The Friend of God — Genesis 17-19

0:01 And the Holy Spirit has led me to continue your study in Genesis 18. It is good to be here. It is a privilege to share God's word with you and share some of my studies with you. I'm glad that we can also bring or I can bring my family with me. Saw my son Griffith and daughter Bonnie.

0:26 My wife Ann is here. We are expecting another baby in October. So we're excited about that. Thank you. It is wonderful to have children.

0:38 We love them. I'm thankful for them. We say that every day. Sometimes my son says things and you wonder what has provoked him to share these thoughts. One day, sitting at the kitchen table, he looked at me and he said, dad, you don't know very much about God, do you?

1:01 So I said, well, there's a whole lot more that I don't know than what I do know but I know some things and I proceeded to tell him a few things that I knew about god. But what do you know about god? How do you think about god? I think it was, yeah, it was AW Tozer who gave that famous quote. What comes to our minds when we think about god is the most important thing about us.

1:34 So, if you were given an assignment and it was a fill in the blank. God is my And then put whatever you want in there. Or how do you conceive of God? Now of course, there are lots of wonderful, answers that we can say. God is my refuge and strength.

1:55 He is my savior. He is my judge. He is my righteousness. He is my creator. But I wonder how long it would take for me or for you to eventually put in that blank, God is my friend.

2:11 According to the Bible, should we think of God as our friend? The Bible says very clearly we are to think about God as our friend. And to... Today, we're gonna look at Abraham. We're in Genesis chapter 18, and Abraham is given the title in second Chronicles 20 verse seven, the friend of God.

2:33 And no chapter of the Bible illustrates that more clearly than Genesis chapter 18. And in fact, we can divide these 32 verses into two halves. And each one demonstrates or shows a benefit of being a friend of god and in verses one through 15, Abraham enjoys the benefit of fellowship And then in 16 through 32, Abraham enjoys the benefit of intercession. So, let's read through all through 32 verses with those with that outline in mind. Then, the lord appeared to him, Abraham, by the Tarebeth trees of Mamri, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.

3:24 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 and 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 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 that, you may pass by and as much as you have come to your servant. And they said, do as you have said.

4:00 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, quickly, make three measures of fine meal, knead it and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf and gave it to a young man and hastened to prepare it. So 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. Then they said to him, where is Sarah, your wife?

4:26 So he said, here in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return to you according to the time of life and behold, Sarah, your wife shall have a son. Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him. Now, Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age, and Sarah had advanced, I'm sorry, Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself saying, after I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?

4:59 And the lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh? Saying, shall I surely bear a child since I am old? Is anything too hard for the lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son. But Sarah denied it saying, I did not laugh for she was afraid.

5:46 For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him. That they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. And the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to me. And if not, I will know. Then the men turned away from there and went towards Sodom.

6:26 But Abraham still stood before the Lord. And Abraham came near and said, would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were 50 righteous within the city. Would you also destroy the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous that were in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked so that the righteous should be as the wicked.

6:52 Far be it from you shall not the judge of all the earth do right. So the Lord said, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. Then Abraham answered and said, indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose there were five less than the 50 righteous. Would you destroy all of the city for lack of five?

7:22 So he said, if I find there 45, I will not destroy it. And he spoke to him yet again and said, suppose there should be 40 found there. And he said, I will not do it for the sake of 40. Then he said, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak. Suppose 30 should be found there.

7:43 So he said, I will not do it if I find 30 there. And he said, indeed, now I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose 20 should be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for the sake of 20. Then he said, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak but once more, suppose 10 should be found there.

8:05 And he said, I will not destroy it for the sake of 10. So the Lord went his way as soon as he had finished speaking with Abraham and Abraham returned to his place. As I said earlier, verses one through 15 are really under the heading of fellowship. That's the scene. And that is one of the benefits that Abraham enjoys because he is the friend of God.

8:32 Let's take a closer look here at Abraham. He is described as sitting in the opening of his tent at the trees of mamre. Now you've been going through Genesis for a while. And in chapters thirteen and fourteen, we've seen the trees of Mamre. We remember the scene where Abraham and Lot part ways.

8:52 And Lot chooses the good land and famously pitches his tent towards Sodom. Well, Abraham then leaves and goes and he sets up his tent and builds an altar at the trees of Mamre. Now later this guy, Mamre, whoever he is, he helps Abraham rescue Lot after he's been taken captive. So the very scene reminds us of some of the great things that Abraham has done. And he's there sitting in the heat of the day.

9:19 I'm told that right now, the heat of the day in this area, which is which is a current currently Hebron, can get up to 110 degrees at the heat of the day. He finds these men walking by and he does much more than just a polite wave. He invites them in And notice the hospitality of this man, Abraham. He offers them a morsel of bread. That's what he says.

9:46 Get a little drink of water and a morsel of bread. But how much more than a morsel of bread he gives him? In fact, if you go slowly through this passage, it's shocking how much detail is given to the extravagance of this meal. The three measures of fine meal, the tender and good calf. All of this is more impressive when we remember how old the story is.

10:13 This is about 2,000 BC. So you think about all the things that have happened since the advent of the Lord Jesus. And then you do that in reverse from there backwards. And that's when Abraham is alive. So needless to say, there are no refrigerators.

10:29 You can't go to the store and just buy a frozen pizza and heat it up in the oven. Abraham goes all out preparing this meal. He is a man of hospitality. Are we supposed to be hospitable today? Is that something that God values?

10:46 Absolutely. That's one of the qualifications of an elder. In the book of Hebrews chapter 13, we read, And be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Now as we'll go on, you'll find out why I think that's a terrible cross reference for this passage. But I used it anyway because I spoke out of turn.

11:11 But we are supposed to be hospitable. God places a lot of value on that. I know that Anna and I have benefited from people's hospitality. We went to the same assembly, little assembly in Lansing. And we were just college students, didn't have hardly any money.

11:28 We had the meal plan, but that gets old real fast. And every Sunday, every Sunday, somebody took us out or invited us into their home. I think I probably could count on one hand in the four or five years that we were there that we did not go to someone's house for hospitality. So that's worth thinking about just in passing. Are you hospitable?

11:49 When's the last time that you demonstrated hospitality? Let alone the hospitality to someone that you didn't know. But I said Hebrews 13 was a bad cross reference. Now let me explain that a little bit. And that really bridges into my next point.

12:07 First of all, Abraham was a man of hospitality, but also Abraham, and more importantly, Abraham was a man who valued fellowship with God. Who are these three men? Well, we find in verse one, verse one sets up the whole thing for us. It says, and now the Lord appeared to Abraham. And if you look very closely, you look at the word Lord and it's capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D.

12:37 And in our English translations, when it does that, that means it's Yahweh there. Jehovah, the Lord. Unless you have a Darby Bible or the American Standard or else I would be very surprised if somebody had a Jehovah Witness Bible. Usually we have the word Lord in uppercase letters and that means it's Yahweh or Jehovah. So, this is an appearance of the lord.

13:02 Now, for any of you art aficionados, this is not a representation of the trinity. If you go and look up some famous paintings in museums, often these three are portrayed as the Trinity. But instead, look at, just flip forward to chapter 19. The three men and then two of them we find out in verse one of chapter 19 that two of them are angels. But who then is this mysterious other figure?

13:31 Well, there are several times that we have capital L O R D. Moses tells us that it is the lord, that it is Yahweh that is speaking. In verse 13, 17, 20, and 26. In fact, look at verse 22. Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom.

13:54 These are the two angels, right? That we saw in verse one of chapter 19. But Abraham still stood before the Lord. It seems pretty clear. The easiest way to understand this is that this first individual is the Lord himself appearing as a man.

14:19 It is because Abraham knows that it is the Lord. Now Moses tells us, of course, that this is Yahweh that is appearing to Abraham. But we might wonder, does Abraham know? And if so, how does he know? If he sees these three guys, how does he know that one of them is God and the other two are angels?

14:41 Or is he just practicing hospitality? If you were to, let's say color code, just the lines that Abraham said, you won't find him addressing any of the men as capital L O R D. But you will find him addressing them in verse three and he said, my lord, speaking to just the one and then later he speaks to the other, the the group as a whole. The your there is is singular. So the word Lord there is the Hebrew word Adonai, but it's the way we have it in our text, it's to alert us that this is not just like a lowercase L, but this is a capital L, O R D.

15:27 That this is, that Abraham did understand that this person, according to verse three, was the Lord himself. And that is probably the reason. Now how he knows that, I have no idea. Perhaps it is just that he is so close to the Lord. He has such intimate fellowship with him that when the Lord appears, he knows exactly who this is, no matter what the disguise is.

15:52 And perhaps this is why there's such an extravagant feast. Because Abraham is a man who valued fellowship with God. There were no leftovers. He did not just settle for what was lying around. But he goes and he kills the fatted calf.

16:10 How about us? How about you? Do you value fellowship with God? When God shows up and says, I'd like to spend some time with you. Are you the sort of person who would just offer him whatever's lying around?

16:30 Or would you say, this is a special occasion. Let's go kill the fatted calf. Now you only have so many of those. We only have so many fatted calves. But we only have so much time in the day, but do we value our time spent with God?

16:47 Now this, when I talked with Roger about speaking on Genesis chapter 18, I quickly looked it up and thought immediately, oh yeah, that's right. I understand the story. I got the story. I've read this several times. I've been taught this over and over again.

17:02 But as I opened it up and I really studied it, the stranger to this story appears. And I feel like I understand it the least now that I'm actually preaching it. What is God doing? Why is he here? We've considered a little bit of Abraham.

17:45 Sarah will have a son. That's nine months. Well, three months earlier, chapter 17, he says, in a year. Okay, well that's not new information then. It's not to give new information.

17:59 It doesn't appear either that he the way that the text reads, God does not appear to talk to him about Sodom and Gomorrah either. The way that it reads, the way that it's presented to us is that in verse 17, it's as if the Lord says, Should I hide what I'm about to do? No. I'm going to tell him. It's presented as an add on.

18:29 Does God appear to encourage Sarah? Well, certainly Sarah needs a lot of encouragement. She laughs her laugh of doubt, just like Abraham did in the chapter before. She'll again laugh her laugh of joy. In chapter 21, he gives her this incredible question to think about.

18:51 Shall I have or I'm sorry, is anything too hard for the lord? Well, actually, I take that back. Anybody catch my mistake? Who is that question addressed to? It's Abraham, right?

19:09 It doesn't appear that he's there to encourage Sarah, although that happens. The only thing that he actually says to Sarah is, No, but you did laugh. Everything else, Sarah is kind of hiding in the tent overhearing the conversation. After going through this passage kind of exhausting every single option, I've come to the conclusion that the reason that god comes, that god appears, that chapter 18 verses one through 15 happens is because god wanted to be with Abraham. And that's why he came.

19:46 We have the sort of God who, if I could speak in this way, in a very reverent way, he's the sort of person who says, some business brought me in town and I thought that as long as I was nearby, we'd spend the afternoon together. I was already coming to Sodom and Gomorrah, so I thought I would come see you. And let's spend the afternoon together. Not only is Abraham a man who values fellowship with God, but God is a God who values fellowship with man. He is here because he wants to be with Abraham.

20:28 This is certainly the way the Lord Jesus has taught us to think about God. Think of how many times in the New Testament, how many times in the Gospels we find the Lord Jesus eating with people. Remember, he chose the disciples. We read that he chose 12 and ordained them that he might be with them. And then he might send them to preach.

20:55 He is the God who loves people and loves to have fellowship with people. Is that how you view God? As someone who wants to be with you? That's who he is. Well, let's move on now to verse 16.

21:47 No. Let's not do that. I'm gonna tell Abraham what I'm gonna do. But the idea is more than, you know, Abraham's a really important person. So I'm gonna tell him my secret.

21:59 Let's pay very careful attention to the logic here. He says in verse 17, shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? Obviously obviously expecting a negative answer. No. I'm going to tell him about it.

22:14 Now what's the reason? Well, we're told in verse 18. Why is God going to have this conversation with Abraham? It is since, it is because Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation. And all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.

22:30 Because I have known him. In order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they should keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice. That the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. These two verses strongly emphasize the the sureness of the Abrahamic covenant. God made promises to Abraham, and yes, they will be accomplished.

22:56 It will surely happen is what we read. But yet it will happen through the means of his children and his household keeping the way of the Lord. Why is it important that Abraham's household keeps the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice? It's so that the lord will bring in all those things that he has promised. Praise god that there is a timing when Israel will be restored and that will be life from the dead as the apostle Paul says.

23:33 So, the reason why god says, let's have a conversation about righteousness and justice regarding Sodom and Gomorrah is because it is very important that you teach your family about righteousness and justice. So these few verses set the scene here of what's going on. It's not Abraham saying, Oh God, what you're doing sounds way too harsh. Now just settle down a little bit. The idea instead is that God is the great teacher.

24:01 It is important, Abraham, that you know about righteousness and justice. And sometimes, as any good teacher does, they say things and they wait for the student to answer. Why shouldn't I do this? And the student responds and the teacher nods his head and says, Very good. Keep going.

24:19 A little further, a little further. That's the idea of what's happening. Let's look again at verse 19. He says, for I have known him. Now, if you have the English Standard Version or the New American Standard or a lot of other newer translations, it has for I have chosen him which is their interpretation there.

24:41 The word is actually no. It's just a normal word for no which as I'm sure you're familiar with has a lot of fellowship connotations to to know intimately. I have known him. He is my friend. I have revealed myself to him.

25:01 For the purpose that he would command his children and his household after him. The goal of fellowship with God or or one of the consequences of fellowship with God should be that we would teach others the knowledge of God, the way of the Lord, righteousness and justice. Specifically, our family. You know, there is a kind of teaching someone, commanding someone the way of the Lord that only comes from knowing the Lord. Does that make sense?

25:45 And specifically in a family setting. Of course, I mean, it could just be, well, I've given him the Bible. So that way he could have family devotions with his kids every night. And the text is saying a little bit more than that. I know him.

26:01 I am his friend. So that way he can teach his family the way of the Lord. I don't know how you grew up or what your family situation was, but I am and I was very privileged to grow up in a godly household. Many of you know my family. And there are certainly time, there are certainly times when my dad sat me down and I would say, dad, why don't we do it?

26:28 Why don't we do this? And what about this? And he would just tell me but the majority of what I learned about the way of the lord was seeing his life day to day. It was just the relationship that he had with God shining forth in his everyday actions. And that was Abraham's high and mighty task to make sure that his family knew the way of the Lord.

26:55 How seriously do you take instructing your family? For those of you who have children, how serious of a job is that? To instruct them in the way of the lord. More than just communicating Bible doctrine. Now, if we could if we could line up the people here who take from the people who take Bible doctrine very seriously to the least seriously, I'd like to think that I was towards the top or towards the front of the line.

27:28 You'll never find someone more than me who takes formal Bible education more seriously. I think that's incredibly important. And yet it is important that it ultimately stems from our fellowship, our walk with God. Well, let's turn now to that's kind of the introduction, the preamble to what's going on. Oh, before I do that though, verse 20, I almost missed this.

28:22 There's a sense in which whenever we sin, whenever anyone sins, that heinousness of that sin cries out to God for justice. But I think we can say more than that. Was there someone within the city of Sodom that was crying out to God for justice? Now who has Genesis 19? Has that been assigned yet?

28:45 Who has Genesis 19? Does anybody have Genesis? Oh, okay. So, I'll let, I don't want to, you know, get too much into chapter 19 but in second Peter, we're told, second Peter says that he talks about a lot saying, that righteous lot was vexed in his soul day to day with the conduct of the ungodly. You may wonder, how does how does Peter know that?

29:14 Of course, god could have just revealed it to him but I think it's from this verse right here. Who was crying out to god? Well, obviously, it was Sodom. He was upset and he was grieved about it and so we prayed to god day after day that god would reveal or that god would do something about it. Certainly, Lot was right in crying out to God against the sin that he saw in his city.

29:43 And yet, Abraham demonstrates a more excellent way. Abraham says the famous, what if there were 50? What if there were 50? What if there were 45? What if there were 40?

29:59 What if there were 30? What if there were 20? And Okay, one last. I know this sounds ridiculous and incredible, but what if there were 10? Is that pushing the limits too far?

30:08 It makes you think of what the Lord himself said a few verses earlier. Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? Can you... That's the word instead of hard, it's really wonderful. Anything too marvelous or incredible that God couldn't do it?

30:22 Could you possibly push him too far? Absolutely not. So he says, no, not for... So he wouldn't destroy it for the sake of 10. Abraham's reasoning is that God obviously must condemn the wicked.

30:38 And he will save the righteous and God does... And Abraham doesn't make... Doesn't expect God to make a difference. Or I'm sorry. He does expect god to make a difference between the righteous and the wicked.

30:51 But he knows that the wicked are not destroyed. I'm sorry, but he knows that the righteous are not destroyed because of the wicked. But just the opposite is true. It is very often the case that the wicked are shown mercy because of the righteous. I've goofed it up several times and switched my words.

31:14 So, in case I didn't say it correctly, what I mean to say is, that god often shows mercy to the wicked because of the preserving influence of the righteous. In fact, he'll, when you go into chapter 19, you'll find that. That happens to Zoar. It doesn't happen to Sodom and Gomorrah but it does happen to Zoar because that's where Lot goes. And if that is not the case, if there are not enough righteous, then God will take his believers out.

31:50 It makes you think of how terrible the situation must have been. Remember this time in Ezekiel where god says, listen, Ezekiel, it's so bad. This nation is so bad that even if Job, Daniel, and what's the third one? And Noah were in it. I would not spare the land because of their sakes.

32:24 But it's often in the case that because of the righteous, God does show mercy to the wicked. Certainly that's the case with the world today. Believers are salt in the earth. And there's a coming day when he's going to take the church up out of here. And when we're gone, the wrath of God will come.

32:43 I love Abraham's approach here. Sodom and Gomorrah are well known for their wickedness. They deserve God's judgment. But he says, is there any way, oh God, that you could show mercy? Unlike Lot, he was looking for God to show mercy.

33:11 I don't know how attuned you are to the world news or the American news right now. If you watch the news or even if you just have Facebook, if you open up Facebook, there's been a lot of talk about this man, woman named Bruce Jenner. Right? And I've seen people post things or reply or give their 2¢ on society. It seems to me like we have a lot more lots than we do Abraham's.

33:41 Do you know what I mean by that? We have a lot more people crying out to God for justice Then we do have people saying, Oh God, we deserve your judgment. But please, is there any way that you could show mercy on us just a little bit longer? May we be people who seriously ponder this question, is anything too wonderful for the Lord? And when we pray to God that we ask big, we ask the unbelievable.

34:13 May we be like Abraham and pray reverently, intercede reverently with God's own attributes in mind. Lord, I know that you're righteous. I know that you're merciful. And may we be people who cry out to God for mercy for those around us. Well, let's close in a word of prayer and then we'll have...

35:06 You are my friends if you do whatever I ask of you. We thank you for the incredible benefit of being a friend of god. For the times that we can spend in your presence, your companionship, as we walk hand in hand, as we walk with God, and for the times that we can spend in prayer, interceding for those who are not your friends, who do not know you. We thank you for this great benefit that you would make this all possible. Make friendship with God possible by sending your son to be treated as your enemy, that we might be reconciled to you.

35:55 We pray that as a result of our thinking together through Genesis chapter 18, that we would have higher, greater, bigger thoughts of who you are and that we would realize that nothing is too marvelous or wonderful for you to do. We pray these things in the name of our savior, the lord Jesus. Amen.