Please turn with me now in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 14. Genesis chapter 14, that's page 12 in the Pew Bible. Genesis chapter 14, beginning with verse 1, this is the word of God, receive it with a believing heart. At this time, Amraphel, king of Shinar, Ariak, king of Elessar, Kidur-Leomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goim, went to war against Bira, king of Sodom, Beersha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Adma, Shemeber, king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela, that is, Zoar. All these latter kings joined forces in the Valley of Sidim, the Salt Sea. For 12 years, they had been subject to Kedorlaomer, but in the 13th year, they rebelled. In the 14th year, Kedor Laomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephites in Ashtaroth-Qarnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh-Qiriyeth-Tiim, and the Horites in the hill country of Sirr, as far as El-Paran, near the desert. Then they turned back and went to En-Mishpat, that is Kedesh, and they conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites as well as the Amorites who were living in Hazazan-Tamar. Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela, that is, Zoar, marched out and drew up their battle lines in the Valley of Siddim against Kidor Laomer, king of Elam, Tidal, king of Goim, Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Ariak, king of Elisar. Four kings against five. Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of the men fell into them and the rest fled to the hills. The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food. Then they went away. They also carried off Abram's nephew Lot and his possessions since he was living in Sodom. One who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the great trees of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshcol and Aner, all of whom were allied with Abram. When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan. During the night, Abram divided his men to attack them, and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people. After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, The king of Sodom came out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh, that is, the king's valley. Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God most high, and he blessed Abram, saying, blessed be Abram by God most high, creator of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high who delivered your enemies into your hand. Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. The king of Sodom said to Abram, give me the people and keep the goods for yourself. But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have raised my hand to the Lord, God most high, creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, I made Abram rich. I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me, to Onair, Eshkol, and Mamre. Let them have their share." Thus far, God's word. And may he add his blessing to it as we reflect upon it this morning. If you're at all like me, you look at the vast majority of what is related in Genesis chapter 14 and you say, what on earth is this about? It's one of those passages of scripture that at first glance just appears to be a random snippet of history that somehow made it into the Bible. And surely at least verses one through 10, it just seems kind of irrelevant, something of a distraction really from the account of Abram. But it is when we come face to face with these passages, passages like these, that's when we have the opportunity to learn most about how to read and to understand the word of God. I was reading this with my children last night following dinner, and we were talking about it, and I was asking them, why is this in the Bible? And they had some good answers. One of the answers was that, well, it's about Abram. That's why it's in the Bible. That's a solid answer. But then I proceeded to point out, okay, but, We have 100 years of Abram's history accounted to us. The Bible is more or less silent on the first 75 years of Abram's life. We encounter him at the age of 75, and he dies at the age of 175. A lot of history happens in 100 years. So why do we have the selected accounts that we have concerning Abram's life? Why is this a part of what we have concerning the history of Abram's life and his faith in the Lord God? And what I believe, looking at Genesis chapter 14 and considering what it relates to us, what we have is really a picture of the greatness of faith. The greatness of faith. And that is going to be our theme this morning, contrary to what you have in your bulletins. And we're going to consider chapter 14 in three movements. In the first place, we're going to consider a world at war in verses one through 12, a world at war. Well, Genesis chapter 14, verses one through 10 confronts us with an image that captures life east of Eden. That is to say, this is a picture of real life. This is a picture of real life after the entry of sin into the world. This is a picture of the reality in which not only every human being, but also the children of God in which we live and walk on a day-to-day basis. It is a world at war. It is a world of warfare. And so we see that even as we watch history unfolding in our own day, as we read in our newspapers, we see on our news channels, we see the aspirations of men, the lust of men for money, for power, for control, that pursuit of what we call empire, that is nothing new. No, in fact, this is precisely what men and women have been doing ever since the entry of sin into the world. Now we find in verse 4 a costly act of defiance. We read in verse 4, for 12 years they, that is, the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboim, and the king of Bala. We're going to call them the Dead Sea Kings, because they are all more almost like chieftains, perhaps. They're kind of all located around the Dead Sea Basin, and so that's what we're going to refer to them as, the Dead Sea Kings. These guys, for 12 years we read, they had been subject to this guy, Kedor Laomer, the king of Elam, but in the 13th year, they rebelled. You see, they were in a relationship which we find so frequently in the Word of God and throughout the history of the world, in which they were being taxed. in which they were having to pay annual tribute to a power, a kingdom, greater than themselves. And of course that has a significant economic impact and it's not hard to understand why it was that after 12 years of this arrangement, these kings in talking together decided that it was time to throw off the iron bands imposed upon them. But this is quite an act of defiance, because in terms of scale, in terms of power, there's just simply no comparison. There's five kings here in the Dead Sea area. There's four kings that come in total in Cedar-Leomer's group. But in terms of the size of their kingdom, the scope of their power, there's absolutely no comparison. Perhaps what they're bargaining on at this point is distance. After all, the Dead Sea, you know, it might be a pretty insignificant area, and maybe he won't really notice, maybe it won't really be a big deal if Kedorlaomer notices that we are not paying tribute anymore. But that is not so. We read in verse five, in the 14th year, Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out. And as they make their way toward the Dead Sea Basin, they don't opt for coming head on. In fact, they kind of move southwest, and then they begin moving north. And as they go, every area that they encounter, every rival kingdom or clan, they overcome it. And this isn't just a random assortment of forgettable names. No, I'd like to point out for our benefit, the Raphaim, verse five, the Zuzites, or elsewhere called the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathayim. Almost certainly, all three of these groups are giants. You remember Og, king of Bashan, who had a 14-foot long bed? Gives you a sense of how tall he might have been. These three groups, you see, are part of the giants of the ancient world. These three groups represent some of those who later the spies of the Israelites will go in and they will say, compared to them, we are like grasshoppers. That gives you a sense then of the military power and prowess of Kedorlaomer and the alliance that's moving with him. And you can imagine as the news is gradually trickling to the Dead Sea, the fear that's building in the hearts of these Dead Sea kings thinking, oh no, what did we do? Finally. the army reaches them, the battle is pulled up, but it's a lopsided battle with a predictable outcome. We read this interesting detail, verse 10, now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of the men fell into them and the rest fled to the hills. Actually, probably would be more accurately translated, some of the men threw themselves into them, The question is, is this what immediately comes to mind? Because I'm thinking that you and I were jiving here, and we're thinking gooey pits of tar, right? But it seems quite possible, especially because we encounter the king of Sodom later in this story, that these are actually like caverns, asphalt caverns. And that some of these people who are fleeing, they look for refuge in these caverns while others make their way to the hills. No sooner has the battle begun than the battle is over. And then this detail, verse 12, verse 11 and 12, the four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food, then they went away. They also carried off Abram's nephew Lot and his possessions since he was living in Sodom. A couple of things here. Do you notice what has happened in Lot's life since we caught up with him last in chapter 13? If you look over at chapter 13, We read verse 12, Lot lived among the cities of the plain. He pitched his tents near Sodom. Well, gradually he has made his way into Sodom. This area which in chapter 13 we read was associated with great wickedness against God and men. Lot having moved away from the promise has now ended up in Sodom. And as if the danger that was against him and against his family in Sodom was not great enough, we now find him mixed up in this battle between these two alliances of kings, and he's what you call collateral damage. He and all of his goods, as well as all of the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah are carried off. The point here, is that we ought not to be surprised by wars and rumors of wars. We live in a world at war. And we might like to believe as Christians that we can somehow step out, we can be pacifistic, that we can be on the sidelines, and yet that's never actually truly going to be the case. Regularly, the things that embroil our neighbors, they are going to embroil us as well. But notice that this also functions as a helpful picture of the spiritual life of God's people. We are emphatically in a world that is at war. We strive against the princes and powers of darkness in high places. We'll read more about that from Ephesians 6 next Sunday, Lord willing. And we must never be surprised. when we find ourselves enmeshed in this warfare. This is the world in which we live. But now what we find in the second place is that faith has a world-shaping power in a world at war. We see faith in action. Our second idea here in connection with the greatness of faith, faith in action. And we see this in verses 13 through 16. Now, faith is revealed in two ways in Abram's life in these verses. In the first place, we see faith revealed in love. Faith working in love. We read in verse 14, when Abram heard that his relative, you could just as easily translate this, his brother, that will be important and we'll note why. When Abram heard that his brother had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born and so on. Now notice Abram's commitment to his brother or to his relative Lot in spite of the way in which Lot has dealt with him that we considered last week from Genesis chapter 13. We saw that Lot behaved in an immature and an entitled way that he did not show to his elder kinsmen the honor that he deserved, the honor that was his by right But rather, he saw what he wanted and he claimed that for himself without consideration of his kinsman, Abram. And in verse 11, we read this very interesting statement. I didn't catch this last week because of our translation. The end of verse 11, the two men parted company. It actually could read and should read the two brothers. parted company. The two brothers parted company. By the way, I spent some time with that word brothers this week, and I realized that Genesis, among many other things, is a book about brothers. We have Cain and Abel. We have Jacob and Esau. We have Joseph and his brothers. We have Abram and his brother, Kinsman Lot. And the interesting thing is that in three out of the four cases, we find brothers behaving badly. We find brothers who have the attitude expressed in the mouth of Esau in Genesis chapter four, am I my brother's keeper? And the answer to that question emphatically is yes. Yes, dear child of God, you are your brother's keeper. You are to have your brother's welfare in view. Now that's true of your brothers according to the flesh, your sisters according to the flesh, but that's true of the family of faith. As we considered from Philippians chapter two last week, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. We're coming to that tonight. esteem others as more important than yourselves. And we see that Abram, though he has been badly dealt with by his nephew Lot, yet as a man of faith, his faith reveals itself working in love. His faith reveals itself in going to the aid of his brother in need. Galatians 6, verse 10, we read this. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. By the way, as we noted last week, that does include Lot, much to our surprise, but I do have a correction. That's not Hebrews 11. That's Jude, where we learned that. Jude is where we find that Lot is a part of the household of faith. Abram hears of the distress, the need of Lot, and he goes. His faith acts in love. But notice that his faith also acts in courage. His faith acts, it reveals itself in courage. His courage becomes clear when we consider the failure of the Dead Sea King's alliance against this great army, And the fact that he goes out with what we might call a piddly group of men. Verse 14, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household. By the way, when we read trained men, you ought not to think for a moment this is a military term. It's not. These are simply men that are dedicated to Abram. These are men whose faithfulness he can trust. These are men who are known quantities to him. He takes 318 men from his house, and then we have this mention of his allies, Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner, and perhaps some of their servants with them. In any case, the group with which they now go to rescue Lot and the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah is small. Much like Gideon's army, for example, when he had to have it narrowed down to 300 men. And we read this, during the night, Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, think about that, routed this empire army, this empire alliance, if we can put it that way, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot, his brother Lot and his possessions together with the women and the other people. You see, Abram is demonstrating what is true for every person of faith, that faith breeds courage. And why is that? Well, when you know that the living God, the one who created heaven and earth by his word and sustains and upholds the same, When you know that he is on your side, when you know that he has given you his son to die in your place, now following the logic of Paul in Romans chapter eight, if God be for us, who can be against us? You see, brothers and sisters, the stronger that our faith grows, the more courageous we become. And we become courageous because the truth concerning God becomes increasingly realized in our lives. You see, the fact that God is almighty and the fact that God has your back, that's not an abstract reality. That's a concrete truth. That's something that you can take to the bank. And Abram takes it to the bank. He doesn't stop to think, at least we don't read of him stopping to think, you know, strategically speaking, I don't have a chance. You know, there's two different ways it seems that Abram could have avoided doing what he did. There is the avoidance of indifference, right? Well, my brother has offended me, and so I'm not gonna go to his aid. You know, once bit, twice shy, I don't owe that guy nothing. After all, everything that he has comes from me anyway. That indifference. And maybe some of us have felt that, but maybe more, even more common to us is the procrastination of fear and anxiety, the paralysis of fear that keeps me or you from becoming engaged in something, from coming to our brother's aid. Do you know that crippling anxiety, like what would I do? What good can I do? How much can I help? I'm just one person. What do I have? How can I, can I move the dial? Is that even realistic? And so in the absence of some kind of fleshly power, we give ourselves over to anxiety and paralysis and inaction. But Abram, he goes. Do you see how his faith is growing, deepening? Do you see how his understanding of who God is is growing ever more real in his life and the way in which it's changing him? The Spirit of Christ does the same thing for every child of God as we lean into the Lord our God, as we lean into his word, as we grab hold of and embrace his promises. The psalmist, David, says this in Psalm 18, a selected reading here. With your help, I can advance against a troop. With my God, I can scale a wall. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle. My arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory and your right hand sustains me. You stoop down to make me great. That was true of Abraham. That was true of David. That's true of every person who grabs hold of the living God in faith. He strengthens us. He sustains us. He frees us from the paralyzing power of fear, enabling us to do great and mighty things as we rely upon him. Faith, you see, reveals itself in love, it reveals itself in courage. Faith can never remain an abstract quantity, but it always must be expressed in time and in space. It will be, James says, that faith without works is dead. So then, We move to consider our third idea in connection with the greatness of faith. We see that we live in a world at war, that faith always acts, that it moves. And now we see the blessing of the Lord makes rich. The blessing of the Lord makes rich. In verses 17 and following, we encounter something very interesting. After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh, that is the king's valley. By the way, have you noticed how many times the word king is used in this chapter? I don't believe that's a coincidence. No, what we're actually supposed to see here is that Abram in his own way is a kind of king. After all, the Lord had promised him in Genesis chapter 12, is it verse four? No, verse two, I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. In one sense, you see, He prefigures a greater King, the King Jesus. But in another way, He stands as a type or as a shadow, as a pattern of the believer. For we read in Revelation that God has made us kings and priests. Abram has embraced the dominion that God has set before him by faith. He has become a king and now he is received as it were in the king's valley by two kings, the king of Sodom and the king of Salem. And it's interesting, you can tell exactly what the human author under the inspiration of the spirit wants us to think about the comparative greatness or worth of the two kings. For we read that this king of Sodom came out to meet him, but then all of a sudden he's eclipsed in verse 18 by the king of Salem, and we don't come back to the king of Sodom until sometime later. But we find here that Abram is a king among kings, that he's a king by virtue of faith in his God. And notice the contrast in his interaction with these two different kings. You have a king of Sodom, he comes and he makes this demand, verse 21, give me the people and keep the goods for yourself. You see, here's a king like every earthly king. A king that's focused upon material wealth. A king that's focused upon building up a name in the world, accumulating power, accumulating wealth. And he seems to be thinking that that's Abram's interest in doing what Abram has done. And he's saying, give me the people, you take the goods. You got what you wanted, give me my people back and we'll go. He's entirely operating in the kingdom of the world. Notice by the way that he comes empty handed. He doesn't, here's, Abram, this man, this intrepid man who has gone out and acted in some sense on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. But as the King of Sodom comes to him, he doesn't bring him any food or refreshment. Whereas this King Melchizedek, he comes with bread and wine. He comes with sustenance for Abram and his men. And he's operating in a different realm. He's operating in a different kingdom. Verse 19, he blessed Abram saying, blessed be Abram by God most high, creator of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high who delivered your enemies into your hand. We read in verse 18 that he was priest of God Most High. Now this Melchizedek, he's a mystery man. And I'm half of a mind that we have to come back and consider him unto himself next week. So we're not going to say very much about Melchizedek in the broader scope of scripture, except to say this, that in terms of the historic record, this is the only place that he appears. We don't read anything about him leading up to this point. We don't read anything about him historically speaking from this point. We can conclude that he's probably a descendant of Ham because he's dwelling in the land of Canaan, Canaan being a descendant of Ham. And we read that he is the king of Salem specifically, which is almost certainly what we will know later as Jerusalem, the capital of the Israelite kingdom. And yet remarkably, though he is a Canaanite, though he is a descendant of Ham, there is preserved in this man a monotheism, that is a one God worship. Living in a land that's overtaken by idolatry, where there's an idol for every place and there's an idol for everything, he worships. God Most High. Now, some will tell you that that's actually just a pagan name of a Canaanite deity, but clearly that is not so. Clearly, he represents the kingdom of the true God. Abram recognizes that in him, receives the blessing from him and pays a tithe to him. You see, Abram recognizes that the greatness of this feat which he has accomplished isn't in himself. No, what he's accomplished He's accomplished by virtue of the power and the efficacy of the Most High God, the Lord whom he worships. As an act of reverence, as an act of worship, he pays this tithe. Now contrast that with this unnamed king of Sodom. As we've noted, he's somewhat rude. He's thinking in a fleshly way and see how Abram responds to him. Abram says, I have taken an oath that I won't even accept a thread or the thong of a sandal so that you will never be able to say I made Abram rich. That's actually a powerful statement. That's a powerful confession of faith on Abram's part. Because you see, he's relying on the Lord. He's believing in his promises. He does not want to be associated with the wealth of Sodom or the wealth of Gomorrah that is in some way corrupted, tainted by the sin of men. But he is someone who understands what Solomon will say later, Proverbs 10, verse 22, the blessing of the Lord makes one rich. And he adds, no sorrow with it. You see, that's the position of faith. There's no virtue in being poor, inherently. There's no virtue in being wealthy, inherently. There's no vice in being wealthy, inherently. But the child of God does not focus upon the wealth, the goods of this world. The child of God possesses the promises of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. looks for a kingdom that does not belong to this world, a kingdom that is greater than this world, a city with foundations whose builder and maker is God. That's the kind of man that Abram was. That's the kind of person, this is the kind of mindset that characterizes the people of faith throughout history. You see, faith is a great thing. It sustains us in the midst of a world torn by warfare. It moves us to act in love and moves us to act courageously. And it enables us to be content with whatever the Lord gives, whether much or little, because we recognize that all of that is fading. All of that is passing away. And what truly has substance is the word of the Lord. What truly has substance is the inheritance that God has prepared for his people. And so as Abram now returns to the place of his dwelling, he returns in confirmation that God is with him and that God is for him. Dear brother and sister, or sister, that is the same confidence that we may have in Christ today. Will you pray with me? Gracious Father in heaven, We come to you this morning thanking you for your word, thanking you for even these obscure portions of your word, thanking you for the way in which we learn of the greatness of faith by looking at Abram, a man of faith, and considering the way that it was revealed in his life. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would strengthen our faith, that you would continue to eliminate those impurities that yet cling to our faith, that we may look to you, that we may trust in you, that we may be confident in you. We pray then that you would apply your word to our hearts in the coming week, that you would strengthen us and encourage us in our walk before you. For we ask all of these things in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus, amen.