.

And we're not to offer to people just barely enough so we can say we fed them.

Because unless they're full, you don't feed them. You just give them something to eat. Christian friendship will stoop to anything except sin.

Abraham ran into the herd and fetched a calf, tender and good, and gave it unto a young man, and he hastened to dress it.

Now, Russ, why didn't Abraham dress it? Well, he ran after it.

Wasn't that a servant's job? Absolutely.

And Abraham wasn't a young man anymore. Now, the way they prepared it, more than likely, was that they could cook it whole, like a roast over a fire, or cut it into pieces and put it over a fire like a shish kebab.

So it turns out that they were having a barbecue, melted fat, and every morsel of meat laid upon a piece of bread is dipped before eating.

And he took the butter and milk and calf, which he had dressed, and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.

Clarence, how long did all of this take? So he was sparing no expense.

He was not in a hurry. We should never be in a hurry to get rid of that which

God has brought. Fulfill your obligations completely.

Not thinking about anything else, just handle what you have right now.

So many times, so many people attend church and worry about the roast on the stove. You can't worship much like that.

God is a jealous God. He wants all of our attention. So Abraham's standing by him now, and they said unto him,

Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. He could have added right where she's supposed to be.

How did they know his wife's name? Well, I could see that we're more likely to receive comfort from God when we're in our place doing our duty.

And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life.

And lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him.

So she was within earshot. She wanted to know what was going on and did not get so far back in the tent she couldn't.

She intended to know. Now we, in the 10th verse, it changes to one individual doing the speaking.

I rather imagine that it's been like that, except now we're told that there is only one that is speaking.

Turn to Hebrews 11 .11. Greg read it when you get there, assuming you'll get there.

11. By faith, Sarah herself also received strength to see and see.

And she bore a child when she was past the age, for as she judged him faithful, who had promised.

Because she judged him faithful, who had promised. Now back to Genesis 11.

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well stricken in age, and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.

And we find out from Hebrews that it was after that, because she received strength to conceive a seed, which she did not have.

Therefore, Sarah laughed, but not out loud, saying, after I am waxed old, shall

I have pleasure, my Lord, being also old? So it seems to me, joy, that she believed the order of nature rather than believing the promise of God at that moment.

Then the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying,

Shall I of a surety bear a child, which I am old? Now she didn't laugh out loud,

Diane. How'd this man know she laughed? Absolutely.

Well, is it just the Pharisees? No, but I remember that picture of him saying that to her.

That's right. Boy, he knows what I'm thinking all the time.

I'd rather not know that. Well, when all else fails, when the very nature is against the end result that the

Lord has decreed, it is by his own direct decreed power to cause it to come about.

There need not be a cause for him to produce an effect. David, what's that mean?

It need not be a cause for him to produce an effect. That's right.

Is anything too hard for the Lord? The Lord said, At the time appointed,

I will return unto thee according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.

There it is. There's the announcement, Diane, that they both had waited for all of their life.

Sarah is going to have a son. First time that Abraham has been notified that it will be

Sarah for sure. Then Sarah denied, saying, I didn't laugh.

For she was afraid, and he said, Nay, but you did laugh. Is it true that the commission of one sin makes way for the commission of another sin?

She thought because she didn't do it out loud. And so she figured it didn't happen because she didn't do it out loud.

That's proof that the sin is in the mind. In the mind, absolutely. The disbelief of God's word is a great source of many aggravated transgressions.

Every sin can be traced to disbelief. Every one, from beginning with Adam on.

And the men rose up from thence and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.

This was customary. The Lord said to himself,

Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? Now, he wasn't discussing that with himself, as though he didn't know.

But remember, this is written from man's viewpoint. Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.

For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the

Lord to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him.

Now, do we learn anything here? The Lord says,

I know this man. I know that he will command his children.

He will raise them up to be obedient. Therefore, he will receive a blessing of God.

Do you suppose, Joy, that still holds today? Well, but is the truth not still the truth?

That's right. And as you raise a child, so shall he be. And the

Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous.

Now, we know what the sin was. Says, I will go down now and see whether they have done all together according to the cry of it, which has come up unto me.

And if not, I will know. Now, Clarence, doesn't that seem a little bit out of character for the

Lord to be making such a statement? Okay.

In fact, he's not actually saying this to Abraham. It's written for our benefit.

We must understand there is nothing of which the Lord is in doubt. Is there?

No. But he pleases to express himself in man's speech, so that man may see his incontestable justice in all things.

The men turned their faces from tents and went towards Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before the

Lord. So the Lord did not remove himself. He's still there.

And Abraham drew near and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?

That's a pretty good question. The righteous are mingled among the wicked.

Is it like that today, Greg? Yes. Absolutely. We in this world may suffer with the wicked, but not like the wicked.

So Abraham is speaking. I think we're going to stop here and hold this discussion with him because I don't want to break it into two pieces.

Go ahead and study the rest of this chapter, and we'll see how much we can learn about what

Abraham did and how he did it. He lays down a great selling principle here.

Okay. Does anyone have a question? All right. They were angels.

No, I mean the other people around him, and the men turned their faces from tents and went towards Sodom.

Were those the two angels? Yes. And that was all the other people were? No, we're only dealing with three people, or four,

Abraham and two angels and the Lord. Brother Otis, at that time, the

Lord was walking carnally with him, right? He took a carnal body at the time he was talking to him.

Yes. Anytime you see in the Old Testament, the words, the angel is talking about Jesus pre -incarnate, before he was born of Mary.

So this, he assumed a human body many times in the Old Testament, and it's usually identified as the angel, unless it says the

Lord. Yes. He took off the body of a person, but it doesn't mean he entered some person.

No, no. What I was making, that he did take off a carnal body, so that Abraham was actually walking.

With a man, yes. But that doesn't tell us when.

No, he could have known it from the beginning, I'm not sure. Probably when he read

Sarah's lines, it's probably when he read Sarah's lines. I would think so. When they came up and he said, serve him,

I kind of got some pressure. Well, it might be, but at the same time, any host at that time, would have considered themselves a servant of a stranger.

Brenda? Yes. Like we would say,

Mr. He recognized him as the son of the

Lord. He recognized him as the Lord. It's really kind of a moot point, anyhow.

One thing that is interesting, and later, going down through here in the

English, you'll see it's all caps. And L -O -R, the all -caps letter, usually means in Hebrew that it's

God. Yes. So that changes, whereas verse one is all caps also.

So that's an interesting thing to hear for everybody to study for next week. Why does the word

Lord change? What's the significance of that? And it says, if I have found favor in my time.

Yes. It sort of leads to it.

Well, I would like to think that he knew it was the Lord from the beginning. And maybe he did.

Anything else? He definitely knew something unusual.

Yes, he sure did. Virge, would you dismiss this, please? Father, I thank you for this day you give to the world.

I thank you for the words you show to the world.

You tell us to study the world, make it more aware of the Lord. In our hearts, we thank you.

Thank you for the leadership of this church, for what it is in this community.

All these things that you do to the community. Amen. Amen. Amen.