Scripture reading evening is Genesis chapter 13 going to be dealing with this entire chapter tonight. This is the inspired. Infallible word of your God. So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him and a lot with him. Now, Abram was very rich in livestock and silver and in gold, and he went on his journey from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there formerly, and there Abram called on the name of the Lord. Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, and the land could not sustain them while dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's Now, the Canaanites and the parasites were dwelling, then, in the land. Then Abram said to Lot, Please, let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Please, separate from me. If to the left, then I will go to the right, or if to the right, then I will go to the and Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan and Lot journeyed eastward, thus they separated from each other." Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. Now, the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord. And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are northward and southward and eastward and westward. For all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth, for I will give it to you." and Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord." So far, the reading of God's words. Please be seated and let us pray. Our Father, as we continue our journey through The story of Abraham. We pray that you would. Enlighten our mind and eyes. To the great truth. Which are contained. In this passage of Scripture. We pray our father that. Once again, the spirit might attend the listening and. The hearing and the preaching of the word and that you would be pleased to bring forth your word. In the power. Of the spirit ministry in our midst, we pray. In Jesus name. Amen. The story of Abram spans fifteen chapters in the book of Genesis, a little less than one third of the book. It begins with Genesis 11, verse 10, the history of Shem, which is ultimately the history of Abram, which is ultimately the history of the Savior of God's people, and it continues through to Abrams by then Abraham. to Abraham's death in chapter 25. All this to say that we've only begun to penetrate into the life of Abram and into the depth of faith displayed in his life. Now, that last incident in chapter 12 may have left us with a less than favorable opinion of Abram. The deceit that he and Sarai co-conspired in carrying out against Pharaoh. The purpose of that narrative was to show us the frailty, even of the greatest of the saints of God, and therefore to show us our own frailty. and our own simple. And yet what follows this account gives us a greater estimate of one of the greatest men of faith, perhaps the greatest man of faith. That has ever lived. On the face of the earth. And Moses set out to show us the uniqueness of Abram in the first place by contrasting him with law. He shows us Abram's unique place as a man of faith by showing the differences between Abram and law. It's not as though a lot is pictured here as the most wicked man that ever lived. We must be careful in casting judgment on Lot for Peter in his second epistle calls him righteous. Lot, something of a puzzling statement as we seek to understand the scriptures. It's only to say that by contrast, Lot's light of faith is dim. in comparison to Abram. The first point of comparison is that Abram was wealthier than Lot was. This is really the first indication that we get at all, the first indication whatsoever that Lot had any wealth. But we begin to read in the first verse that Abram went up from Egypt to that he gave he and his wife and all that belonged to him. Remember how he prospered under Pharaoh when he went down to Egypt and sojourned there during that great famine that came in the land of Canaan and lot went with him. Now, Abram was. Very rich. In livestock. And silver. and in gold. The original says Abraham was heavy. He was extensively heavy in livestock and silver. And in gold, we know that. Already, from what we've discovered in Chapter 12, that Abram had many servants that he had acquired many servants, he needed those servants to carry all that stuff that he had. as he sojourned in the land, especially the gold and the silver. He was heavy with gold and with silver. Lot, his nephew also, the Scriptures tell us, possessed livestock and tents. Tent is a figure of speech used for the people that dwell in them, and so both Abram and had livestock and servants, flocks and tents, and they needed those many servants as well to tend those great possessions of flocks and herds. The point of this comparison in the early part of chapter 13 is to show us how the trouble arose between them. The life of a nomad required a great deal of pasturage. As they moved from place to place, it required a great deal and their possessions became so great that the Bible tells us here that the land could no longer sustain both of them. There was just too much. And then there's the parenthetical note that the Canaanite and the parasite were also in the land, the purpose of which is to tell us that the only land available to them for pasturage was the land that was not already occupied by the Canaanite and the parasite who were in the land at that time. And so, verse 7 indicates that there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock, and we are left with a great difficulty. That brings us then to our second contrast, the first being merely by way of introduction, and that is that Abram's piety was greater than Lot's. Notice how Abram defers to his nephew in the division of the land by all rights. Abram, being the elder of the two. And being the one whom God had called into the land, should have had first choice. But instead. He defers. To his nephew lot, notice the kindness, notice the nature of the speech, In verse eight, when Abram said to lot, please twice, that's repeated, please. Let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, or we're brothers. Is not the whole land before you, please separate from me is to the left and I'll go to the right of the right. And I'll go to the left and so. While he could have insisted upon his rights as the elder and as the chosen heir of the land, he shows utter selflessness, takes that situation into his hands, determines to act before the peace between himself and Lot could be irreparably marred. He speaks kindness to his brother. He uses tact in appealing to him. We're brothers. One commentator paraphrases the opening line of this appeal. There simply must be no quarrel between you and me. Abram's behavior described here is a good example of the type of works that genuine faith in the Messiah produces. Lot, in turn, does not defer to his elder and to the heir of the promised land. It's not as though Abram is left with an undesirable portion of land as a result, for this is, after all, Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey But Lot takes perhaps the more acceptable of the two portions, the one most pleasing to the eye. We read that Lot lifted up his eyes. He lifted up those eyes from a place to be considered one of the most. One of the greatest viewpoints. In the land of Palestine, a land from which a place from which you could look out over the land that God promised to Abram and see its richness, see its beauty, see it in all of its glory. The valley of the Jordan, or literally the circle of the Jordan he chose, refers not to the whole basin You picture in your mind's eye that the way the land of Palestine lays in the Sea of Galilee north. In the south, the Dead Sea, the Jordan River running in between them, there is this great basin between them, a very fertile land. But the circle of Jordan refers to the land that's just beyond the Dead Sea, so further south. and extend all the way around the eastern side of the Dead Sea, all the way down to Hebron. That is where the southern end of the Dead Sea. That the first point with regard to Abram's piety that he deferred to his brother, to his nephew, to his fellow relatives. He deferred to him. He gives Lot the greater choice between the two. But secondly then, Abram exhibits faithfulness in public worship. Once he made his way back to the place where his tent had been in the beginning between Bethel and I, to the place of that altar that he had built initially when he had dwelt there before. We read that he called upon the name of the Lord. Now, this is the second time that this phrase is used of Abram, the third time in these first 13 chapters of the book of Genesis. And as we've noted before, what this refers to is public worship. And so as Abram returns to the place. That he had dwelt before. He begins. First thing off. To. Institute public worship, now he had. A number of reasons. He had some motivation for doing so. He needed to express his penitence. for what he had done in Egypt with Pharaoh. Public worship is a place in which we pour out a request before the Lord and seek his forgiveness for those things that we have done in defiance of his word. But then, secondly, he desired to show gratitude for the undeserved mercy. Remember, we said that, though Abram sinned greatly against the Lord there in Egypt, that God nevertheless showed great mercy by protecting Sarah. Preserving her chastity. And by sending Abram away. Sending a plague upon Pharaoh when it was really Abram. That deserved the chastisement. And so In public worship, he calls upon the name of the Lord and expresses his gratitude for the undeserved mercy that Yahweh had shown to himself and Sarah. But at the same time, this public act proclaimed the honor of Yahweh, the true and faithful God, whom alone to whom alone Abram described all of the blessings that had come upon him. in the context of Canaan in its idolatry. This is very significant. Picture what's going on here. Abram is a foreigner coming into another land where all sorts of deities are being worshipped, and what he does is set up an altar and begin to call upon the name of the Lord to worship publicly in the midst of an idolatrous community to ascribe glory and honor and praise to the one true God of heaven and earth. It struck me as I was meditating on this passage that this is precisely what our missionaries do when they go into a foreign land, a land where Who knows what is being worshipped? The sun, the moon, the stars, the animals. And they seek to establish local congregations that in the midst of idolatrous nations will publicly profess the name of the one true God in public worship. You see, that's what you and I do when we come every Lord's Day to worship our God. Oh, our country may not be as steeped in idolatry as many nations of the world. Witchcraft. Devil worship even. And yet it can't be argued. That we don't live in an idolatrous nation, a nation that has made material wealth its idol. A nation that has made success and. All of the trappings. Of fame and the honor of men made that their idols, and so what we do. is gathered together. In opposition. Of all that is against us in the world. And we call upon the name of the one true God of heaven and earth. We're scoffed at for it. I've recently one of the ministers of our Presbytery spent some time in Scotland ministering in a church where the pastor was apparently ill and needed some assistance. Upon leaving the church one day after worship, they began to be taunted by some of the youth there in that city in Scotland for gathering to worship. It was only when they found out that he was an American that they had any interest in him whatsoever. Before that, they were ridiculing him for worshiping the true God. But that is what we do as we come into the assembly of God, the assembly of the saints on the Lord's Day. On the other hand, Lot's name is never mentioned in connection with worship. Although Lot has been with Abram throughout his sojourning in the land of Canaan, not once do we hear of Lot building an altar. Not once do we hear of Lot's name associated with anything whatsoever to do with worship. His name is conspicuously missing from any of these references to public worship or worship at all. Furthermore, we're told in verse 12 that Lot moved his tents as far as Sodom. And when this explanatory note of verse 13 is added, it's not only in anticipation of what's coming up in chapter 19. Now, the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord. It's mentioned here chiefly To show lots association. With Sodom. Apparently lot was lured. By the attractions. Of that city. We don't know exactly where Sodom was, but if you think back to that description earlier of the circle of Jordan above the Dead Sea. Jericho, about ten miles above it. When you come down around the eastern side of the Dead Sea, Zoar is thought to be close to the place where Sodom, the city of Sodom, was established. What Lot has done virtually is to move his tent as far away from Abram as he possibly could. It appears that he wanted to disassociate himself with Abram and all that Abram stood for, the righteousness that he stood for, the public worship of God that he conducted, and he drew near. He moved his tent to the attraction. Of that city, Calvin writes, even if he thought he was living in heaven, he'd already sunk almost into hell. This is a sober warning. To every believer. Against flirting. With sin. Against dabbling in sin, thinking that I can indulge myself just a little here and a little there, but I won't commit that great sin that others fall into. It's a sober warning that we should not move our tents near to Sodom, where we can view the attractions of sin that takes place there. Finally, we want to see the ultimate contrast in this text between Abram and Lot and that's with regard to Abram's faith. Abram's faith is pictured for us here as being greater than Lot's. The lifting up of his eyes in verse fourteen is contrasted with Lot's lifting up of his eyes in verse ten. Lots lifting up of his eyes was motivated by a selfish interest, a look to self, while Abrams was a look away from self, a look of faith. That's what faith is. Essentially, faith is looking away from ourselves. Faith is recognizing that there is nothing in me that would please God. Faith is recognizing that I have nothing to offer him, that I cannot merit heaven by the things that I do. Faith is looking away for myself and looking to the Messiah for salvation. That's the only way to achieve salvation, is by faith in that Messiah. in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's what Abram is picture doing you. His eyes are not upon his selfish motive. But upon the promise that God had granted to him, Abram received God's promises by faith. The first promise concerns the land. He was instructed by the Lord to look in every direction. to look north, to look south, to look east, to look west, and to see that all that he saw from that vantage point, all of the beauty, all of the glory of that land was his. He was to look upon that as though God had already given it to him. as though it was already his own possession, even though he would never himself possess that land, but only through his seed, through his descendants. He used to regard not only the land that he conceived, but all the land as his own. It would seem that he lost By not insisting upon his own right as the elder and the heir of the land, God made up for. The promises. That he gave. To Abram. Furthermore, note that in this promise of the land. There is a timeline given. For all the land, verse 15, which you see, I will give to you and your descendants forever. I want to save any further comments on the nature of this promise and the duration of the promise for the conclusion tonight of the sermon. I think you'll see why. But secondly, I want to mention then that God promised to make Abram's descendants as the dust of the earth, just as the dust can't be numbered. So would Abram see the. Certainly, this was a challenge. To the faith of a childless old man. That's what he was at this point, and yet God said that your descendants shall become as the dust of the earth and what a great promise. this turns out to be. Abram was to give evidence of his faith by walking about the land and anticipating the ownership of his future possession. According to ancient custom, a property transfer was finalized by the new owner's visit to that tract of land that he purchased. Much like the owner of a new piece of property, or a new building in our day and time, would go and visit that property and anticipate the time that it would come into his full possession. I did that very often as this structure was being built. I used to come and stand right here and visualize what this place would look like with all the walls up and the ceiling in and all the chairs in place. That's what Abram was called to do, to walk about the land and to anticipate the possession that God would give to his descendants forever. The last thing we hear of this great man of faith is that he moved his tent to Hebron, about 20 miles south of Bethel and I. And there he did what? He built an altar to the Lord. And again, it's implied that Moses doesn't have to supply it for us. He began to call there upon the name of the Lord. I want you to return with me again to this idea of the land and the promise of the land and the endurance of that promise. The interesting thing, as we said, is that Abram himself would never possess the land. It was only through his seed that he would do so. And the whole matter of the land becomes more intriguing when we recognize the fact that it was fulfilled, but never consummated in Abram's descendants. God fulfilled this promise through Joshua, but only partially. We read in Joshua 21, verses 43 and 44, that the Lord gave Israel all the land which he had sworn to give their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. And the Lord gave them rest on every side according to all that he had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them. The Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed." all came to pass. So you see, God had fulfilled. His promise of a land, but as you think about it. The promise was never fully consummated, because what happened after the time of Joshua during the time of judges? We know that even in Joshua's time, they weren't able to drive all the Canaanites out of the land. They weren't able to drive all the idolatry out of the land. Furthermore, during the period of judges, there were times when Israel was greatly troubled by their enemies and the Lord would raise up a judge and he would give them rest in the land. We read that phrase so often in the book of Judges and land had had rest for so many years. But then again. Israel be persecuted by their enemies. Fall into their hands. And then God fulfilled these promises even more so. In. David and Solomon. We read in first Kings four of the great prosperity, the culmination of the Davidic kingdom in Solomon. The great wealth, the great riches that Solomon had, the rest that God gave him from his enemy. And yet what happened later in Israel's history? They went into captivity, they were taken away from the land, the land was taken away from them, they were extracted from it. Taken to Babylon. So. What's the deal, isn't God faithful and true? Does he not finish what he started? The promises that were fulfilled. When will these be consummated? You see, there's a reason. Why? These things were not consummated. Fully. In Abram or his descendants. It has to do with that anticipation. The very same anticipation of faith that Abram was to exercise there in the land of Canaan. The land in the Old Testament Scriptures is a picture of faith in Christ. The land is given as a promise freely, and you notice that Abram only received it by faith. He was to trust God, what he had given would be received by him. Furthermore, both Old Covenant and New Covenant believers possess the blessed presence of peace and rest of God, and both are called upon to exercise persevering faith. But then you see the promise of the land is consummated forever in the new heaven and the new earth and the promised land of eternity. If you didn't have an opportunity to meditate on that passage given to you in the bulletin I want you to turn with me now to that passage and see. This very reality. Lined out for us in Hebrews chapter 11, this great. Hall of faith. Look at verse eight and chapter 11. Which. Instructs us with regard to this reality of the consummation. of the anticipation of possession of. What was promised by God by faith, Abram Abraham, when he was called obeyed by going out to a place. Which he was to receive for inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going by faith. He lived as an alien in the land of promise. As in a foreign land dwelling in the pence with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise where he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith, even Sarah herself received the ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore also there was born of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand." which is by the seashore. All these died in faith without receiving the promises. But having seen them, and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth, for those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Verse 39 says all this. He goes on to describe The additional descendants of Abram, but. Moses said Isaac, Jacob, Moses, so forth, but then in verse 39, he says, And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised because God had provided something better for us. So that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. They saw these things at a distance. They exercise faith in the promises of God, though they had not received in full what God had promised. Why is that, the writer of Hebrews tells us? Because God had something better for us. What he is speaking of, of course, is that eternal city, the city of God, the heavenly realm, the place that is the inheritance, the promised possession of every believer in Jesus Christ. And so we as pilgrims in this world are like Abram. We're sojourning through life. We're recipients of the promise. And God, indeed, does great things for us in giving to us blessing after blessing upon this earth. But where are our eyes of faith to be? Are they to be here in this world? Absolutely not. We, like Abram, are to be anticipating the fulfillment, the consummation of these promises in the heavenly Zion, that place where you and I shall walk, that place where we shall enjoy the sweetest of communion with our God and with one another, that place where we shall be extracted from all of the things that weigh us down. in this life. And so we are called to exercise the kind of faith in this sojourn that Abram did in his as he received the promises of God. May God grant that we may do so. Amen. Let us pray.