MCLEAN BIBLE CHURCH MAY 28, 2012 PASTOR LON SOLOMON

Transcription

1 MCLEAN BIBLE CHURCH MAY 28, 2012 PASTOR LON SOLOMON You know, today, we come to one of the most interesting chapters in all the Book of Genesis, Genesis, Chapter 14, in which we're going to meet some amazingly, interestingly people. For example, Chedorlaomer, Birsha, Bera, Melchizedek and many others. But this chapter is not only full of interesting people, it's also chock full of spiritual truth that is applicable for our lives today. And so, we're going to spend the next several weeks in and around Genesis Chapter 14 trying to milk all of the spiritual truth out of it that's in there for you and me. And today what we're going to talk about is whose glory are we after. And I think when we're done today, I think you will understand why I entitled the message as I did. So, are you ready? >> Yes! >> Okay. Here we go. Just a little bit of review before we dig in. Remember, Lot, Abraham's nephew, has separated from Abraham and gone down to live in the southern Jordan valley around the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, we will show you a map where you see where that is. And Abraham has moved a little to the north and is now living in Hebron. That's where we pick up the story, Chapter 14, verse 1. The Bible says, "and it came about in the days of Amraphel of Shinar and Arioch, king of Ellasar, and Chedorlaomer, the king of Elam, and Tidal, the king of Goiim, that they made war against Bera, king of Sodom, and Birsha, the king of Gomorrah." These four verses tell us that the kings of the east invaded the southern Jordan valley while Lot was living there. We will show you a map where these four kings were, all to the east and a little bit to the north of the southern Jordan valley. And verse 4 of this chapter tells us why they invaded. It says, for 12 years, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah had been subjected to Chedorlaomer but in the 13th year, they rebelled. And so Chedorlaomer led this invasion force into the southern Jordan valley to reestablish his control, verse 8. Then the king of Sodom, Bera, and the king of Gomorrah, Birsha, that we know from verse one, and their allies marched out and arrayed for battle in the Valley of Siddim. The Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled -- they obviously got beat -- some of the men fell into these pits while the rest ran away into the hill country. Then Chedorlaomer and his Allies seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and departed.

2 They also carried off Abraham's nephew, Lott, and his possessions for he was living in Sodom. Now, before we go on with the chapter, we need to stop and ask an important question. And that question is: Did this event, did this invasion really happen the way the Bible says it did? The reason we need to ask this is because critics of the Bible have challenged the historical accuracy of Genesis 14 more than almost any other event in the Book of Genesis. Ah, but archeology over the last 100 years has really helped us. In fact, Nelson Glueck, Jewish rabbi, famed archeologist, the resident expert in archeology in the southern Jordan valley around Sodom and Gomorrah, he said this, he said archeology has discovered much which has buttressed the accuracy of the Biblical account of the existence and destruction of these cities by the kings of the east, end of quote. Now, I'm not going to give you everything archeology has discovered, but I would just like to hit three of the very most important things that Nelson Glueck here is talking about. Number one, we have found letters from the ancient City of Mari. We will show you a map. It is in more than Mesopotamia. Right at the time the Bible Hayes Abraham and Lott lived, 2100 B.C., that indeed, all of a sudden, a powerful alliance between the four nations that Genesis 14 mentions. Moreover, archeology tells us that this alliance fell apart not long after the time of Abraham. The point is that the Bible's account of this alliance in Genesis 14 is accurate to a fault during the time of Abraham and Lott, not a long time before Abraham and Lott's time and not a long time after but right during that period accurate to a fault. The second point from archeology is that the arc calling also tells us why these kings are the east wanted to control the southern Jordan Valley during this time. In his excavations of the southern Jordan Valley, our friend, Nelson Glueck, found that at the time of Abraham, there were extensive mining operations going on around Sodom and Gomorrah and that this area was producing large amounts of copper, manganese, asphalt, tar and many other raw materials that were of great value throughout the ancient near east. In other words, at the time of Abraham and Lot, the area around Sodom was a raw materials bonanza for whoever controlled it. But -- and this is very interesting -- Glueck also found that after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which is going to happen in just a few years from Genesis 14, this mining ceased forever. The point, and don't miss this, is that the only time the area around Sodom and Gomorrah was worth fighting over was during the time that Lot was living there precisely like the Bible says.

3 Number 3, and, finally, archeology has shown us that the route that these invading kings took to invade the southern Jordan Valley -- and you can find that route explained to you in verses 5, 6 and 7 of this chapter -- we have found that that route follows a major highway that existed at the time of Abraham. Jack Finegan in his book "Light from the Ancient Past" said, and I quote, a main highway ran from north to south through the land at this time which is clearly traceable, the highway is, from the ruins of sites dated from the 23rd to the 20th centuries B.C., the time of Abraham. Now, watch. This was the exact line along which the eastern kings of Genesis 14 moved. The point is that the Bible's account here in Genesis 14 of the invasion route that these kings took lays out squares perfectly with the transportation patterns that we now know existed at the time of Abraham. The result of all this archeological discovery is that Genesis 14 is now regarded with a high degree of historical respect, whereas once it was dismissed as a historical piece of nonsense. Edward Yamauchi said in his boo can "The Stones and the scriptures," and I quote, the unmistakable shift towards a conservative view of Genesis 14 may be illustrated by comparing the opinion expressed about Genesis 14 by Dr. William F. Albright in 1918 versus Now, remember, Dr. William F. Albright is probably the greatest archeologist that America has ever produced. He taught at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and he published an article in 1918 about Genesis 14. He published another one in This is what Yamauchi is talking about. Now, listen, back to his quote, in 1918, the article then, Yamauchi says, Dr. Albright regarded this chapter, chapter Genesis 14, as, quote, without historical foundation, end of quote. Some 40 years later, Yamauchi says Dr. Albright asserted that his studies, quote, established the absolute antiquity of the contents of this chapter, end of quote. Whew! You know what? Those people took an awful lot of words to say what we say here in one sentence. And you know what our one sentence is, couldn't you? Say it with me. Come on now, nice and loud. The more they dig out of the ground, the more the Bible proves to be right! And that's exactly what's happened here in Genesis, Chapter 14. So archeology confirms that the way to approach Genesis and, folks, the way that we're going to approach Genesis 14 is to assume, number one, that there really was an invasion of Sodom and Gomorrah by these kings while Lot was living there; two assume, number one, that Lot really was taken captive by this invasion force; and, number three, to assume that Abraham really did do what Genesis 14 says he did next. What was that? Well, let's read it. Verse 13. Then

4 someone who had escaped from Sodom and Gomorrah came and told Abraham, the Hebrew what happened. At this time Abraham was living in Hebron, by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and Aner, all three of whom were allied with Abraham. When Abraham heard that his relative Lot had been taken captive, he mustered his 318 trained men, who had been born in his household, and set out in pursuit. Now, we don't see it here but we learn later in verse 24 that Abraham just didn't have 318 men with him. Actually, also Aner went with him and Eshcol went with him and Mamre went with him and they took their troops. Verse 15, and so, Abraham, divided his forces against them by night to attack them. And Abraham routed them, and kept attacking them as far north as Damascus. And Abraham recovered all the goods that had been taken, as well as his relative Lot and all Lot's possessions, along with the women and all the people. Good for Abraham. Good for him. Now, he heads home with his Army and Lot and all the people from Sodom and Gomorrah and all the material wealth that he's recaptured. And on the way home, he meets two kings on the way. Let me show you who they are. King number one was a fellow named Melchizedek, verse 18. And then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, for Abraham's troops, and he, Melchizedek, was a priest of the most high God and he blessed Abraham. Then Abraham gave him, Melchizedek, a tenth or a tithe of everything. This Melchizedek is one of the most intriguing characters in the entire Bible. Verse 18 of this chapter tells us he appears from nowhere. He is a priest of the Most High God. He blesses Abraham. And Abraham gives him 10%, a tithe, of all the material wealth that he has gotten from the battle as a worship offering, as a Thanksgiving offering for God giving him the victory. You say, Lon, who is this guy, Melchizedek? And where did he come from? Well, you know what? He reappears in the Bible. He plays a very important role in the Book of Hebrews, and I'm going to explain all of that to you but not today. We're going to get to it. I promise, in the next couple of weeks, just not today. Now, Abraham met a second king on his way back, the king of Sodom. Verse 17, and after Abraham returned from defeating Chedorlaomer, the king of Sodom came out to meet him. And the king of Sodom said to Abraham, "give the people to me -- and keep all the goods for yourself." We need to understand in the ancient near east, this standard operating procedure. When the leader of an Army captured a people or captured another Army, all of the material wealth they captured they kept for themselves. It was called booty, or spoil. It is where we get our expression

5 today "the spoils of war." And Godly kings did this, too. King Asa, Godly king of Judah and his Hebrew Army defeated their Armies in 2 chronicles 14. And verse 13 says, and they, Asa and his Army carried away much spoil. So, it was expected that Abraham would keep all the material wealth. That wasn't unusual. In fact, that's kind of what was normal procedure. But, look, verse 22, but Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I have sworn to the Lord God most high, creator of heaven and Earth, that I will accept nothing belonging to you, the king of Sodom, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal so that you, the king of Sodom, will never be able to say "I made Abraham rich.." But, remember, Abraham had some allies along, Afar, and Eshcol and Mamre. They hadn't made this oath. They hadn't made this promise to God. And so Abraham says verse 24, but I will take the share that belongs to the men that went with me, to Aner, and Eshcol and Mamre. They shall have their share. And now Abraham returns to Hebron. Lot now returns to Sodom and so ends this momentous chapter. But it doesn't end for us because we're left getting ready to ask our most important question of the morning. Uh-huh? Uh-huh? Yeah? And so all of our friends, all you guys at Lowden and all you guys at Prince William, everybody at Bethesda, all you folks down in the Edge community, everybody on our Internet Campus, are you ready? >> Yes! >> I know you're ready. I'm asking if they're ready. I heard that. Okay. All right. And you're ready? >> Yes! >> Okay. So this works better if you take a deep breath. Everybody, let's take a deep breath. Ready? Here we go. One, two, three! >> So what? >> Yeah. You say, Lon, so what? You say I'm really glad about all that archeology. That's really wonderful. I'm glad the kings got the right route and got the road right and all this other stuff. What difference does any of this make for me? I don't see any packed, chock full bunch of spiritual truth in here for me. Well, let's see if we can help with that. I did say this is chock full of spiritual truth, this chapter, and it is. Today we're only going to focus on one of those truths, and that is we're going to focus on Abraham's comment to the king of Sodom. Let me remind you what he said, verse 22. But Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I have sworn to the Lord God most high, that I will accept nothing belonging to

6 you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal so that you will never be able to say "I made Abraham rich." Now, what exactly, friends, is the issue here? Well, the issue is God's glory versus Abraham's glory. Abraham wanted to be sure that God got 100% of the glory, 100% of the credit, 100% of the spotlight, 100% of the praise for all the blessings that he had showered on Abraham and that Abraham got zero percent of it and that the King of Sodom got zero percent of it. And you know the reason why Abraham felt like this? Folks, it is because he realized that he deserved zero percent of the credit. He reminds me of King David. King David in 1 Chronicles 29 makes an offering for the building of the temple in Jerusalem. But this offering comes out of his own personal funds. It comes out of his own private fortune. And, you know, the Bible tells us exactly how much David gave. The Bible says David gave 7,000 talents of silver. I did some ciphering this week, ounces into pounds times what the paper says silver is worth and all that stuff. You know how much money this is? I'll tell you, 7,000 talents of silver is roughly $238 million in today's money. Ah. But David also gave 3,000 talents of gold. You know how much this is in today's money? This is $5.7 billion. Out of his private funds. But you got to love David's attitude. Right after he did it, here's what he prayed. 1 Chronicles 29:14, he said, but who am I, Lord? That I should be able to give to you as generously as this? Look, for everything comes from you and I have only given to you what came to me from Your hand. The point was that David was acutely aware that none of the credit for his success, none of the credit for his wealth, none of the credit for his victories, none of the credit for his achievements, none of the credit for the blessings in his life belong to him. God had given all of them to him. And Abraham was acutely aware of this, too, which is why he said what he did to the King of Sodom. Abraham wanted to make absolutely certain that all the glory for everything in his life went to almighty God, that Abraham got zero percent of that glory and that the King of Sodom got zero percent of that glory. Now, do you see a message here for the church of Jesus Christ in America today? Because I do. It is my opinion that in the church of Jesus Christ in America today -- and I'm not talking about the liberal church. I'm talking about the Bible-believing, gospel-preaching true church of Christ in America today, it is my opinion that when it comes to this issue of self-glorification and self-promotion and self-exaltation, that we do not have a problem in the church in America today. We have an epidemic. All you have to do, just watch Christian television. Just watch or listen to Christian radio. Just read

7 a lot of what's out there in Christian literature, self-promotion, self-glory, self-exaltation. You know, a few years ago one of the pastors on our staff went to a pastors conference. And one of the pastors there came up to our guy and said, so tell me, at McLean Bible Church, he said, are you an assistant pastor or are you associate pastor? And our guy said, "I don't know." "I don't know." And this other pastor said, you know, it just burns me up when somebody calls me an assistant pastor when really I'm associate pastor. Folks, what's wrong with us in the church of America today? Do you really think Peter walked around worrying whether he was an assistant apostle or associate apostle? Do you think he even cared about stuff like that? I mean, you know, have we all become like Diotrephes who says who loves the preeminence in the church of America today. We as followers of Christ in America today, we need to mortify this love of self-promotion, this love of self-glory, this love of self-exaltation that not only lives inside of us but that we see so many of our Christian leaders demonstrating. We need to stop thinking about our lives in terms of our prestige, our position, our titles, our power, our notoriety, our reputation among the saints and we must make God the center of our lives and make His glory the paramount issue in our lives, not ours. (applause). And, listen, if God decides to exalt somebody else over somebody else, if God decides to use somebody else instead of us, if God decides to give the credit to somebody else, instead of us, hey, as long as God gets the glory, how dare we resent that, how dare we resist that, how dare we object to that and chafe on to that. What's wrong with us? I mean, whatever happened to the worlds of John, the Baptist, John 3, verse 30, when he said, he, the Lord Jesus, must increase but I must what? Decrease. Whatever happened to Christians like the Apostle Paul and Barnabas, acts 14, verse 27, said they gathered the church together and reported what God had done through them. They didn't report what we have done. They reported what God had done. Whatever happened to Christian leaders like Jim Elliot, the famous missionary who died in 1956 trying to reach the Auca Indians in South America? Jim Elliot said, "We re just a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt the great somebody." And I love the words of Dwight L. Moody, commenting on Moses, he said and I quote, Moses spent 40 years in Pharaoh's court thinking he was a somebody, 40 years in the desert learning

8 he was a nobody, and 40 years showing what God can do with a somebody who realizes he is a nobody! You followed that, yeah? (applause). Amen. You know, I have a challenge I would like to issue to myself. You can get in on it, if you want. I love what John McArthur said. He said, people don't get it. I preach to me and they just get to come listen. There is a lot of truth to that. The challenge is for me above everybody here, but it is for you, too. I want to challenge us, every true follower of Christ here, to say that our goal is to follow the example of Abraham, to follow the example of Barnabas and the Apostle Paul and Jim Elliot; to make it our heartfelt goal in life that the Lord Jesus Christ gets every ounce of credit, every ounce of glory, from our lives, from every good thing in our lives, from every success in our lives, from every victory in our lives and that we not only give him the credit in our hearts but we give him the credit with our mouths. Let's see what we mean by that. What I mean, friends, is so often as followers of Christ -- we don't mean to do this, but so often we rob God of his glory because we fail to give him the verbal credit he deserves. People see all the blessings that God has given us in our life. They see the spiritual joy, the spiritual peace, the spiritual strength, the spiritual wisdom. They see the physical health and the physical stamina and the material provision God's given us. They seep the stability in our lives and in our family's lives that comes from walking with Christ. And in our mind, we may be giving all the credit to God in saying, Lord, we know this is all from you but, folks, unless we open our mouths and tell other people that this is where it came from, they're going to get it wrong. And they're going to give the credit to us. We got to open our mouths and make sure that people know where the credit belongs. It is not good enough just to know it in our heart. We got to tell people. I remember my father many years ago when he was still living came to me -- I had been a believer about five years. I got to tell you, I was the worst son known to man. Horrible doesn't even come close to describing how bad a son I was, disgusting, stomach-turning. I don't know a word. I was horrible. I didn't respect my parents, I had knows steam. I was a horrible son. When I first came to Christ, the Lord convicted me of how sinful and how awful this was. I really began asking God to change my heart and make me the kind of son I should be. And I worked hard on that. And the Lord really did a work in my life. And my dad came to me about five years in to my Christian walk and he said to me, just out of the blue, he said, you know what? He said, you really have

9 become a wonderful son. And I said, no, dad, you're wrong. I said, I'm the same awful, rotten, terrible son I have always been. What you are seeing is the transforming power of Jesus Christ in my life. I said, don't give the credit to me. You are giving it to the wrong place. You need to give the credit to the living Christ who's changing my life. He's where the credit belongs. And my dad said, whatever, walked out of the room. But, but I believe it had an effect on my dad because you know why? Two years later my father gave his life to Jesus Christ, friends. Praise the Lord for that. (applause). Now, listen, as followers of Christ, we -- it's critical that we give God outward verbal credit for all that he does. We don't have to be obnoxious about it and we don't have to be sappy about it. We can do it with class and we can do it with respect. But everywhere we go, my friends, everyone we meet should know that our explanation for what's going on in our life is the very same explanation the Apostle Paul had for what was going on in his life. He said, 1 Corinthians 15:10, it is by the grace of God that I am what I am. You say, but, Lon, this is wonderful, but you know when I look in my heart, I see some really ugly stuff in there. I see self-promotion. I see self-exaltation. I see resentment when other people get ahead of me. I see resentment when other people get the spotlight. I see self-promotion. You know what? It is in all of us. It is part of our flesh, folks. Nobody, nobody is 100% pure on this. I've got it in my heart, too. You say, what do we do about it? It is great to stand up here and tell us we need to give to God, but how do we fix this? The Bible tells us we need to do two things. Number one, we have to come to God and admit we've got the problem. We've got to come to God and get on our knees and say, Lord, Jesus, I have seen what's in my heart and it's not pretty. And this stuff, as much as I hate it, lives in me. The love for the spotlight, the love for self-promotion, Lord, this is there, the love to rob of your glory. The second thing we've got to do is to ask God to change our heart. Psalm 51, verse 10, create in me a pure heart, O God, needs to be our prayer. Friends, you can't change your heart. I can't change my heart. Only the Holy Spirit can change our hearts. But he can change our hearts, and he will change our hearts if we want him to, if we ask him to. You say, Lon, how does he do it? I don't know. I don't care. What difference does it make? He does it. And so we need to be people who come and say, Lord Jesus,

10 change my heart, I don't like what lives there. Expunge it from my heart and more and more and more, give me a pure heart that just wants to see you get the credit. I don't want the credit. And make that not just something I say because I know I'm supposed to say it, make that reality in my heart, Lord. God will do it if you ask him to. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thanks for talking to us today from the word of God about a real-life problem we all struggle with. It is not just the preachers on television. Lord, it is all of us. Who as just part of our flesh have this love for the spotlight, this love for self-glory, self-exaltation and so, Father, I pray that you would really speak to our hearts deeply and that you would drive us to our knees before you and drive us to the foot of the cross begging you, Lord, to change our hearts, to mortify this inside of us and bring us to the place when we say we really want God to get the glory and we don't want any of it, it is not just nice words but it is reality for our heart. Lord, help us learn from the example of Abraham and help us walk in his footsteps, change the very way we live because we were here today and we sat under the teaching of the eternal word of God. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. What do God's people say? >> Amen. >> Amen. Hey, thanks for being here. Hope you have a great weekend. God bless you guys. (Music). (applause) *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***