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Good morning again. If you have
your Bible with you, let me encourage you to open it to Genesis chapter
18. Genesis chapter 18, we're gonna
flip around a little bit today. We're gonna begin there. Title of the message is The Fellowship
of God with Abraham. Now as we begin here, let me
remind you of some words that were spoken by the Apostle Paul
and written down by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 15 and
verse 4. It says, For whatever was written in the former days
in the Old Testament was written for our instruction, that through
endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we would have
hope. You know, when you look at the Old Testament, we need
to keep in mind that what was written there was for our learning. And though all the Bible is for
us, there are things not written directly to us as we have the
epistles in this dispensation of the church. But we oftentimes
through reading the Old Testament can recognize that there's stories
and principles that are communicated that illustrate principles that
have already been established in the New Testament. And we're
gonna see that as part of our study in Genesis 18 this morning.
We're gonna observe some things about Abraham and recognize that
what he was doing there was illustrating principles that all of us, God
would have all of us to know. So if you think of Abraham's
journey thus far, he's made some progress. He's been doing what
we as believers in Christ are designed to do and commanded
to do, and that's grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.
He's had some failures. I know that's shocking because
we've never had any, right? But through it, he's been strengthened
in faith. Romans 10, 17 says that faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the word of God, and so God has designed the word
of God to initiate a response of faith even in our lives and
be strengthened by it. And so this is important even
as we think a description of biblical faith we've used throughout
this series. It includes an admission of our
spiritual inability and that's a, we always need to recognize
that without Christ we can do nothing and we are helpless not
only to work for salvation but even to handle our own life apart
from God's grace provision. as revealed in his word. Your
faith is necessary for spiritual growth as is mine. If you've
attended IBC for some time, you recognize that that is required
for spiritual growth and that it's God's will that you grow.
We're told in 2 Peter 3.18, but grow, and this is a command,
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To him be glory both now and forever, amen. These are the
famous last words of the apostle Peter. And so this is a present
tense command. We're not to grow to a point
and then stop. It's to be ongoing, it's to be to continue, be continue. Easy for me to say. You know,
we see that even in the physical realm. The expectation that when
children are born is that normally that they would grow up physically
and as they're nourished, they do. In fact, we would think that
there's something terribly wrong if we didn't observe that going
on. And that's true even emotionally, intellectually, and so forth.
And God's expectation for his children is that we would grow
as well. That salvation from sin's penalty
is not an end in itself. We're to continue to learn and
to grow and increase in knowledge and understanding of our Savior. And even understanding grace
and our application of grace. This is God's will for you, this
is God's will for me. Now like in the life of Abraham
and our lives as well, it takes time. It takes time to understand
what you have in Christ, who you are in Christ, and the principles
and precepts that make up the Christian life. It takes time
to understand how they fit and how without Christ they can't
be applied. And so that's all part of it.
But that's not gonna happen apart from you getting fed the word
of God. If you're gonna grow in the grace, knowledge of the
Savior, you need to be fed. In fact, we're told here, same
epistle, Peter says, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of
the word, that you may grow thereby if indeed you have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. And you get a taste of God's
amazing grace the moment you get saved, when you realize that
the best you had going for you was a filthy rag and that God
didn't want it, and it has nothing to do with the removal of your
sin. And you begin to taste of the grace of God as you recognize
that Jesus Christ tasted death for you and for me. Hebrews 2.9
says, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the
angels. In other words, he became a man for what purpose? For the
suffering of death. He's now crowned with glory and
honor. But he did it that by the grace of God, he might taste
death for everyone. Everyone, and the word taste
there means to experience something. You know, when you put food in
your mouth and you taste it, you're experiencing that. And
that's what Christ did on the cross. I like how 2 Corinthians
8, 9 reminds us of what Christ did for us. For you know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your
sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become
rich. You know, we can never be worthy of the Savior's love.
And yet in grace, he emptied himself of his privileged position
in heaven. He became poor so we could become
rich in him. I mean, amazing humility on his
part to empty himself so that we could freely benefit from
his love. Amazing. And so he demonstrated
his love on the cross, he died for our sins, he effectively
eliminated the very thing that separated us from a holy God.
And so when you trusted Christ as your savior, you immediately
got a taste of that amazing grace. And that's to be the impetus
for further growth. Again, salvation in first tense has never been
designed to be an end in itself. And we think of this word desire
here. That's in the act of voice. In other words, you are to volitionally
choose to desire this. And the pure milk of the word
is what you're to desire. The pure, unadulterated living
word of God which is able to save your souls. In fact, the
word desire carries the idea of lovingly longing for something. And that's interesting, I mean,
if you wake up in the morning and you have zero desire for
the word of God, just think about that for half a second. This
is what we need so we can grow. You know, babies can't grow without
milk, and they actively desire it. In fact, when they don't
get it, they let you know. They want it, and they want it bad,
and they want it now. And so that's to be the mindset
of each believer in Christ when it comes to the word of God.
And not the watered down stuff, the pure stuff. And again, because you've tasted
and seen that the Lord is gracious, that's to be the impetus for
you to do it. Because you know this is what satisfies your soul.
Just like a baby is satisfied with his mother's milk. In fact,
the curious idea of eagerness. And eagerness is a key ingredient
when it comes to spiritual growth. And we're gonna see this attitude
demonstrated beautifully even by Abraham in the beginning of
this chapter. And so God has provided the materials
for you to grow. When you got saved, the Holy
Spirit took up residence within your heart. He can illuminate
your thinking. He has the ability to teach you
the word of God so you can understand what the word of God says. He's provided pastor teachers
to teach you the word of God. But again, at the same time,
learning the word of God is never to be an end in itself. It's
a means to an end, an end of doing the will of God for His
glory. This is why James 1.22 tells us, but be doers of the
word, not hearers only deceiving yourselves. It's easy to be deceived
because you understand a principle and know how it works that you're
doing it, but you may not be. It needs to be applied by faith.
Very important. And this is why God provides
trials. You know, we've said many times an easy life teaches
nothing. And God is faithful to bring you the trials that
we'd rather not have but desperately need into our lives so that we
can be in a position where we can understand and take in God's
word and see a principle and come to understand a principle,
come to understand a promise that we might not learn otherwise.
In fact, this was necessary for the Hebrews. The Hebrews were
in very dire straits circumstantially. They were under a lot of persecution.
And yet, that was part of God's design to draw them to him. And
even the writer of the book of Hebrews said, solid food is for
the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained
by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Apart from an
opportunity to apply the word of God, you're not gonna gain
discernment. You're not gonna grow, you're not gonna see exactly
how a principle fits. You're not gonna distinguish
the good from the best, or good from evil. You need these things,
because God wants you to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
This is how you learn to, in a very practical way, wait upon
the Lord, to walk by faith, to see how God's word fits whatever
situation you might be in. In fact, James makes it clear
that without trials, there can't be growth. The IV of James 1,
verses 2 and 3 says, consider it pure joy. That is definitely
not the normal response to a trial. Consider it pure joy, my brothers
and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, the spectrum
is quite huge, because you know something. The test of your faith
produces perseverance, and we're to let the trial run its course
so God can mature us in him, and we can be more like him.
And again, that cannot happen apart from a trial. And this
has been taking place over time in Abraham's life. And one thing he's had to learn,
and this is the lesson he's learned with regard to an error, is that
we're not sufficient of ourselves to think anything is from ourselves. Our sufficiency has to be of
God. And God's gonna be faithful to make that very painfully clear
to him. But that's the outcome of growth,
to understand that I'm not sufficient, that Christ is sufficient. Like
John the Baptist said, he must increase and I must decrease.
And so Abraham's growing through failures and through taking God
by faith, through further revelation that he's received from God.
I mean, throughout this study, God is revealed to him, first
of all, as Jehovah and then Elohim, the all-powerful, all-sufficient
one who called him out of Ur of the Chaldees. Then he came
to know him as El Elyon, the possessor of heaven and earth,
who's able to do exceedingly abundantly above, who said that
since he owns everything, why don't you look to me, Abraham,
and not the king of Sodom? Now I was impressed with, I never
get tired of reading Daniel 4, 34 and 35. Nebuchadnezzar, He said, at the end of the time,
I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven and my understanding
returned to me. It took him seven years to get humbled, eating
grass like a cow. And I bless the most high and
praise and honor him who lives forever for his dominion is an
everlasting dominion. His kingdom is from generation
to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. Who can restrain his hand or
say to him, what have you done? It would have been much easier
for him to learn that the easy way than the hard way. But like
most males, it takes the hard way for him to get it across.
And then Abraham came to know God as El Roy through the circumstances
that surrounded Hagar. El Roy is the God who sees. In fact, that answers the question,
where is God when it hurts? And the answer is He's right
there. He's the God of all comfort. He's the God of all grace. He's
there to give you the grace and help that you need and the mercy
you need in whatever circumstance you're in. And that's, again,
why we're told boldly to come to the throne of grace to receive
those things that we need. You know, the God who sees doesn't
meet a beat. His eyes are not shut. He's not
slumbering. He's ever watchful. He's ever
faithful. And that's why even through that
chapter, we said those that wait for the Lord are never disappointed. I mean, do you see that all these
names that we've looked at that God has called and even calls
himself are the very things that comprise him as your heavenly
father, who sees you, who knows you intimately, who cares above
measure, and has got to plan through it all? If you want to
have peace in your heart, do that. If you don't, don't. I mean, it seems on a fairly
regular basis, every believer's gotta come to a point where they
remind themselves that all things are working together for good.
Because life has got one curve ball after another. Now last
chapter we saw that God introduced himself to Abraham as El Shaddai. The name that stresses God's
comfort, displaying his power as almighty God. And we saw that
the word Shaddai was derived from the root word Shad, refers
to a mother's breast, which sustains a newborn infant. It conveys
love and tenderness and mercy. And so all that a mother is to
a newborn child, God is to his children. He's the nourisher.
He's the strength giver. He's the satisfier. He's there
to enrich and satisfy your life. He's all powerful. He can do
exceedingly, abundantly above. And these names are there for
us to just stop and contemplate who our God is. And that's the
place of comfort and hope. And that should increase your
faith. It should increase your communion and further trust and
devotion to this God who loves you and gave himself for you.
You know, if you're growing in the grace and knowledge of your
Savior, your capacity to enjoy communion with him should increase. Is your capacity to enjoy communion
with your Savior increasing? Are you growing in a close, intimate
relationship with him? You know, Abraham was called
the friend of God. How did that happen? Because
they learned to communicate. They learned to communicate very
well. They had communion. that's happening
over him. In fact, here in chapter 18,
we're going to notice some more attributes about God. You're
going to see Abraham's response to this, which is designed to
teach us some things as well. Chapter 1 of verse 18 says, Then
the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as
he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. And so
he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing
by him. And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to
meet them. He bowed himself to the ground and said, My Lord,
if I have now found favor in your sight, do not pass on by
your servant. Please let a little water and
be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the
tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh
your hearts. And after this you may pass by,
and as much as that you have come to your servant. And they
said, do as you have said. And so Abraham hurried into the
tent to Sarah and said, quickly, make ready three measures of
fine meal. Knead it and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the
herd and took a tender and good calf and gave it to a young man,
and he hastened to prepare it. He took butter and milk and the
calf which he had prepared and set it before them, and he stood
by them under the tree as they ate. You know, someone has said that
the believer's life can be summed up in four words, sonship, worship,
stewardship, and fellowship. Now, all of those things are
yours positionally when you enter into a relationship with God
through the Lord Jesus Christ through faith in him. You know,
once you trust Christ as your savior, you become a son of God
by position. You could worship him as spirit
and in truth. and you become his servant in which you can
lovingly yield yourself to God and offer yourself in service to him and really
become a friend of God's. And so what we have going on
here is a picture of fellowship, fellowship. So I have on your
handout a question, what is fellowship with God? This is one way of
putting it. Fellowship with God carries the
idea of a joint participation with God, some interaction going
on, a sharing in common or communion with God. It speaks of more than
just knowing the Lord, it speaks of an ongoing joint participation
or enjoying of that relationship with the Lord. You were created
for that relationship. I like how, you know, it speaks
of intimacy, it speaks of harmony, of like-mindedness. The ability
to share with and communicate with each other. You know, God
wants your fellowship. He created you for that. In fact,
that's what's going to go on for all eternity. Jesus said
this on the eve of his crucifixion with his disciples as he's praying.
to his heavenly father, as you have given him authority over
all flesh, in reference to himself, that he should give eternal life
to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life,
that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
you have sent. You know, verse three tells us
that they may know you, purpose clause. in the Greek, know you intimately.
It's the Greek word ginosko. And so possessing eternal life
means coming to know the true God and knowing the one he has
sent, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Christ not only came to
give you life, but to have an abundant life, a fulfilled life,
one that's fulfilled in every way through the spirit of God
and the word of God. You know, Psalm 1611 speaks of
fellowship with God. He says, you will show me the
path of life. Do you want to be shown the path of life? Walk
in fellowship, walk in intimacy with God. Do you want to experience
fullness of joy? Abide in him, allow his words
to abide in you. Christ said this so that your
joy might be full. Do you want to? understand and experience
pleasures forevermore, stay spiritually connected at the right hand of
God. That's where it's all at. And if you're not doing that,
you're gonna look for some cheap substitute that might give you a rush, if
you will, but will fade quickly and ultimately not deliver the
goods. And so here, Genesis 18 opens
up with Abraham enjoying community with God, and is enjoying fellowship
with him in a place of blessing. And so, as we think of the setting
here, three men appear to Abraham at his tent in the heat of the
day. Heat of the day. Now we know, as we read further
into this chapter, that two of these three men are angels, because
if you drop down to verse 22, It says, then the men turned
away from there and they went towards Sodom, but Abraham stood
still before the Lord. If you go to chapter 19 and verse
one, it says, now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening.
And so two of these men that are with the third one, it says the Lord
Jesus Christ were angels. Now, did Abraham know they were
angels? I don't think he did because
we read in Hebrews 13 verse 2, which I think refers to this,
do not forget to entertain strangers for by doing some, by doing,
by so doing rather, some have unwittingly entertained angels.
Angels when they appear in scripture always look like men. And that was the case here. So
who's the third one? Well, this is another appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ pre-incarnate. And notice the word appeared
again. This is how it opened up in verse 18. What can we know
about the Lord's appearance? It was not like merely a vision.
He's had visions where the Lord spoke to him before, but in chapter
17 and here in chapter 18, it's the Lord Jesus Christ in person. So did Abraham know it was the
Lord? I certainly believe he did. Now some don't think he
did, and so they think he realizes it's the Lord when Abraham calls
out Sarah later in this chapter. Because Sarah laughed to herself,
though God heard it and called her out on it. But I think he
recognized the Lord immediately. I'm inclined to think that whenever
the Lord appeared to Abraham, he looked the same way. It's
not like he looked different one time and then another. And so Abraham realizes that
these are special guests. So he says in verse three, don't
pass by. I want to minister to you. And so in verse three we read,
and he said, my Lord, if I've now found favor in your sight,
do not pass by. Don't pass on. Don't keep going,
please. Let a little water be brought.
Wash your feet, rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring
you a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. And
after that you may pass by, and as much as you have come to do,
come to your servant. And they said, do as you have
said. And so Abraham invites the Lord and his two companions
to be his guests. To be his guests. But what can we note here about
Abraham's mental posture? How does he open up verse three?
He said, my Lord, if I've now found favor in your sight, don't
pass on by your servant. How do you find favor in God's
sight? How do you gain favor with God? It's an interesting idea, right?
Well, contrary to popular belief, you don't earn it. You can't
earn an audience with God. The only reason we can come boldly
to the throne of grace is because Jesus Christ afforded us an entrance
into his presence. See, that's the only way to gain
favor with God, is to have applied to your life through faith alone
and Christ alone and he declares you righteousness. You can't
earn God's favor. In fact, that's the whole line
of thinking behind religious activity. People that are involved
in religious activity are trying to gain an entrance into God.
They're trying to earn something. And that's impossible because
those things don't remove your sin. I always like this picture. This is your natural heart on
display. Do not climb, play on, or around the pipe. Okay. No, that's exactly who we are.
When it says wet paints, there's something in us that says, when
it says don't touch, we're thinking about it, it's there. And for
you it might not be wet paint, but there's something there that
incites you to rebel against whatever command you're given.
That's how we are earned. Because we're sinners by birth,
we're sinners by position, we're sinners by practice. We've been
born separated and we've separated ourselves from God because of
our sin. And there's nothing you can do to have your sin removed.
And one of the big problems today, even giving out the gospels,
people don't recognize they're a sinner. Like I mentioned, Jill
had a young lady in her class last week who really wasn't exposed
to any biblical truth and spent the first day getting her to
see that she's a sinner. Because by nature, if someone
doesn't expose that to you, you're not gonna acknowledge that you're
a sinner. And the spirit of God's in the
world today trying to convict men of the fact that they're
a sinner and they need a savior, so that they would humble themselves
under God's mighty hand. See, the reality is, is that
if you're gonna be saved, it's gonna be by the grace of God. For by
grace you've been saved through faith, and that now to yourselves
is a gift from God, it's not of works, lest any one should
boast. If you just dissect these two verses, you see that salvation
is by grace, it's through faith, faith is a means of appropriation
that's non-meritorious, and it's a gift from God. And we get the
contrast in these verses as well. It's not of your, in this case
it says not of yourselves, and it's not of works. Otherwise
you'd have reason to boast. And so if you're gonna be saved,
which you desperately need, it's by grace through faith and a
gift of God. You know, we think grace works for salvation. In
a lot of people's minds, they think it's a scale situation
here. If they think my good deeds somehow
will weigh my sin, maybe I'll make it. Well, they don't understand
how awful their sin is, and they don't understand that good works
don't pay for sin. This system doesn't work. It's not in the
word of God. In fact, you know what? All the good works in the
world won't even cancel out one sin. One, let alone the thousands
that you have under your belt. And so salvation does come by
a work, but it's not your work. It's the work of Jesus Christ. He came as the Lamb of God and
did something for you to remove your sin that you could never
do. He was innocent, you were guilty. He was just, you were
unjust. And so the blood of Jesus Christ
took care of every sin, and that's mind-boggling if you stop and
think about it. And so what an unbeliever needs to come to grips
with is he cannot save himself from hell. It's impossible. All
the good works in the world won't remove one sin. because they
don't count. Isaiah 64.6 tells us we're all
like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy
rags. And so religion says, you know
what, you gotta do your part. You can't put me in the same
boat as that guy over there who's never lifted a finger to help
anybody. And that's, again, human viewpoint that fails to recognize
their own depravity. And so they think that they've
got some combination of their own effort. It might be being
good, going to church, giving money, getting baptized, obeying
mom and dad, praying, making promises. The list is potentially
endless. And yet we're told in Galatians 2.21, I don't set aside
the grace of God for righteousness would come through my law keeping
or my performance. Well, then Christ died in vain.
Salvation by grace means Jesus did it all for you. You get it
for free. He paid 100% of what you owe God in terms of the penalty
of your sins. He came as the lamb of God, innocent
and pure and took upon himself the wrath of God. And so since
Christ took all of your sins upon himself, He cried out, it
is finished, which means paid in full. The only responsibility
you have is to put your faith in him alone. That's how it's
received. That's why it's not of works. Again, faith is a means
of appropriation. You're just picking up a gift
that someone put on the table. And so that's the beauty of grace.
Grace, God saves according to unmerited favor because you are
unworthy. You have no ability whatsoever to save yourself.
God can never, never, never, you can rather, can never, never,
never earn it in any way. It's totally free with no strings
attached. That's how you taste and see that God is gracious.
In fact, the ESV version of Romans 4.16 says, this is why it depends
on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed
to all. If you had to do one faithful
thing to get it, you'd never get it, because you'd blow it.
It's just that simple. And so Abraham's appeal to the
Lord is if I fall in favor of your sight and Jesus could say,
yeah, you have because you trusted me for your own righteousness. But because of that, notice the
impetus for him to want to serve. Notice that posture. He saw it
as a privilege to serve and to minister. And so what was the
hospitality he displayed? I'll bring you a morsel of bread.
You may refresh your hearts. And after that, you may pass
by as much as you've come to your servant. Verse four says,
please, a little water to be brought. Wash your feet, rest
yourselves under the tree. Does that mindset resonate with
you? In fact, notice some things we can
learn about here, about Abraham and the hospitality he offered.
First of all, whoops, he ministered to the Lord. Now, you may say,
well, yeah, Jesus was right there. But it was the mindset. And this
is such an important mindset. Notice what Colossians 3 says.
And this can't be underscored enough. I don't care what you
got going on in life. It says, whatever you do, and that pretty
much covers everything you do, whatever you do, do it from the
heart as to who? the Lord, and not to the person
you're seeking to minister to. Knowing that from the Lord you're
gonna receive the reward of inheritance, for who do you ultimately serve? The Lord Jesus Christ. And so
who the person is physically, humanly, doesn't matter because
it's the Lord you're focusing on. It's the Lord you're focusing
on. And again, this is a byproduct
of this mindset that we've seen several times. I urge you, brothers,
in view of God's mercy toward you, you've tasted the scene
that the Lord is good, that you offer yourself as a living sacrifice. It's on to who? Jesus Christ. With a desire to be holy and
pleasing to him. This is your spiritual act of
worship. Do you have that mindset? The Spirit of God wants to produce
that mindset. You see that your life, wherever
circumstance you're in, it's a privilege to serve. I thought
of Joseph here today. When he was thrown in the clink
unjustly, what did he do? He served whoever God put before
him. He could have said, are you kidding me? I couldn't have
been any more falsely accused and mistreated and you want me
to serve? He never thought like that. The goal is pleasing who? God. You know, we minister to
the Lord. In fact, we do so because it's
him who works in us and through us for his good pleasure. And that's how you effectively
minister to someone else, because we're channels only of his love
and grace. What else? He ministered personally. Right? He ministered personally. He's 99 years old. He could have
delegated all his work to his servants, but he was involved
to the degree that he could be personally. He took a vested
interest in those whom he was seeking to minister to. It mattered
to him on a personal level. He put in what was necessary
to see that ministry took place. That's the grateful mindset. He wasn't just putting in his
time. He wasn't just going through the motions. This meant something
to him on a personal level. You know, that's how all ministry
should be. You know, if you're working in the nursery, it could
be like, 34 minutes and I'm gonna be out of here, or whatever.
Or you can say, you know, you can take a vested interest in
those children that's onto Jesus Christ. Or if you're serving
in Juana, or Sunday school. Or if you're helping the neighbor.
Or if you're just fellowshipping with people. If you see this
person as someone that Christ loves, and you're doing it that's
onto him, And the Lord, it matters, it changes everything. You know,
we talked about the church at Ephesus a couple weeks ago. They
were perfunctory in what they were doing. They wasn't motivated
by the love of Christ. And Jesus said, this is serious
business and I want you to change your mind about your thinking
right here. And revisit and realize that love is a key component
in all of it. He ministered immediately and
speedily. He didn't waste any time here. All right, in verse
five, verse six, I forgot to read this, verse six. So Abraham
hurried into the tent. 99 years old, that still may
have taken a while. But he hurried into the tent
and said, Sarah, quickly, make ready three measures, which is
a boatload of fine meal. Knead it and make cakes. And
he ran to the herd. Again, that may have taken a
while at 99. He took a tender, good calf. He gave it to the
young man. He picked out the calf. It was a tender and a good
one. He hastened to prepare it. And
he took the butter and the milk which he had prepared and set
it before them. And he stood by them. This is called enthusiasm, baby. You know, God honoring ministry
was voluntary and it's enthusiastic. You know, he could have said,
you know, we're told it's the heat of the day. And the heat of the
day out there is a lot, I mean, up here it's more like it's freezing
outside, but there it's the heat of the day. It's too hot, Jesus,
why don't you just pass on? No, he ran in the heat. Because it mattered. In fact,
he ministered with generosity. He gave him the best he had.
Fine meal, a calf that was tender and good. And just to see how
this makes a difference to the Lord, put a mark here, go with
me, the Old Testament book of Malachi. Malachi for you Italian folk. Notice chapter one, verse six. A son honors his father. A servant honors his master.
If then I am your father, where's my honor? If I'm the master,
where's my reference? Says the Lord of hosts to you
priests who despise my name. Yet you say, in what way have
we despised your name? You offered defiled food on my
altar. Well, how have we defiled you? The table of the Lord is
contemptible, you said. And when you offer a blind as
a sacrifice, is it not evil? When you offer the lame and the
sick, you're supposed to offer the best of the flock, and they
got the lame and the blind ones for the Lord. Is it not evil? He calls it evil. Offer it then to your governor. Would you offer that to the governor?
Here, here's my leftover trash. No. Would he be pleased with
you? Would he accept you favorably,
says the Lord of hosts? But now entreat God's favor that
he may be gracious to us. While this is being done by your
hands, will they accept you favorably, says the Lord of Hosts? Who is
there even among you who would shut the door so that you would
not kindle fire on my altar in vain? I have no pleasure in you,
says the Lord of Hosts, nor will I accept this offering from your
hands. For from the rising of the sun, even the going down,
my name shall be great among the Gentiles. In every place
incense shall be offered to my name, and pure offering. For
my names shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of
hosts. But you profane it, in that you say the table of the
Lord is defiled, and its food is contemptible. And you say,
oh, what a weariness. In other words, gotta go through
this nonsense. And you sneer at it, says the
Lord of Hosts. And you bring the stolen and the lame and the
sick, and you bring an offering? Should I accept this from your
hand, says the Lord? But cursed be the deceiver who has in his
flock a male and takes a vow, but sacrifices to the Lord what
is blemished. For I'm a great king, says the Lord of Hosts,
and my name is to be feared among the nations. Abraham bring a lame chicken? Or do you take the best of his
herd? I mean, do you give the Lord
your junk? Or do you give the Lord your
best? It's a mindset. I'm after the mindset. What else? He served with humility. Notice
again in verse two. So he lifted his eyes and looked,
and behold, three members standing by him. When he saw them, he
ran from the door, and he bowed himself to the ground. That's
humility. He called himself a servant in
verse three and in verse five. He says, I'm your servant. He
called the feast a morsel of bread. And after he fed them
the food, he stood by them, waiting to see what else he could do
for them. You know, this is, again, this
is the heat of the day. This is afternoon nap time, just
like in Ecuador. We went to Ecuador, everything
shuts down between one and three in Ecuador, because it's hot
out. And they take their siestas. So this is during nap time, these
three guys showed up. Abraham says, hey, man, I'm taking
a nap. It's probably I would say that. But you know, he served when
it wasn't convenient. He had unexpected guests. The heat of
the day. Well, I didn't know you were
coming, man. You know? It's not like he had any
forewarning here. And you know, it's easy if you
don't want to serve the Lord to find an excuse. It's super
easy. But that's not the issue for
him and it shouldn't be the issue for us. Because how much of life
falls into your convenience category? I'm sure Andrew and Amanda look
at life that way. Four kids under six, twins. I
start sweating when I think about it. But he also served cooperatively.
He got a lot of people involved. He sought others' help. He delegated
where it was appropriate. It was a team effort. They were
all in this together. And see, this is what Abraham
is modeling for us here is really how we as New Testament believers
in Christ are to look at hospitality. You know, think of hospitality.
What is hospitality? It's a Greek word we're gonna
see here in a minute. I'll let you pronounce it, is
showing love for strangers. That's what it means, love for
strangers, or love towards strangers. It's showing brotherly love toward
others in and out of the body of Christ. In fact, Mortimer Arias says,
the ministry of hospitality is becoming an almost forgotten
Christian virtue in our style of life today, particularly in
big cities with the rampant crime on the streets, their locked-in
apartments, and all their affluent urban and bourgeois devices which
attempt to create privacy in our homes and in our lives. New
Testament, however, teaches that hospitality was a distinctive
mark of Christians and Christian communities. Interesting, isn't
it? In fact, look at some things
about what the Bible, New Testament says about Christianity. Go with
me to Romans 12 to begin with. And I gotta cover some ground
here. Romans chapter 12. Now in the context of Romans
12 here, again we've already looked at verses one and two,
we have a yielded heart here to the Lord, availing himself
to him to do his service. And not think like the world
thinks, because the world always thinks selfishly. But verse nine
says that love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to
what is good, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly
love, in honor giving preference to one another, not lagging in
diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in
hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer,
distributing to the needs of the saints, and there's our word,
given to hospitality. So hospitality is an expression
of a spirit-transformed life by the individual believer that's
already presented himself to the Lord for service. And so this is to be all, this
is something we're all to display to each other. You know, if the
spirit of God has been hospitable with you, showing love toward
you, God desires that you would show that same love toward someone
else. And verse 13 says distributing,
it's a Greek word that means sharing with the saints, sharing
your advantage and your assets toward their disadvantage is
the idea there. It says given, the word given
is dioko, it means to run after, to pursue, to seek eagerly after,
or to seek eagerly after hospitality. It's a present participle, it's
an active voice, we need to choose to do it. And so this is practicing
the grace of God with enthusiasm toward others. It's something
you need to be fired up about, get excited about. And again, in our life where
we got the hustle and bustle going on, we got things to do,
lawns to mow when it ever dries out, right? Mows to feed, bills
to pay. We got things going on, and yet
we're to pursue hospitality. This is what God wants, it's
a mindset, which means it's not gonna happen by default, you
need to think about it, you should pray concerning it, and prepare
for it, and seek opportunities to do it. This is how God wants
you and I to think as yielded believers to him, and we see
it as a privilege to serve. Again, this isn't drudgery here,
in fact, our next I forgot to put this up. Believers are to
pursue it. That's the word given lended itself to. Given to hospitality
means to pursue it. And we're to pursue it gladly.
Go with me to First Peter chapter four. You know, Peter's writing to
believers that are taking it in the neck for Christ, they're
suffering. They've got all kinds of trials in life. And he said,
it's okay, you don't have to do it. No, he says in verse seven,
the end of all things is at hand. In other words, the Lord can
come back at any moment. Therefore be serious and watchful
in your prayers, and above all things, this is the most important
thing, have fervent love for one another, for love will cover
the multitude of sins. And here it is, verse nine, be
hospitable to one another without grumbling. Without grumbling. Our memory work for the month,
do all things without, Complainings and disputings, oh, that's going
over well. We're going to make that the perpetual memory work,
no. You know, this is needed because
as the end time, 2 Timothy 3.12 says, men will be lovers of themselves
and not others. That's the way of the world.
The world is increasingly, it's waxing worse and worse in that
regard. Men have always been selfish, but that display of
selfishness is only going to increase as time goes on. And we're to be the opposite,
because we have the Spirit of God living in us. We should be
different from the world. So why does God want this? Be
hospitable to one another without grumbling. Well, it's the love
of Christ. We love him because he first
loved us. Romans 5.5 says, the love of God has been shed abroad
in our heart by the Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is
love. And love is the key to doing something without grumbling.
Verse nine says there, have fervent love. It means persistent love,
loving with resolve, with earnest, with intentionality, going for
it with all you've got, which means you need to choose to love
even when you don't feel like it. It's not emotional love. This
is the love Christ talked about on the eve of his crucifixion.
A new commandment I give you that you love one another, well
what's the standard? It's I have loved you. Can't
get any higher than that. You're to love one another. By
this all will know that you are my disciples because you know
what sets apart a Christian in the mind of an unsaved person
is the fact that there's love present, especially to the unlovely. So love is going to involve strenuous
effort, self-sacrifice, persistence because there's always
obstacles which are going to hinder you. And the thing about
love, when you love someone, it's natural to think that it's
going to be reciprocated or at least they're going to appreciate
it. And you know what? Boy, don't hold your breath waiting
for that. You'll die in five minutes. You know, some people
simply never appreciate the love they're shown. And you know,
Christ loved you, and until you got saved, you had no appreciation
for it either. And some believers just don't demonstrate the love
of Christ. Not that they can't, they have the same spirit of
God we all have. But he says without grudging
here. And you know, think about it, he says, love covers them
all to their sins. It could be that God wants you to love because
someone took a stand for Christ, and because they took a stand
for Christ, you're holding a grudge against them, and he says, no,
love covers them all to their sins, and they've made your life
more difficult because they decided to love Christ, and you wanted
to love yourself instead, so now you expect me to help them
out? He bugs me. Well, that means it's all about
you, not about the Lord. No, it's just one another. We're
to one another, one another. There's all kinds of one another commands
in the New Testament. But we're members one of another and we're
to minister the same love of Christ to one another that he
ministered to us. And showing hospitality is being part of
the body of Christ. It's part of the dynamic interdependence
we're to have with each other. And it's to be a mutual exercise
one toward another. Why doesn't it happen? Well,
Philippians 2.21 says we all seek our own, so that's part
of the problem. But people don't do it because
it's hard work. It's costly, it's inconvenient, and it may
not be appreciated. But this is why in your mind
you say, you know what, I'm doing this because I love my Savior.
I'm serving the Lord Jesus Christ, whether it's appreciated or not.
That's the beauty of living is unto Christ. You're free. Otherwise
you're in bondage to what so and so thought. Or so and so thinks of me. I
can't think of a more miserable way to live, to live in the fear
of what other people think of you. Mercy. If you're loving
the Lord Jesus Christ and doing what you do is unto him, that
all takes care of itself. But it says, without grudging,
that means without complaint, without murmuring. I mean, grudging and murmuring
and complaining promote resentment and disharmony and discouragement.
The very opposite of love. And then you get discouraged
and say, well, why should I even bother? Well, you're bothering for the
sake of Christ. That's why everything comes down to what do I think
of Jesus Christ? It all comes down to that. And
if you just stop for five minutes and realize he loved you when
you were so unlovely, then it all goes away. John said, my little children,
let's not love in word or in tongue, but indeed in truth.
The idea not word or in tongue only. I love you, man. Can I
have your Bud Light? Remember that commercial? Sorry. But you know what, it's gonna
cost you something, but did it cost Christ anything? What did
it cost him to love you? You know, it's a privilege to
just minister. In fact, believers receive personal
blessing when they practice it. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 13. Thanks. Verse one, let brotherly love
continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers. By doing so, some
have unwittingly entertained angels. And then remember the
prisoners as if you were chained with them, those who are mistreated
since you yourselves are also in the body. That's powerful
right there. Again, it starts with loving
Christ and then loving the brethren. And the strangers here that he's
talking about might be the very ones that are fleeing for their
lives because of the persecution that's going on in Jerusalem,
and they need love, and they need hospitality. They're hard-pressed
to find lodging or whatever, food or whatever it might be.
And I think, again, I've mentioned verse two. I think it looks back
to what Abraham did. I mean, who knows? God may have
put an angel in your path sometime in your past. and you
may have ministered to them. You don't know that. And then how about these imprisoned
believers? They're undoubtedly jailed because of their testimony
for Christ. And this is something that's
important to Christ. They're being mistreated and
you have an opportunity to minister to them. Are you gonna take advantage
of them? Because they're in the body also. They're in the body also. You
know, we're a family. God has placed us together. We're
members one of another and we're to love one another. It's like
me not loving my hand. I hate you hand. It's dumb, right? You know, I think angels, sometimes
when you minister, don't expect angels to come over. You know,
there's times we've had people over and their kids are like
train wrecks, getting into everything. And so parents, let me just admonish
you, when you go to someone's house, train your children, this
you can touch, that you can't, or whatever, I mean, makes it
easier on everybody. Kids are rummaging through our closets. Thank God we had the bedroom
doors shut, right? I mean, some kids are stinkers.
But God says they're angels, so there you go, at least someone
does, right? But you need to keep in mind when you're ministering,
this is something the Lord takes seriously. What did he say to
the people that were ministered to during the tribulation? This
principle is what I'm after here. The king will say to those on
his right hand, come you blessed to my father and inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For
I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave
me drink. And I was a stranger and you
took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you
visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And I forgot
that in the next verse. They said, well, when did we do that?
He says, when you did it unto the least of these, you did it
as unto me. That's the key. And you know, God wants to let
you know that this is not in vain, because he's told these
same Hebrews that were taxing themselves trying to minister
to someone who's in desperate need, God is not unjust to forget
your work and labor, and this is a key here, of love, which
you have shown toward his name, and that you minister to the
saints, and you do minister. And we desire that each one of you
show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until
the end. Don't stop now. Let's all get involved. God's
writing it down. He's looking forward to rewarding
you for your sacrifice to minister to people that maybe not only
didn't appreciate it, but told you it was lousy. You know, I think of Zach, Zach,
Zacchaeus, Jesus came on and stopped and said, Zacchaeus,
I'm coming to your house today. And if the Lord said, Joe Blow,
I'm coming to your house today, would you say, well, I don't
have time today, Lord, I'm busy. I got things to do, I got lawns
to mow. He said, you know what, that's
okay, I'll just go to someone else's house. Zacchaeus, it's a privilege. We're running out of time. The
church leaders are to practice this, I'll put it up here. This
is a faithful saying, if a man desires the position of a bishop,
he desires a good work, a bishop must be blameless, a husband
and one wife, temperate, sober-minded, good behavior, hospitable, and
able to teach. We find that the Lord's messengers
are to have it shown to them. We're close, let's go to 3 John.
We'll just briefly go through this and call it a day. This is itinerant preachers of
the gospel. Verse five, beloved, you do faithfully
whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers who have borne
witness to your love before the church. If you send them forward
on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well.
Because they went forth for his namesake, taking nothing from
the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive
such that we may become fellow workers of their truth. In other words, You become a fellow
worker with the one, the missionary, when you choose to support them
and minister to them and have them in your home. They were to receive them and
support them. In fact, Titus says this, sends
Zenos the lawyer. It's a positive thing said about
a lawyer in the word of God here. Sends Zenos the lawyer and Apollos
on their journey with haste that they may lack nothing. Let our
people also learn to maintain good works to meet urgent needs
so they may not become unfruitful. This is what God wants. It's
a mindset that first of all has a love affair with Christ and
realize it's a privilege to give. I didn't talk about the blessings,
I was going to say some more about the blessings and Hebrews there,
but you're blessed. The Lord said it's more blessed to give
than receive. So let's bring this back to Abraham
here. We're out of time so I'll just review this. Did Abraham
pursue hospitality? Yes. Did he do it grudgingly? No, he did it gladly. Did his
hospitality provide a blessing for him? Yes, he was thrilled
to pieces. Did he display leadership in pursuing hospitality? Yes.
Did he use his home and hospitality to support God's messengers?
Yes. So how does this apply to us?
You and I, we should pursue hospitality enthusiastically. You should
expect blessing in pursuit of hospitality now and in eternity
as God's going to reward you. And again, it's just a blessing
to serve. You should pursue hospitality
without murmuring. This is God's will. Those in spiritual leadership
should especially practice hospitality, but so should all saints. Hospitality
promotes Christian love and ministers to one another in the body of
Christ, use their spiritual gifts for God's glory. Hospitality
is just one form of support that should be shown in ministry of
the gospel. This is a way of thinking that
the Spirit of God wants to produce in all of us. And Abraham was
a primo example of that reality when the Lord Jesus and the two
angels showed up. He gave him his best for the
glory of Jesus Christ. Should we do any less? Let's
pray. Father, thank you for your grace.
We know that we are what we are by the grace of God. Thank you
for being hospitable toward us. and loving us when we were unloving
and sending your son to go to the cross and die in our place.
May we have the mind of Christ through the word of God. May
we duplicate what the spirit of God wants to produce in all
of us for Christ's glory and being hospitable one to another.
What a privilege it indeed is. We know that your calling is
your enabling and so your grace is sufficient for these things.
So I ask that the spirit of God will work in all of our hearts
so we love one another with a pure heart firmly for your glory.
Pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.
The Fellowship of God with Abraham
Series Abraham
| Sermon ID | 623241519384767 |
| Duration | 1:03:09 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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