Jim's Footnotes

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Genesis (Part 28)(BST 1-11-09)

Genesis (Part 28)
Bible Study Time 1-11-09
(From James Roberts 3-2-97)

Last week in our Journey Through the Scripture we saw that Abraham sent his servant back to the land of the Chaldeans to secure a wife for his son, Isaac. It's very interesting that Abraham did not want Isaac to go back to Abraham's homeland. This was because God had told Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go to a land that He would give to Abraham and his descendants as an inheritance.

So God brought Abraham to the land of Canaan where Abraham lived among the Canaanites. When it came time for Abraham to find a bride for Isaac, He did not want Isaac to marry one of the daughters of the Canaanites, but neither did he want Isaac to go back to the land of the Chaldeans. If Isaac had married a Canaanite woman, he might have been tempted to conform to the religious practices of the Canaanites, which were very sensual. On the other hand, if Isaac had gone back to the land of the Chaldeans, he might have been tempted to remain in that land.

So in Genesis, Chapter 24, we find that Abraham sent his servant back to Mesopotamia to find a wife for Isaac from among Abraham's own family members. When the servant got to the city of Nahor, he ask God for a sign to indicate the very woman that God had chosen for Isaac, and God honored his request. When Rebecca came to the well, she did precisely what had been requested in the sign.

Last week we emphasized the fact that the Jews require a sign, as noted in the book of I Corinthians. So in this passage we see that, even before there was a nation of Israel per se, we find sign gifts being introduced.

It's very important to realize that God was always willing to give the nation of Israel miraculous signs to help them in their lack of faith. All through the years of the Old Testament God gave the nation of Israel certain signs to help them believe His word, to authenticate His message. Then, when the Lord Jesus Christ came to the earth, we find that He performed certain miracles that were signs to the nation of Israel. These signs were given to authenticate His claim that He was the King of the Jews. Jesus did all of the things that the Old Testament prophets said the promised Messiah would do.

At the close of the Lord's ministry, the Jewish leaders came to Him and asked Him for a sign even though He had already done thousands of miracles. In response to their request, the Lord Jesus said, there shall no sign be given you but the sign of the Prophet Jonah, for just as Jonah was in the fish's belly for three days and three nights so must the son of man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

This sign was fulfilled with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ because Christ died and was buried and was in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. However, on the third day He arose from the grave, triumphant over death, hell and the grave.

Now during the time period covered by the book of Acts, the nation of Israel still had every opportunity to accept Jesus as their Messiah, and God gave the apostles many sign gifts to authenticate their message. But throughout the book of Acts, we read of Israel's rejection of Jesus as the Christ. As John, Chapter 1, says

John 1:11-12 NKJV
11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

So, even though there were many Jews who did believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who did accept Jesus as the promised Messiah, the majority of the people of Israel, including those in leadership, rejected Jesus. Therefore, God's set aside His program for the Jews.

Since the calling out of Abraham, God had promised a Messiah who would establish a great earthly kingdom through the nation of Israel, but when the Jews rejected the Messiah, God set aside all of the promises that related to Israel hope of an earthly kingdom.

As a result, God established a new program for mankind, the program for the Church which is the Body of Christ. The truth concerning this program was revealed through the Apostle Paul who boldly declared that this truth was never revealed to men of other ages.

In this program for the Church, the miraculous sign gifts are strangely absent even though they were so much a part of God's kingdom program for Israel. This does not mean that God is incapable of doing miracles in our present dispensation, but it simply means that God no longer gives sign gifts to men to authenticate the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, today we do not look for signs, and we do not test God in the way that Abraham's servant did in Genesis, Chapter 24. Today, we ask God for guidance and direction in our lives, and then we study His word and trust in the leading of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. He is the one who reveals to us the specific will of God for our lives.

Now, after Abraham's servant realized that Rebecca was the one whom God has chosen to be Isaac's wife, he bowed his head and worshipped the Lord. Then he gave gifts to Rebecca, and she invited him back to her father's house. Once there, the servant began to explain exactly why he had come to Mesopotamia. His message was as follows:

Genesis 24:34-50 NKJV
34 So he said, "I am Abraham's servant.
35 The Lord has blessed my master greatly, and he has become great; and He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels and donkeys.
36 And Sarah my master's wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and to him he has given all that he has.
37 Now my master made me swear, saying, 'You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell;
38 but you shall go to my father's house and to my family, and take a wife for my son.'
39 And I said to my master, 'Perhaps the woman will not follow me.'
40 But he said to me, 'The Lord, before whom I walk, will send His angel with you and prosper your way; and you shall take a wife for my son from my family and from my father's house.
41 You will be clear from this oath when you arrive among my family; for if they will not give her to you, then you will be released from my oath.'
42 "And this day I came to the well and said,'O Lord God of my master Abraham, if You will now prosper the way in which I go,
43 behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass that when the virgin comes out to draw water, and I say to her, "Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,"
44 and she says to me, "Drink, and I will draw for your camels also," — let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master's son.'
45 "But before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah, coming out with her pitcher on her shoulder; and she went down to the well and drew water. And I said to her, 'Please let me drink.'
46 And she made haste and let her pitcher down from her shoulder, and said, 'Drink, and I will give your camels a drink also.' So I drank, and she gave the camels a drink also.
47 Then I asked her, and said, 'Whose daughter are you?' And she said, 'The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bore to him.' So I put the nose ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.
48 And I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the way of truth to take the daughter of my master's brother for his son.
49 Now if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. And if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left."
50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said,"The thing comes from the Lord; we cannot speak to you either bad or good.

At his point, Abraham's servant gave the option to Rebecca as to whether she would go back with him to Canaan, and having heard all that the servant said, Rebecca said, I will go.

I can just imagine what it must have been like for Rebecca as she travelled with Abraham's servant on the way back to Canaan. I'm sure she had many questions about Isaac and Abraham, and I'm sure that this servant faithfully answered all of her questions so that she grew to love Isaac, and she grew to love Abraham even though she had never seen them.

In I Peter, Chapter 1, Peter indicates that the Jews of his day were in very much the same situation as Rebecca was as she travelled to Canaan. Verse seven of that chapter says:

1 Peter 1:7-8 NKJV
7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

What a wonderful illustration this was for the New Testament Jews. They actually able to see a picture of themselves as they looked back at the account of Rebecca travelling to the promised land with the servant of Abraham.

These Jews had put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, who had been crucified by the Jews and then raised from the dead to enter into the glory of heaven. But now the Father in heaven had sent the Holy Spirit as the servant to God to lead them on their journey to be united with Christ. As they travelled, they had the opportunity to listen to the Holy Spirit as He spoke of the glory and majesty of the Lord Jesus. So Peter said, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and even though you have not seen the Lord Jesus, you love Him.

Today, the Holy Spirit is still working in the world today. Like the servant of Abraham, He does not speak of His own glory and power even though He is equal with the God the Father and God the Son, but He reveals the things pertaining to the Father and the Son to those who are willing to study God's word. He reveals the glory of Christ and the riches of Christ to us so that we can even now come into an understanding of all the blessings that we have in Christ. In the book of Colossians we find that:

Colossians 2:3 NKJV
3 in (Jesus Christ) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Even now we can begin to explore and appropriate these great treasures for ourselves. Rebecca received many presents even while she was still in Mesopotamia, and yet when she able to join Isaac and Abraham in Canaan, she finally saw all of the glory and riches of Abraham and Isaac. Then she was able to actually see all of the glorious things that she had heard so much.

I trust today that you have allowed the Holy Spirit to show you the riches of Christ, that He loved you and died for you that you might have eternal life, and that even now you can began to explore the riches of God's grace in Christ. In so doing, you will be able to love Him more and more each day even though you have not seen Him with you physical eyes.

I see our time is gone. It's been good to be with you. I trust that Bible Study Time has been a blessing to you as we have continued on our Journey Through the Scripture. Until next week, we bid you goodbye.

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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Genesis (Part 27)(BST 12-28-08)

Genesis (Part 27)
Bible Study Time 12-28-08
(From James Roberts 2-23-97)

Last week in our Journey Through the Scripture we looked at an incident of faith in the life of Abraham. This incident is found in Genesis, Chapter 22, where we read that God told Abraham to take his son, Isaac, and offer him up as a sacrifice to the Lord. Hebrews, Chapter 11, refers back to this incident and serves as a commentary on it.

In Genesis 22, we find that without hesitation Abraham obeyed God when God told him to take Isaac to Mt. Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice. The book of Hebrews tells us that Abraham believed God and by faith offered up Isaac. However, when we look back at the Genesis account, we find that Abraham actually offered up a ram in accordance with God's last minute instructions.

Obviously, when God saw the strength of Abraham's faith, He was willing to accept that ram as if it was actually Isaac. This is because Abraham's faith was based in the promise of God. God had previously given Abraham many promises, and He had said that all of His promises to Abraham would be fulfilled through Isaac and his descendants. In fact, when God promised Abraham the birth of Isaac, He said, You shall call his name Isaac and in Isaac shall your seed be called.

Well, Isaac had no children at the time that Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac. Therefore, Abraham knew that if God was going to be true to His word, God would have to prevent the death of Isaac or raise him up from the dead. So when God saw Abraham's faith in the promise of God, He counted the offering up of the ram as though Abraham had actually offered up Isaac and as if God had raised Isaac up from the dead.

Last week we saw that this event pictures the Biblical doctrine of identification. You and I, who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, have been counted as though we died with Christ and were buried with Him and were also raised with Him to walk in newness of life.

The book of Ephesians 2 tells us that in the mind of God we have also ascended with Christ to sit with Christ in the heavens, and this certainly does have tremendous implications for us. In Colossians, Chapter 3, Paul says:

Colossians 3:1-3 NKJV
1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Now, before we leave Genesis 22, I want us to think for just a moment of another great truth that we find in this passage, and that is the great doctrine of substitution. When Abraham was ready to offer up Isaac in obedience to the will of God, God stopped him and said, there is a ram that's caught in the thicket; you take that ram and offer him in the place of Isaac.

Oh, how beautiful this is. When we compare this with the New Testament and see the application of this wonderful doctrine we see that Christ is our substitute. That ram was offered up and bore the penalty of the judgment of God which was suppose to fall upon Isaac, and in the same way, Christ died on the cross, not for His own sins, not as some great tragedy, but He died the just one in the place of, or as a substitute for, those who are unjust. Romans 5 says:

Romans 5:6 NKJV
6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for (in the stead of, in the place of, as the substitute for) the ungodly.

Jesus Christ died for you. You deserved eternal punishment, eternal separation from God, but when the Lord Jesus went to the cross and cried out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me, He was dying in your stead.

That's what it means to accept Christ as your Savior. It means to believe with your whole heart that Christ took your place, that He bore the judgment that you deserved. He died to pay the penalty for all of your sins, and when you believe that, God counts the work of Christ on your behalf so that the penalty for your sins has already been paid. On this basis, your sins are forgiven. What a wonderful truth, this doctrine of substitution.

I wonder today if there is one reading this lesson who has never truly received what Christ did on the cross, that He was really there in your stead, in your place, dying for your sins. I have believed that He died for my sins, that He took my place. I believe that Jesus Christ took James Roberts' place on the cross, and now that I have believed that, God considers all of my sins as having been placed upon Him.

Now, as we go on further in the book of Genesis, I want us to see another act of faith on the part of Abraham. In Genesis, Chapter 24, we see Abraham preparing to choose a bride for Isaac. Abraham had become old and he was living in the land of the Canaanites, but God had shown him that Isaac should not take a bride for Isaac from the daughters of the Canaanites. God had obviously revealed to Abraham what He would later reveal to the whole nation of Israel, that if they took wives for their sons from the children of Canaan, they would become entrapped in the religious practices of the Canaanites.

So Abraham believed what God said, and he sent his servant back to the city of Nahor in the land of Mesopotamia to get a wife for Isaac. This servant was to get a wife from Abraham's kinsmen who were still living back in the region around Ur of the Chaldeans. Before the servant left, he asked Abraham what he should do if the woman of God's choosing should refuse to return with him to marry Isaac. In response, Abraham was very clear. He said, do not take Isaac back to Ur of the Chaldeans; if the woman refuses to return with you, you will be released from any obligation in this matter.

Abraham had been taken out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and God didn't want Abraham's seed to go back to Ur of the Chaldeans. After all, all of the promises related to the land of Canaan, and they were to be fulfilled through the descendants of Isaac. Isaac needed to remain in the Promised Land, but he was not to marry the daughters of those who lived in Canaan at that time.

So the servant went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor, and he waited there outside the city by the well. As he waited, he asked God to give him a sign. He said, I don’t know which woman should be Isaac's bride, but let it be that when the woman You have chosen comes to draw water, she will offer to give me a drink and to draw water for my camels. Well, the servant waited and along came Rebecca, who did exactly as the servant had asked.

It's very interesting that Abraham's servant asked for a sign from the Lord because we read in the book of I Corinthians that the Jews require a sign, but the Greeks seek after wisdom. As God was helping Abraham's servant select a bride for Isaac, He was dealing with the nation of Israel in seed form because the whole nation of Israel was to come from Isaac. Therefore, God gave this servant a sign to help him understand the specific will of God.

Now, when the Lord Jesus Christ came, He performed many miracles as a sign to the nation of Israel. In the Old Testament there were certain works which the Messiah was to do, and these works were to be a sign to the Jews that he was truly the Messiah. Just think of all of the miracles that Jesus did. He broke the bread and the fish and fed 5000 men plus the women and children. Then afterwards He had 12 baskets of food left over. Then He said, I am the bread of life. These things were done to show that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

However, in spite of the miracles of Jesus, the leaders of Israel refused to accept Him as their Messiah. They refused to acknowledge His miracles, but still they came to ask Him for a sign. In response, the Lord said, only one sign will be given to you, and that is the sign of the prophet Jonah; for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, even so must the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Jesus mentioned this sign as a means of pointing to His death, burial and resurrection. When Jesus arose from the dead, all of the Jews should have immediately known that Jesus was the true Messiah because He had indeed been three days and three nights in the grave even as Jonah had been three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. However, after three days in the grave Jesus Christ arose from the dead, triumphant over death, hell and the grave, and this should have served as a sufficient sign for the nation of Israel that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

In the book of Acts, we find the Holy Spirit using this great miracle of Christ's resurrection to prove to the nation of Israel that beyond any shadow of a doubt Jesus was the Christ. Time and time again the apostles showed that according to the Old Testament prophecies, the Christ would have to die and be buried and then raised again the third day. They declared that the sign of the prophet Jonah was the sign of the resurrected Christ. They said that Jesus was alive, and He was waiting in heaven, standing at the right hand of the Father, ready to come back, if only the nation of Israel would repent and receive Him as their Messiah.

But throughout the book of Acts, the nation of Israel rejected this message. Finally, God stopped Messianic message. Jesus Christ was no longer offered to Israel as the one who would come to the earth to establish the kingdom of God. Instead, God used the Apostle Paul to reveal the Lord Jesus as the savior of the world who serves as the Head of the Church which is the Body of Christ. The truth of this new program had been hidden from all of the prophets of previous ages.

One day, after the church is taken up to be with the Lord in heaven, God will once again preach to the nation of Israel the message of the crucified Christ who was raised from the dead and who waits in heaven to be accepted by the nation of Israel. When this message is once again the focus of God's program to the Jews, the nation of Israel will accept Jesus as their Messiah, and He will return to the earth to fulfill all of the great promises that were given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Next week, we're going to continue to look at the wooing of Rebecca for Isaac. Until that time we bid you goodbye.

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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Genesis (Part 26)(BST 12-14-08)

Genesis (Part 26)
Bible Study Time 12-14-08
(From James Roberts 2-16-97)

Last week in our Journey Through the Scripture, we saw that there were three incidents in Abraham's life that illustrated his life of faith. Abraham is preeminently spoken of in the Old Testament as a man of faith. He was called a friend of God, and he was one who walked by faith.

In the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, we see these three incidents recorded. The first incident was when God appeared to Abraham and told him to leave UR of the Chaldeans and go to a land that He would show him. God said that He was going to give this land to Abraham and to his descendants after him as an inheritance. Abraham, without hesitation, acted upon the word of God, believing what God had said.

The second incident was when God appeared to Abraham and told him that he was going to have a son. Now, Abraham was 99 years old, almost 100 years old, and Sarah was past 90 years of age. Both were well beyond the age of bearing children, so when God promised Abraham a son, Abraham thought immediately of Ishmael. He said, oh that Ishmael might live before You. But God said, no, it’s not going to be Ishmael. It’s going to be a son by your wife, Sarah, the free woman, and you shall call his name Isaac.

In the book of Romans, Chapter 4, we read that Abraham did not consider his own body to be dead, but he believed that what God had promised He was able also to perform. Being strong in faith, Abraham did not waver. Abraham did not stagger at the promise of God, but he believed what God said.

The third incident we looked at briefly last week. It relates to God’s command that Abraham should take his son, Isaac, and go to a mountain that God would show him. That mountain was Mt. Moriah, where Solomon’s temple was ultimately built. So God led Abraham to Mt. Moriah, and there Abraham was ready to offer up his son as a sacrifice in obedience to what God had said.

This was a tremendous act of faith on the part of Abraham because, as we saw last week, Abraham told the young men in his company that they should stay at the foot of the mountain with the donkeys because he and the lad would go up to worship and then come back again.

He knew something. He knew that even though God had told him to offer Isaac up as a sacrifice, Isaac would be coming back down that mountain with him. Now, how did Abraham know that? Well, let’s look in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, and we will see a commentary on Genesis, Chapter 24.

In verse 15, we find that Abraham and his sons dwelt as sojourners in the land of Canaan. This means that they did not receive the inheritance while they were living. They received the promise of the inheritance, and they dwelt in tents looking for a city that God had built, a new city, a heavenly Jerusalem, which will be discussed at length later in the book of Hebrews. But now I want you to notice in verse 15:

Hebrews 11:15-17 NKJV
15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac . . .

Here we find the writer to the Hebrews saying that Abraham offered up Isaac, but when we look back in the book of Genesis, Chapter 24, we find that Abraham was ready to offer Isaac. According to the Genesis account, Abraham had the knife in his hand, and he was ready to slay Isaac in obedience to the command of God, but God spoke out of heaven and said, don’t kill Isaac. God said, I see that you love me even more than you love your son, and therefore, if you'll just look over in the thicket, you’ll see a ram that can be offered in Isaac’s stead.

Accordingly, Abraham took the ram that was caught in the thicket and offered it up instead of Isaac. Notice, he offered the ram instead of Isaac even though the book of Hebrews says that Abraham offered up Isaac. Now, let’s talk about that. Just keep that thought in your mind as we continue in Hebrews, Chapter 11:

Hebrews 11:17-18 NKJV
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
18 of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called,"

Abraham offered up his son, his only begotten son, that son through whom the promise was given which said that in Isaac Abraham's seed would be called.

Now, why do you suppose the writer to the Hebrews mentioned this little detail concerning the seed being called through Isaac? Well, this is very important to our discussion of Abraham as the man of faith. Notice as we read in verse 19:

Hebrews 11:19 NKJV
19 (Abraham concluded) that God was able to raise (Isaac) up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

God accounted Abraham’s faith as a righteous act, and in the mind of God, God saw that ram as if it had actually been Isaac. What did Abraham believe that assured him that Isaac would be raised from the dead if necessary?

Well, God had said to Abraham, in Isaac your seed shall be called. God had said this when He announced the birth of Isaac, when Abraham was past the age of begetting children, when Sarah was past the age of begetting children. God had promised Abraham and Sarah a son and they were to call his name Isaac. God said that it was going to be through Isaac that the seed would be called.

According to the book of Genesis, Isaac wasn't married at the time of this incident. Therefore, He had no children. So if God was going to be true to His word, Abraham knew that if he offered up Isaac, God would have to raise up Isaac from the dead so that Isaac could have children. Abraham knew that the promised seed had to come through Isaac. The whole nation of Israel, the multiplied seed, had to come through Isaac.

So Abraham said, well God, I’ll do what you tell me to do because I know that if you can give me life even when I am dead in terms of begetting children, then I know that you can give life to Isaac in order to accomplish Your word.

This is a great example of believing what God has said, and this is what faith really is. We walk by faith when we simply reckon upon what God has said. Today, so much of what people call walking by faith is really walking by fancy. It’s walking by feeling. People so often go simply by what they feel God wants them to do. But when we feel that God wants us to do something, it may simply be a manifestation of our own desires.

In reality, faith is a matter of going to God’s word and reading God’s word and believing God’s word. Then we yield to the Holy Spirit and let the Holy Spirit, Himself, take the word of God and guide us through the principles that are set down in the word. This is how we should determine the specific will of God for our lives.

God has a general will for each one of us, and that general will is that we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit who is dwelling within us. Then we must read and study God’s word so that God, Himself, will be able to use the word. In this way the word of God becomes a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.

That’s what faith is; it is believing what God has said. We don't look for signs. We don't look for miraculous things to lead us. The Holy Spirit of God teaches us the principles of the word of God as we read and study, and then He leads us according to those principles.

Abraham believed God explicitly, and without any hesitation he did what God told him to do. I want you to notice that as far as God was concerned, Abraham actually killed Isaac. God was able to count that which was not as though it was. Abraham did not literally slay Isaac, but when God looked at the ram, He saw the faith of Abraham, and He counted the death of the ram as the offering up of Isaac.

We also see that God not only saw Isaac as having been killed, but He saw Isaac as having been raised up from the dead. Isaac did not literally die and come forth from the grave alive, but as far as God was concerned, Isaac died and was buried and was then raised from the dead.

Now may I just say this to you? This is a great example of the Biblical principle of identification. God saw Abraham's faith, and God counted it to Abraham for righteousness. In like manner, when you and I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and believe explicitly what God has said in His word about the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, God counts us as though we were actually put to death with Christ, as though we were actually buried and raised up with Christ to walk in newness of life. Then the book of Ephesians tells us that when Christ ascended back to the Father in heaven, in the mind of God we too ascended with Him so that we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places.

Now does that have any implication for our Christian life? Well, in Colossians, Chapter 3, the Apostle Paul says that if we have been raised with Christ, we should seek those things which are above where Christ is seated, for we are dead and our lives are hid with Christ in God. He tells us that we have died, we have been buried, and we have been raised with Christ so that we can actually say with Paul, I am crucified with Christ; I have been given new life so that I can walk in a way that is pleasing to the Lord Jesus.

I see our time is gone for this morning. Next week, the Lord willing, in our Journey Through the Scripture, we’re going to look the selection of a bride for Isaac. Well, until that time, we bid you goodbye.

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Genesis (Part 25)(BST 12-7-08)

Genesis (Part 25)
Bible Study Time 12-7-08
(From James Roberts 2-9-97)

In our Journey Through the Scripture, we have been looking at Abraham as the man of faith. In the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, we see three instances recorded that illustrate Abraham's life of faith.

The first was when the God of glory appeared to Abraham in UR of the Chaldeans and gave him great promises. God promised Abraham that a great nation would come from him and that in him all nations of the earth would be blessed. God said that He was going to make Abraham’s name great.

God told Abraham to leave UR of the Chaldeans and go to a land that He would show Abraham, and we find in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, that Abraham went out, not knowing where he was going. This illustrates the truth found in the book of II Corinthians which says that believers are to walk by faith, not by sight. Accordingly, Abraham went out as the Lord directed him, not knowing where he was going.

The second incident occurred when God appeared to Abraham and gave to him and Sarah the promise of a son. Abraham looked at his own body, and he said, I'm too old to have another son, oh, that Ishmael might live before You. Ishmael, of course, was Abraham’s son by Hagar, the bondwoman.

God said, no, it's not going to be through Ishmael, it's going to be through another son, a son by Sarah; you will call his name Isaac, and in Isaac your seed will be called.

The book of Romans, Chapter 4, tells us that Abraham believed God. He did not consider his own body to be dead, as far as begetting children, but he was strong in faith, not wavering at the promise of God. He believed that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

That reminds us also of Mary when the angel came to her and explained to her that she was going to give birth to the Messiah. She was told that she was going to have a son and that His name would be called Jesus because He would save his people from their sins.

Mary asked, how can this be since I do not even know a man? After all, she was unmarried, and she was a virgin, so how could she have a son?

The angel explained to her that with men there are a lot of things that are impossible, but with God, nothing is impossible. Then the angel explained to her how the Holy Spirit would come upon her and create within her body, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. He told to her that he son would be the Son of God who would live among men and then go to the cross where He would die for the sins of all men. In this way, He would literally save His people from their sins.

Mary knew that this son that was promised to her was to be the Messiah; the long awaited Messiah was going to be born of her. She immediately began to break forth in a song of praise to God. She praised God for His great grace that He had bestowed upon her, an unworthy handmaiden whom God had chosen to bring forth the promised Messiah.

It was with this same kind of faith that Abraham believed God, and as a result, God counted it to him for righteousness.

The third incident in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, refers back to the book of Genesis, Chapter 22, and I want us to notice this test that God gave to Abraham after Isaac was born. Isaac had been born as a child and had grown to a young lad, but in this account, God puts Abraham to the test.

I have heard people even refer to this event as the first child abuse that is recorded. It’s a story, they say, that tells about child abuse. Oh my, they fail to see the wonderful truth of this account in Genesis, Chapter 22. What we see here is the extent of Abraham’s love for Isaac. It seems as though Abraham's life was just wrapped up in Isaac, and so God says, I’ll give you a test to see if you love me more than you love Isaac.

We find this account in Genesis, Chapter 22, and let’s begin reading in verse one:

Genesis 22:1-2 NKJV
1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And (Abraham) said, "Here I am."
2 Then (God) said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."

Notice God’s estimation of Abraham's feeling for Isaac. He said, Abraham, take your son, Isaac, whom you my love. This is not a case of child abuse. This is the case of a man who loved his child, but he also loved God and believed God. Abraham believed that the One who gave him Isaac was also able to protect Isaac.

When God said, Abraham, you take Isaac and offer him up as a burnt offering unto me, that’s when Abraham reckoned on the character of God and the promise of God. Now verse 3:

Genesis 22:3 NKJV
3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

Here we see another description of faith. Without hesitation, Abraham moved out quickly on the promise of God. God told Abraham to take Isaac and offer him up as a burnt offering, and so Abraham rose up early in the morning to do as he was told.

I tell you, if it had been me, I probably would have put it off just as long as I could have, but without hesitation Abraham rose up early in the morning and took Isaac and two young men with him to do what God told him to do.

This is a description of faith. Why? Why would I say that this is a description faith? Because you see, God had told Abraham that his seed would be called in Isaac. This meant that Isaac would have to have children. At this point, Isaac was not even married, so he had no children, and how could God’s promise be fulfilled if Isaac were to die?

Well, Abraham believed God. He must have thought:

God, you told me that I was going to have a son and that I was to call his name Isaac. You told me that my seed would be called in Isaac. You said that it would be through Isaac that I would have children and that a great nation would come through Isaac, and that many people would be blessed because of that promise which was given through Isaac. So I don't know how you’re going to perform it, but I believe that you're going to perform your promise. I believe that it is going to be through Isaac that my seed will be called, and that means that in some way, Isaac is going to have to live.

Now, I want to just throw something out to you. In the book of Romans, Chapter 4, we get an indication that Isaac’s birth required a resurrection, as it were, in a typical form. In a sense, Abraham and Sarah had to be resurrected in order for them to have a son. They were dead as far as begetting children was concerned. So they had to be given new life from God in order for them to have Isaac.

Now, undoubtedly, Abraham realized that this same God who gave him new life and in a sense raised him from the dead was also able to give new life to Isaac if Isaac were to die.

Now notice, as we go on further in the book of Genesis, Chapter 22:

Genesis 22:4-5 NKJV
4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off.
5 And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you."

Here again is the language of faith because Abraham was fully expecting to come back down from that mountain with Isaac. He did not anticipate leaving Isaac up there on that altar as a burnt offering. Abraham believed that God was going to do something that would enable Him to carry out His promises. So Abraham said, we are going to go yonder and worship, and then we will come again to you.

Now notice in verse six:

Genesis 22:6-8 NKJV
6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together.
7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." Then he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
8 And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together.

Here again we see Abraham's faith. He was anticipating that God would provide a lamb. The fact that they went on together is a picture of fellowship. They were one in faith as they went up that mountain to worship.

Genesis 22:9-14 NKJV
9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.
10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
11 But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" So he said, "Here I am."
12 And He said,"Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."
13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided."

Now I want you to notice that Abraham believed that God would provide a lamb for the offering, and God did exactly that. Next week we’re going to look in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, where we will see Abraham’s faith in this situation from God's viewpoint.

But the thing I want you to see this morning is that Abraham believed God. He believed that what God had said, God was able also to perform. It went against all of Abraham’s natural reasoning. How Abraham loved Isaac! His life was wrapped up in Isaac. But Abraham knew that God had a higher purpose, and he was willing to put his trust in the character of God and in the word of God.

I wonder today, as we close the broadcast, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Have you thrown your life, as it were, upon the word of God and believed that Christ died for your sins? Have you believed that Christ was buried and that He rose again, completely trusting your life, as Abraham did, to the word of God? Have you been willing to believe that what God has promised He is able also to perform?

God will give you new life, eternal life, if you will trust His Son as your Savior. And then He will protect you, he'll watch over you, and He will direct you even through the hard places of life.

Well, I see our time is gone. The Lord willing we will take up again next week on our Journey Through the Scripture as we will consider Abraham's faith once again. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.

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Friday, January 30, 2009

Genesis (Part 24)(BST 11-23-08)

Genesis (Part 24)
Bible Study Time 11-23-08
(From James Roberts 2-2-97)

Last week in our Journey Through the Scripture, we considered Lot, a man whom God describes as being righteous. And yet, Lot had gone into Sodom and had become great in Sodom. But when God was ready to destroy Sodom, He delivered Lot out of Sodom because Lot had been made righteous in the sight of God.

Lot was rich when he went into Sodom, but as far as we know, when he came out, he lost everything. Just before the judgment came, God dragged Lot out of Sodom and then He rained down fire on Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plains.

Lot stands as a picture of Christians who have been made right with God, and yet they become entangled with the affairs of life, with the affairs of this world. They become earthly minded. God will be faithful to deliver them out of the future judgment because of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but in the day of judgment, instead of them being burned up, it will be their works that will be burned up. They will be saved, but they will be saved as Lot was, through the fire. Instead of works that would bring honor and glory to the Lord, they will have done works that will be burned up.

Today, I want us to see the one who stands in contrast to Lot, and that is Lot’s uncle, Abraham. Abraham was a man of faith and was called the friend of God. Even though Abraham failed God many times, he always returned to the altar. He would always go back to the place of worship and fellowship with God. This is a picture of the believer who sins but is willing to return to God where he can walk in fellowship with God, and where he can be used by the Lord to accomplish God’s purposes.

Abraham was a friend of God because he was a man of the altar, he was a man of worship, he was a man of fellowship with God. God could speak to Abraham and reveal things to Abraham. In Genesis, Chapter 17, we find that Abraham received a visit from the Lord, and during that visit the Lord established a covenant with Abraham. Now, notice as we begin reading in Genesis, Chapter 17, with verse 4:

Genesis 17:4-5 NKJV
4 "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.
5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.

No longer “exalted father,” but “the father of a multitude,” because as God said, I have made you a father of many nations. Now, please notice the tense of this. God did not say, I will make you a father of many nation, but he said, I have made you a father of many nations. As far as God was concerned, this promise was an accomplished fact. He said, I have made you a father of many nations.

God can call things that are not as though they are already in existence, and that’s what He did with Abraham. Even though Abraham’s only son was Ishmael, the son of a bondwoman, yet God could say, I have made you the father of many nations.

Now, let’s look at the covenant that established God’s promise to Abraham. God said:

Genesis 17:6-8 NKJV
6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.
7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.
8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."

Notice that there is no condition here. There was no condition set forth that Abraham had to live up to. God did not say, I will do this, if you will do this. No, God in accordance with His grace, simply made these promises to Abraham. He established this unconditional covenant with Abraham. He said, I will, I will, I will, I will. This was a covenant of grace.

It was not until after this covenant was established that God gave to Abraham the ritual of circumcision as a token of the covenant. The Jewish people who came from Abraham are called the circumcision because circumcision was established for the people of Israel under the Law. That is why they are called “the circumcision.”

It’s very important to keep in mind that God gave this promise to Abraham even while Abraham was still uncircumcised. This turned out to be a very important fact when, after the death of Christ, the New Covenant was offered to the nation of Israel. This was important because the New Covenant was to be based on faith even as God’s covenant with Abraham was based on faith. The New Covenant was to be unconditional, and it was to be based on faith.

Since God’s covenant with Abraham was made before Abraham was circumcised, this opened the door for Gentiles to be saved by faith apart from circumcision and the other rituals of the Law. In the New Covenant, Abraham’s seed through Isaac, the people of Israel, will have a preeminent position. According to the book of Isaiah and all through the Old Testament, it is clear that part of God’s promise to Abraham was that the nation of Israel would someday become a nation of priests. They were to become a holy nation unto God, but they were to have authority over the Gentile nations as they ministered to them.

So, you see, according to the New Covenant, the nations of the earth were to be brought into the New Covenant kingdom and blessed with Israel. This is pictured in the covenant that God made with Abraham in that it was given to Abraham before he was circumcised.

This opening for the Gentiles to enter into the kingdom is not seen in the Law covenant that God made with Israel at Mt. Sinai. The Law covenant was a conditional covenant which was destined to pass away due to the weakness of those who tried to keep it.

As an aside here, I would like to say that the New Covenant, which is often spoken of in the New Testament, is in essence the same covenant that God made with Abraham back in Genesis, Chapter 17, and it is not a covenant that you and I participate in today. The New Covenant was promised all through the Old Testament, beginning with Abraham.

The New Covenant was confirmed in the book of Jeremiah, Chapter 31, where in verse 31. In that passage, we see that the New Covenant will not be like the covenant that God made with the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai. It will be different because it will be based in the power of the Holy Spirit, which the Lord Jesus said would come a result of His willingness to shed the blood of the New Covenant.

The New Covenant will also be different from the Law in that it will bring in the Gentiles to be blessed with Israel in the kingdom even though, as Jeremiah 31 plainly declares, the New Covenant will be a covenant between God and the nation of Israel. It is the covenant which will someday establish Israel’s spiritual and political authority over all the earth.

You and I today are not partakers in the blessings of the New Covenant. We are members of the Church which is the Body of Christ. According to the book of Ephesians, this program of the Church which is the Body of Christ is an unforetold dispensation because the truth concerning the church was never made known to the prophets of the Old Testament or to the gospel writers or to the apostles during the time period covered by the book of Acts.

The truth concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ was revealed after the Acts period by the Apostle Paul, and one of the distinctive aspects of the Church which is the Body of Christ is that it’s members, whether Jew or Gentile, stand on an equal footing before God. In this church, the Jews have no special authority over the Gentiles.

This stands in contrast to the New Covenant which is based on God’s promise to Abraham. According to the New Covenant, the nation of Israel will have a position of preeminence when the promises of the New Covenant are fulfilled. At that time Israel will be a holy nation, and they will be the ministers of God to the nations of the world.

But please notice that all those who will someday inherit the blessings of the New Covenant will do so on the basis of God’s grace, whether Jew of Gentile. They will all have Abraham as their father because whether they are a Jew or a Gentile, they will enter into their relationship with God on the basis of God’s grace through faith in God’s word. In this regard, the New Covenant is identical to the program for the Church which is the Body of Christ.

God had promised to Abraham a son, through whom the covenant was to be established, but Abraham laughed at the promise that his wife, Sarah, was going to have a son. And Abraham said to God, Oh that Ishmael might live before you. But God said, No. He said, Abraham, you are going to have a son through Sarah because I will make my covenant with the son of the free woman. You shall call his name Isaac, and I’m going to make My covenant with him.

In the book of Romans, Chapter 4, we see something that is precious to us today regarding the faith of Abraham. In Genesis, Chapters 17 and 18, we see that Abraham and Sarah laughed at the promise of God initially, because they considered their own bodies. Because of their advanced age, they concluded that they would be unable to have a son. But then, God said, it’s not going to be by natural means, not through the son of the bondwoman, but Sarah is going to have a son. Romans 4 reports that it was at this point that Abraham:

Romans 4:18-19 NKJV
18 . . . contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be."
19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

In Genesis, Chapters 17 and 18, Abraham did initially consider his own body, but when God told him that his son would come through Sarah, that’s when Abraham latched on what God said. Then Abraham said in his own heart:

I believe that. If God says I’m going to have a son, even though I’m a hundred years old, I believe that. Even though naturally speaking that can’t happen. Sarah’s 90 years old and, naturally speaking, she can’t have a son, but God’s not bound by the natural. What God tells me that He is going to do, He has the power to do.

In Romans 4, Paul said that Abraham was not weak in faith. He did not consider his own body as being dead. He did not waver at that promise of God through unbelief, but he was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and notice this, Abraham was fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

Man by nature, generally speaking, when he first hears the gospel of the grace of God, he considers it to be something that is impossible. How could God save a person today on the basis of the death of a person who died 2000 years ago?

Well, here’s what God says. God so loved you and me that He gave His Son to die on the cross. While we were yet sinners, Jesus Christ loved us enough to die on the cross and to taste in full the penalty for the sins of the world, from Adam to the last person who will ever live. He paid it all on that cross, and when He was put in the grave, on the third day, He arose again, triumphant over death, hell and the grave.

I trust today that if you are like Abraham, inwardly laughing at the good news of Jesus Christ, refusing to believe the gospel, that you will listen today to what God has said, it is only by my Son and through His death that a man can be saved. Won’t you be like Abraham and become strong in your faith, not wavering at the promise of God. I trust that you will latch on to the word of God and say, what God has said, He is able also to perform.

Well, I see our time is gone, and we’re going to have to leave you today. But next week, the Lord willing, we’ll take up on our Journey Through the Scripture once again.

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Genesis (Part 23)(BST 11-16-08)

Genesis (Part 23)
Bible Study Time 11-16-08
(From James Roberts 1-26-97)

Last week in our Journey Through the Scripture, we considered Lot, Abraham’s nephew. And we saw that Lot had made some very bad choices. He had gone to live in the city of Sodom where he became increasingly involved in the affairs of Sodom. He had even become a leader and had possibly become one of their judges.

God was ready to destroy Sodom because of Sodom’s wickedness, and we find in the book of II Peter that it was God’s plan to save Lot out of Sodom before the judgment came. In Peter’s account, Peter actually refers to Lot as a just, or a righteous man. Now, that is interesting.

Even though Lot was in Sodom, he did not lose his position before God as a just, or righteous person. In this we see that Lot’s position before God was based on his faith. Because of Lot’s faith in God, he was protected from the judgment of God because he was under the grace of God.

So Lot’s position before God was not based on Lot’s good works; it was based on God’s grace. In the Bible, the word grace simply means that you get something that you don’t deserve. When you read about Lot in Sodom, oh my, you can certainly see how he did not deserve to hold onto his position of favor with God. He did not deserve to be considered by God to be a righteous or a just person, but God by His grace made it possible because Lot had faith in the word of God.

Undoubtedly, Abraham had shared with Lot some of the things that God had revealed to him, and Lot had believed the word of God. Lot believed and so God counted it to Lot for righteousness.

Now, let’s consider Abraham and Lot. Abraham had a position before God that resulted in Abraham being viewed as a just man or a righteous man. And that position was His, not because he was living a life that was pleasing to God but because he had believed the revelation of God, and God had extended his grace to Abraham. Abraham was saved by God’s grace through faith.

Abraham’s position before God was not based on Abraham’s good works, and Lot’s position before God was not based on Lot’s evil works. They both entered into a position of favor with God which was based on their faith.

And please let me say this to you, God tells you and me today that our position before God is established in the same way. If we believe in Christ, we are positioned in Christ, and our position in Christ is not based on how good we have been or on how bad we have been. Our position is based on God’s grace. God’s grace means that you get something that you don’t deserve.

So our position in Christ is given to us by God’s grace. God just gives it to us because of His great love for us and because He sees the faith that we have in God’s word. We are saved by grace through faith in what God has said in His word.

Now, Abraham put His faith in God when God told him to leave Ur of the Chaldeans. We exercise saving faith when we believe that God came from heaven’s glory as a man and then went to the cross, as the sinless God of glory in human form, to bear our sins in His own body on the tree.

While Jesus Christ was hanging there on the cross, He died and paid the penalty for all of your sins and all of mycame from heaven't Lo sins so that those sins could never be held against us. Christ paid in full the penalty for those sins. And when we believe that He died for our sins, that He was buried and that He rose again the third day, God counts that faith for righteousness.

It is on this basis of faith that Abraham and Lot and you and I are made right before God. Our acceptance in the sight of God is not because of who we are or because of what we have done, but it’s because of God’s grace and it’s on the basis of our faith in Christ.

We have seen the standing of Abraham and Lot before God, but now let’s look at their state. Abraham was a man who believed God and walked in fellowship with God, and God was able to use Abraham in many ways here on the earth. God gave Abraham promises, and he confirmed those promises to Abraham and to his seed after him.

Lot, on the other hand, was a person who was out of fellowship with God. He lived in Sodom, and he was entangled in the affairs of Sodom. While his position with God was similar to Abraham’s position, his state was very different.

Now, if you read Genesis, Chapter 19, you see a very sad situation. God was ready to destroy Sodom and so He sent two angels in the form of men and to rescue Lot, but let’s see what happened in verse 10:

Genesis 19:10-13 NKJV
10 But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.
11 And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.
12 Then the men said to Lot, "Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city — take them out of this place!
13 For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it."

You see, the men of Sodom had no position before God as righteous people, but Lot was going to be delivered from the coming judgment because he was a righteous person, even though his soul was vexed with the evil deeds of the people of Sodom. Now notice, the angels said:

Genesis 19:13-14 NKJV
13 . . . the LORD has sent us to destroy it."
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said,"Get up, get out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city!" But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.

You see, Lot had lost his testimony before even his sons-in-law. Now, verse 15:

Genesis 19:15-16 NKJV
15 When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying,"Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city."
16 And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

You see, Lot was still reluctant to leave Sodom, even in the face of judgment. The angels actually just dragged him out of the city along with his wife and his two daughters. Now, notice in verse 17:

Genesis 19:17 NKJVudgment, and the angels actually just dragged them out of the city, Lot, his wife and his two daughte
17 So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that (the angel) said,"Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed."

That’s where Lot could have gone in the first place when Abraham gave him a choice as to where he would go. Now Lot is told by the angel to escape to the mountains, but notice what Lot said:

Genesis 19:18-19 NKJV
18 . . . "Please, no, my lords!
19 Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die.

Abraham was living safely in the mountains, and God was using him. Lot was in living in Sodom where he was in great danger because Sodom was going to be destroyed and everything that Lot had achieved and that he had acquired was going to be destroyed. And yet, Lot was afraid to go to the mountains. He was afraid that he would be in too much danger there. And notice in verse 20:

Genesis 19:20-23 NKJV
20 See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live."
21 And he said to him, "See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken.
22 Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
23 The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar.

Lot had to be dragged out of Sodom, and he was also reluctant to leave the cities of the plains of Jordan. That had been his downfall as far as his spiritual state and his fellowship with God were concerned. Lot was reluctant to leave, and so he asked if he could go to Zoar because it was a little city.

Many times Christians who are out of fellowship with God think that it’s alright to be just a little bit involved in the world. They see all of the really bad things that other people are doing over in Sodom, and they think, I’m not doing all those really bad things; I’ll just stay over here in Zoar where I can be just a little bit worldly.

But please notice that when God delivered Lot, God had to destroy everything that Lot had except his two daughters. Even Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. She was delivered out of Sodom, but she lost her life as she was leaving Sodom because she disobeyed the Lord and looked back at Sodom.

In the book of I Corinthians, we see one of the lessons that we can learn from Lot, and I want you to get this. In the book of I Corinthians, Chapter 3 and verse 9, we read:

1 Corinthians 3:9-15 NKJV
9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building.
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.
14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

What a beautiful picture Lot gives us of the person who builds wood, hay and stubble, things that will be burned up in the day of judgment. When we walk according to the flesh, we are building those things that will be burned up just like the things that Lot was building in the city of Sodom.

If we want to have a reward on the day of judgment, our spiritual state before God must be such that we are walking in fellowship with God. Only then will we be building with gold, silver and precious stones. Lot was saved as through the fire. He was dragged out of the fiery judgment. He was saved, but all that he had was burned up.

Oh, it may be that you are listening this morning, and you are living a life that is based on selfish ambition, just doing what you want to do. God tells us that when we walk according to the flesh like Lot, we will lose all that we have built, yet we will be saved as through the fire with nothing to present to the Lord on that day when we see Him face to face.

I trust that you know the Lord as your Savior, and then that you are walking in accordance with His will so that you will be like Abraham rather than Lot.

Well, I see our time is already gone. The Lord willing we’ll be back again with you next week as we continue our Journey Through the Scripture. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.

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Genesis (Part 22)(BST 11-9-08)

Genesis (Part 22)
Bible Study Time 11-9-08
(From James Roberts 1-19-97)

Last week in our Journey Through the Scripture, we considered Lot, the nephew of Abraham. We saw something of the disastrous choices that Lot made. He began to pitch his tent toward Sodom, and we last saw Lot sitting in the gates of Sodom. It would appear that Lot had risen to a place of prominence in Sodom as he had some kind of leadership position there. He undoubtedly had some strong connections with the men of Sodom because his daughters had married men from that city.

So when the angel of the Lord came and told Lot about the destruction that was going to come upon Sodom, Lot was very reluctant to leave. However, Lot did go to his sons-in-law to warn them about the coming judgment. He was no doubt hoping to get them to leave Sodom, but they laughed at him and mocked him. They had seen Lot’s behavior, and they thought that Lot seemed just like one of them. They had no reason to believe that God would give Lot any kind of a special explanation regarding any judgment that was about to come.

As we apply this to our own experience, we see that many times believers who live an inconsistent life are not taken seriously by unbelievers, even when they try to tell those unbelievers about the Lord Jesus Christ and about God’s great love for them.

Now there is another aspect of Lot’s life that many people fail to understand. This is found in II Peter, Chapter 2, and I’d like for you to look at this passage with me this morning if you have the opportunity to do so. In this passage we find God speaking of the coming judgment. There is going to be future judgment that is going to come upon the earth. It will be a judgment like the judgment of the days of Noah. In the days of Noah, God destroyed the earth with a flood, but in the coming judgment, God is going to destroy the heavens and the earth with great fire.

However, in the book of II Peter we find a third judgment mentioned, and that’s the judgment that took place in the days of Lot. According to II Peter, God delivered two men out from under His hand of judgment. Notice in verse 4 of II Peter, Chapter 2:

2 Peter 2:4-5 NKJV
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;
5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;

Before God brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly, He had this man, Noah, preaching righteousness to the people. For 120 years, Noah preached to the people about the coming judgment. Then finally, when the judgment was about to come, God put Noah in the ark and rescued him out of that judgment.

Now, you might say, well, I understand why God would rescue Noah. After all, Noah was a man who was faithful to preach the word. We don’t find Noah taking part in all of the ungodliness of the world. Noah was a just man, he had found grace in the eyes of the Lord, he was active in the Lord’s work as he proclaimed righteousness to a wicked world, so therefore, we sort of understand why God would want to deliver Noah. But notice verse 5:

2 Peter 2:6 NKJV
6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, (God) condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly;

Here we find another judgment that came after the flood on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God just turned those cities into ashes with a fiery judgment as an example to those who are ungodly. Now notice in verse 7:

2 Peter 2:7-9 NKJV
7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked
8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) —
9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,

So here we find a very interesting description of Lot. Keep in mind that this is in the New Testament which was written centuries after the events recorded in the book of Genesis. This was God’s viewpoint of Lot. And what did God see? God saw Lot as a righteous person.

As we would look at it, we might not think that Lot was a righteous person. Lot’s sons-in-law probably did not think of Lot as a righteous person because they saw only Lot’s outward conduct. They saw Lot being tormented day by day by the filthy conversation of the ungodly people there in Sodom and Gomorrah, and yet Lot, himself, was entangled in all of the affairs of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Lot was a wealthy man, but he was a tormented man because he could find no rest while he was there in Sodom. He was tormented by the filthiness that was all around him. But I want you to notice that God saw Lot as a righteous man. Even though we would not look at him as such, even though Lot’s sons-in-law would not have looked at him as such, God saw Lot as a righteous man.

Now, how is it that a person is made right with God? How is it that a person can become just in the sight of God? Actually that question was asked by a man named Job centuries ago. Job asked:

How can a man be just with God? I’m not God so that I can reach up and lay hold on God. God is not a man so that He can reach down and lay hold on me so that we can come together in a court of law. There is no day’s man betwixt us; there is no mediator between us.

But since the days of Job, there is one who came into this world, who was both God and man. He was Emmanuel, God With Us. The Lord Jesus Christ was not a hybrid. He was not half God and half man. He was totally God, and He was totally man. He was fully divine and fully human.

When Christ died on the cross, He died for all of humanity, paying in full the penalty for all of our sins so that we might become righteous in the sight of God. He gave His life so that all of man’s sins could be dealt with and be taken out of the way, so that men could be found in the righteous one, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So the Lord Jesus Christ died, was buried and then He rose again, and He is sitting today at God’s right hand. He is fully God and fully man, and He is the mediator between God and man. And now, man can be just before God, not because of his own righteousness but because of faith.

I believe that there has never been a person who has been made right in the sight of God except by faith. Abraham was justified by faith. Abraham received a revelation from God. God revealed Himself to Abraham as the God of glory, and God gave Abraham a command to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go to a place that God would show him. Abraham believed God, and God counted Abraham’s faith for righteousness. God counted Abraham as righteous, not because of Abraham’s goodness, but because Abraham had faith in what God had said.

Undoubtedly, Abraham had shared this good news with his family, namely his father and probably his nephew, Lot. Undoubtedly, Lot had believed the good news that Abraham had shared with him about the God of glory, and Lot had believed what God had told Abraham. And so, God saw the faith of Lot and accounted that faith to Lot for righteousness.

Now it’s very interesting to see that God tells us in His word in many ways that a person cannot be justified before God by their own good works. In Acts, Chapter 13, the Apostle Paul went to Antioch of Presidia in the province of Galatia, and he first of all went to the synagogue of the Jews who had been under the Law of Moses. As he spoke to them about the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, he told these Jews that by this man, Jesus Christ, believers are justified from all things of which they could never be justified by the Law of Moses.

Paul later wrote to the Christians of Galatia and told them that those who are trying to be justified by keeping the Law have to continue in all things that were required by the Law. Those who want to be justified by law keeping have to walk in the Law; there is no room for any deviation from that which is required by the Law.

Later on, James explained that if a man breaks the Law in one point, he is guilty of breaking the whole Law, and he stands condemned before God. When a man goes before God to plead his case on the basis of law keeping, God will not look to see if that man has kept the Law 51% or 75% of the time. God will look to see if that man has kept the Law 100% of the time, and that man will be required to keep not only the letter of the Law but the spirit of the Law as well, 100% of the time.

Only one person has ever kept that Law in this manner and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Bible says that those who try to be justified before God by law keeping are under the curse of the Law because they are sinners and the Law itself condemns them. They have to stand before God as guilty.

But when a person comes before God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, pleading the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, Lord, I believe what you have told me about the Lord Jesus, that He loved me and died for me, that he bore in full the penalty for my sins and that I can now trust Him to give me eternal life as a free gift. God counts that faith for righteousness just as He counted Abraham’s faith for righteousness, and in that same way, God also counted Lot’s faith as righteousness.

Today, I want to ask you this question as we close the broadcast. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior?

The Bible tells us that we cannot be justified by our own good works because if we could do enough good works to save ourselves, God would owe us a place in heaven. But those who go to heaven will not be there as a result of any debt that God owes them. All those who go to heaven will be those who have received eternal life as a free gift from God. It is not a matter of how much you have done that is good or bad, but it’s a matter of whether you have trusted Christ as your personal Savior.

Lot had become a just person because he had faith in Christ. He did not lose his position of acceptance before God as a just man just because he wondered off to live in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Next week, we are going to look at the consequences of Lot’s failure to make the right choices, but the thing that I want you to see today is that Lot was saved, like you must be saved and like I must be saved, and that’s by faith in what God has said. We are saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, I see our time is gone. The Lord willing, we will be back with you again next week when we will continue our Journey Through the Scripture. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.

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Genesis (Part 21)(BST 11-2-08)

Genesis (Part 21)
Bible Study Time 11-2-08
(From James Roberts 1-12-97)

Last week in our Journey Through the Scripture, we saw that a quarrel developed between the herdsmen of Abraham and his nephew, Lot. Abraham felt uneasy about this quarreling and wanted to prevent a scandal in the eyes of the other tribes and families of the region, so he went to Lot and suggested that they go their separate ways. Abraham said, if you go to the left, I’ll go to the right, but if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left. Abraham left the choice with Lot. Genesis, Chapter 13, says that as Abraham presented his proposal:

Genesis 13:10 NKJV
10 . . . Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere . . . like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar.

From Lot’s viewpoint, the plains of Jordan looked like the garden of God, but they were also said to be like that Egypt.

Now, to Lot, Egypt must have seemed very attractive, but in the Bible, Egypt is a picture of the world. When the Bible talks about people who are going to Egypt, it always presents them as going down into Egypt, not only geographically but also spiritually. It never speaks of people going up into Egypt. Why? Because there’s no spiritual growth in Egypt, there is no spiritual growth in the world. In the world, one can only expect a degeneration of one’s spiritual life and testimony.

Lot lifted up his eyes, and he saw. He based his choice on the things that he saw with his fleshly eyes and his natural mind. He saw the beautiful, well watered plains of Jordan. He thought that if he went in that direction, his cattle would never go hungry. And, we see that Lot chose for himself. Notice this in verse 11:

Genesis 13:11 NKJV
11 Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other.

Abraham was willing to leave the matter in God’s hands as he gave the choice to Lot. Years before, God has told Abraham to leave the land in which he was living, and Abraham acted simply on the basis of the word of God, so that even then, he left the choice with God as to where he would go. He was willing to trust the Lord to lead him into the place where God wanted him to be.

Lot, on the other hand, chose for himself, and it may be that today you are listening to this program this morning, and you have chosen for yourself what you are going to do with your life. You have said in your heart that your life is your own and you can do with it as you wish.

Some time ago, my wife and I were given a plaque by a dear friend of ours and this little plaque says, the Lord always gives the best to those who leave the choice with Him. Abraham received the best because he left the choice with God, and God led Abraham into the very place that He wanted Abraham to be.

We are going to see in this lesson today, and in the next, the destructiveness of Lot’s choice as he walked by sight and not by faith. The Bible tells us in the book of II Corinthians that we are not like those who walk by sight, but rather, we walk by faith.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. When we walk by sight, we are walking like everyone else in the world. But Christians have two resources that make it possible for them to walk in a different way from all other men. We do not have to walk according to the natural perspective.

First, Christians have the word of God so that, as we read God’s word, we grow in our faith. We see God’s viewpoint and by faith we accept His viewpoint. Second, Christians also have the Holy Spirit who is able to take the word of God and apply it to our hearts so that we can begin to understand the will and the purpose of God for our lives.

As we look into God’s word, and study God’s word, and rightly divide God’s word, and hide God’s word in our hearts, the Holy Spirit uses the word to give us God’s divine perspective. In this way, we do not end up choosing for ourselves a life that leads to destruction.

It is very interesting that at this point Lot chose not only to live in the well watered plains of Jordon, but Lot went to dwell in the cities of the plains of Jordan. This represents another step downward in Lot’s spiritual life. It wasn’t long before Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom, itself. Step by step, Lot was spiraling downward in his spiritual life.

You see, before we go all the way down into Sodom and start indulging in the things of Sodom, we have to pitch our tent toward Sodom. First, we set our minds on the things of this world, and then we become entrapped in the things of this world with all of its destructiveness.

At first, we don’t see the things of Sodom as destructive. Satan cleverly disguises the things of the world so that they do not appear to be destructive. Satan wants to lure people into this destruction. Lot saw the well watered plains of Jordan as paradise restored, but in reality they were just like the destructive things of Egypt.

Now, in the very next chapter in the book of Genesis, we find that Lot was actually living in Sodom when a federation of five kinds came up against Sodom. These five kings captured the king of Sodom and many of the citizens of Sodom, including Lot and his family. As soon as Abraham heard about this, he gathered up some of his young men and went out to rescue Lot. In the strength and power of the Lord, Abraham rescued Lot, but do you know what Lot did? Lot went right back to Sodom.

Undoubtedly, Lot had things in Sodom that he loved so much that he could not bear to part with them. But it is not until we get to Genesis, Chapter 19, that we see the terrible destructiveness of Lot’s choice. Lot went down into the well watered plains of the Jordan. Then he went to dwell in the cities of that area. Then Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom, and it wasn’t long before he was living in Sodom itself. He then got so wrapped up in the things of Sodom that he could no longer bear to leave.

In Genesis, Chapter 18, God tells Abraham that He is going to destroy Sodom. Abraham pleads with God to save Sodom and Gomorrah, and he bargains with the Lord. It may be that Abraham bargained with the Lord so aggressively in order to save Lot and Lot’s family.

In Genesis, Chapter 19, we read that when God did decide to destroy Sodom, He sent two messengers to warn Lot of the coming judgment. These messengers told Lot to get out of Sodom to avoid the destruction. But in spite of this divine warning from God, Lot was hesitant to leave Sodom .

In the first verse of Chapter 19, we find Lot sitting in the gates of the city of Sodom. This indicates that Lot had a place of leadership in Sodom. Lot had not only pitched his tent toward Sodom, but he had moved into Sodom and had become a leader in Sodom. We also find that Lot’s daughters had married men from Sodom so that Lot was more and more entangled in the affairs of Sodom.

May I say this to you. When you become a Christian, you have the option; you have the choice as to how you are going to live your life. If you decide to walk by sight and do the things that you want to do, then you will wind up like Lot in Sodom. On the other hand, if you decide to let the Lord lead you and guide you and direct you, then the Holy Spirit dwelling within you will take the word of God as you read and study and feast upon it, so that the word of God comes to live within you. Then, you will be able to see life from the divine perspective.

Every Christian has this choice, but I want you to notice that if you decide to live for yourself, you don’t just automatically find yourself immediately occupying a place of leadership in Sodom. There will be a progression that leads downward in your life just like there were many steps in Lot’s downward path to Sodom.

There are many Christians today who have left the place of blessing and fellowship with God because at some point they decided to pitch their tent toward Sodom. Then as they inched their way toward Sodom, they became enmeshed in the activities of Sodom, and finally the things of Sodom got such a hold on them that they would now have a hard time breaking away from the things of Sodom.

Now it’s interesting to note that when the angels came to warn Lot of the judgment that was about to fall upon Sodom, Lot told his sons-in-law about the warning, and the Bible says that Lot’s sons-in-law laughed at him and mocked him. You see, when Christians live their lives recklessly enmeshed in the things of the world and then they try to bear a testimony for the Lord, the world simply laughs.

Finally, the angels warned Lot to quickly leave the city because the judgment of God was near, but they told Lot that they could not destroy the city until he left. Well, why was that? In the book of II Peter, we are told that the Lord knows how to rescue the righteous when they find themselves in the midst of an ungodly world. Peter first points to Noah, and then he mentions “righteous Lot.”

Obviously, Lot knew the Lord. He had become righteous in God’s sight even though he still had the world in his heart. So Lot was what we might call a worldly Christian, but in spite of Lot’s worldly condition, it was God’s plan to save Lot from the destruction that was about to fall upon Sodom. Even though Lot was dwelling there in Sodom, he was not considered by God to be a part of the evil of that city. God saw Lot as separate and apart from the wickedness of the city of Sodom because Lot had come to know and believe in the Lord.

Next week, we are going to see the consequences that Lot had to face as a result of his attraction to and his association with the city of Sodom. I trust that if you know the Lord as your Savior today that you will look at Lot’s life and take note of the utter destructiveness of making the wrong choices in life.

Well, I see our time is gone. The Lord willing, we will take up here again next week. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.

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