Genesis 18:1-15 - September 12, 2021

father god we come before you and we pray that you would open our hearts as we get into chapter 18. you would work lord through the text speak to every heart that's here thank you that you have recorded these things for our learning and our understanding thank you lord your mercies truly are new every morning we pray that you would now take this time lord and help us to grow thank you lord in jesus name amen so chapter 17 abraham of course 99 years old the lord appeared to him changed his name from abram to abraham told him that his wife's name would go from sarai to sarah within that time within a year they would have a child a son they would call his name yitzhak which is isaac which means he laughs very good and so we learned all these things and he went back to his group there his compound his folks and he had to then take everybody in his home who were men from the age of eight days old and over and up and they had to be circumcised and we talked about all those things when so he circumcised ishmael at 13 he himself was circumcised at 99 and these things happen and so chapter 17 verse 26 we learned in the self same day abraham was circumcised ishmael a son and all the men of his house born in his house bought with money of the strangers who were circumcised with him so there's an expectation god's gonna do something because he promised us a kid and he promised us a kid within the season of life with within a year so chapter 18. and the capital l-o-r-d lord what does that mean that is the name of god himself yahweh or jehovah or jehovah depending on how the vows play out the lord himself god himself the sixth time now appeared unto abram in the plains of memory and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day in the middle east if you're going to travel the way you do it is you get up early in the morning you get underway you travel as long as you can when it gets really hot about noon to two you stop somewhere try to find shade or shelter cave whatever and just kind of sit it out and it gets really really hot in the summers and remember they're you know they travel long they don't have like a wawa they just stop in get some you'll get a slushie and get refreshed so it's common they would take a break and then as the cool you know the day would cool off a little bit they'd keep traveling and then they would go as long as they could into the evening and then look for along these trade routes and caravan rats caravan routes places to rest where they could just pull aside and they could essentially stay for the night so in the heat of the day when most people take a break abraham there is in his tent door in shade and suddenly the lord himself appears on abraham and abraham verse 2 lifted up his eyes and looked and lo that's old king james for check it out three men stood by him like suddenly he sees them remember i told you that you have abraham the sheik his tent is clearly different usually than everybody else's tent he's the the head the chief the sheik and then sometimes the wives have their compartments within the sheik's tent sometimes they have their own tents you'll see both as you go through the old testament so whether you have his tent sarais and hagars but eventually then you have his supporting staff around him is 318 trained servants they have their some will have families and they've got some of the animals that are closer camels and other things than the outer group and then the flocks outside so to get into where abraham is you've had to have gone past a bunch of people who most likely would say who are you right am i okay and he looks up and here they are suddenly no no servants with them going master these guys there they are suddenly they abruptly appeared seems when he saw them he ran see told you last week he'd run he ran to meet them from the tent from the tent door and he bowed himself toward the ground we're losing this as a culture but normally when someone older than you walks up to you and addresses you what are you supposed to do first service stand demographic third service yeah what are you supposed to do you rise to greet them right it's a sign of respect right and so you know somebody else comes in older than you it talks about in proverbs you shall rise up for the horry head the white hair you rise up it's a sign of respect they know things you don't and what's really kind of a bummer is now i'll come in the room and people rise up like oh wow wow really you know you rise up it's a sign of respect in the middle east when someone comes to visit you if you let them just come up and and then you rise hey what are you doing and it's like okay if you don't rise at all that would be a insult if someone is coming and you get up and you go far out to greet them that's a sign of honor or respect paid to the person coming to see you so abraham sees these three guys gets up runs to meet them gets their before bows himself down toward the ground before them he is showing them respect and he is showing them essentially a very nice welcome in that culture you can test this out for example because in saudi arabia when different presidents go to visit the saudi king over the different administrations how many have ever seen a photo of a u.s president holding hands with a saudi king give one hand you'll see in that idea from that bedouin mindset is you will take your guests by the hand and that's an idea of leading them it's a sign of respect or a sign of welcome interesting thing to consider go back and look and see if there's been any u.s presidents not greeted at the airport but rather greeted at the palace because that's a snub as opposed to sending or sometimes at the kings ill then you send a different delegation but the more more important delegation meeting at the airport you've gone to meet them the more respect you're trying to show these things are part of the middle east and so interesting thing to look back and watch play out in society so he ran to meet them showing them respect bowed himself toward the ground honoring them as guests and said my lord if now i have found favor in thy sight pass not away i pray thee from thy servant little little water i pray you be fetched and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree so here he's got a tree it's got shade and if you've been in the middle east to get under shade is really a nice relief compared to what you have and yeah i know it's a dry heat but it's heat so he's offering him rest again among the bedouin culture if your enemy comes to you without causing any harm or anything he just simply comes to you you are to receive him and you will even entertain or meet their needs and while your enemy is under your care should you come under attack it is among their culture you are bound to then defend that person who's your guest even with your own life if it's uh you know suddenly you get attacked so it's a whole different culture that goes on over there which will help you understand as we get into a little more of genesis why when certain weird things happen some of the solutions that are proposed because someone has come under their roof once again if you visit the bedouins and you sit there in the tent if they give you their coffee right or their tea which is actually really good if they give you a cup it's half to three quarters and you drink it and then when you're done they'll refill it if they give you a full cup what's the message when you're done it's time to go so there's a whole culture there if i found favor and thy sight pass not away i pray thee from thy servant let a little water i pray you be fetched wash your feet to rest to receive them and to refresh them of course if you know what it's like to be in sandals in the dirt rest yourselves under the tree and i will fetch a morsel of bread and comfort ye your hearts and after that you shall pass on now again guests could even stay for days that would be something they would accommodate therefore you come to your servant and they said well then so do as thou has said verse six and abraham hastened into the tent unto sarah and said verse six make ready quickly three measures of fine flowers the idea knead it and make cakes upon the hearth and they're they're actually quite good we have some of this bread and we go to israel and abram ran there it is again now look i don't know if ron is like but he ran okay he's still in reasonably good shape he ran unto the herd fetched a calf tender and good and gave it unto a young man and he hastened to to make it or to dress it so they would butcher it he's putting on quite the spread you grab a calf he gets butchered they take the meat they're making bread they're doing the whole thing and he took butter verse 8 and milk translated 42 times milk translated one time cheeses and the calf what do you get from calves beef let me try it again he took butter milk and beef which he had dressed and set it before them and he stood by them under the tree and they did eat how many have caught it butter milk beef anybody catch it you're like what they went to mcdonald's what's the problem milk cheeseburger how many have heard the word kosher let me see okay kosher so you're not in trouble if you know it kosher are the dietary laws observed by the jews even today in israel and here in the united states and depending how orthodox they are the more their extreme observance of those kosher rules or laws now a couple things one if you remember when noah got off the ark god told him you can eat whatever you want but you shall not eat the what the blood because the life was in the blood remember that chapter nine okay so you have from after the ark this restriction then when you get into and and for sake of time i may just kind of sum up but when you get into leviticus 17 it goes through requirements for what is kosher if it divides the hoof and it chews the cud it's clean so calf cows deer pigs divide the hoof but they slop so they're not clean bunnies chew the cud but they don't have hooves they're unclean camels chew the cud but padded feet they're unclean so this is kind of a rule of thumb it also goes through if it has fins and scales you may eat it if it's shellfish does not have fins and scales it's unclean to you because again god simply restricted it to the jews again here in leviticus 17 and 11 and then 17. he also mentions that for example these are the birds you can eat these are birds you cannot often would be vultures and other things these are things interesting mention in there don't eat bats lap wing and other things i'm just telling you what it says for kosher leviticus 17. with time we've come to understand the wisdom of god's requirements if you do not prepare pork properly you will have major health issues if you are not careful with shellfish you can have major health issues so some of the restrictions from the lord there really were designed to protect them as much as also a second purpose which was to keep them separate what do you mean i'm going to give you a real world example i'm not i'm not trying to give anybody grief past judgment or anything else i'm simply going to point out something to you how many have gone to a restaurant with friends only to find out someone in the group is gluten free and perhaps extremely gluten-free to where if they come in contact with gluten they actually have a very severe reaction to where it can cause them harm or even sometimes have to go to the emergency room because of that that allergy remember and same thing how many had friends who can't eat eggs or how about another problem in the country peanut allergy right i mean the old days in schools everybody cracker jack whatever you didn't care about now peanut allergies some kids are so severely allergic to peanuts that if they even get kind of a whiff of the oils they can go in the kind of anaphylactic shock those allergies have separated them out from among the general population it has caused them sometimes the restaurant doesn't have what they need or they can't go to certain you know whatever a tour for something or whatever it may be because that that set of restrictions for them has isolated them from the general population god gave to the jews these kosher laws to number one protect their health number two to separate them from the pagans because he had to get through the line of abraham through the tribe of judah through the throne of david the messiah who will come and die lay down his life and rise again god was preserving a bloodline and a people so that he could deliver to us the savior of the world and one of the ways he kept the jews separate from the nations around them is you can't go over for potluck or barbecue when the things that they're preparing are an abomination to you based on the law of moses everybody get the idea so he was separating them out well then the question comes up wait a second if god was doing that then what about us as christians today what obligations do we have so turn first to acts 15. i'm going to look at a couple things with you because i know this is you woke up this morning and you wanted to know this you wanted to know whether or not you could have a hot dog while watching acts 15. acts 15 there were jews who came down from jerusalem to the church at antioch and started trying to tell them that they had to not only believe in jesus but try to keep the law that caused a big discussion and a big debate james stood up in verse 19 gave the answer what he thought they should do the answer he said came in verse 20 let's write to the church that they abstain from pollution of idols from fornication which went with them from things strangled and from blood the eating of blood then they went on again in verse 26 and they said listen we've sent therefore with judah and silas who will also tell you the same decision by mouth here's our ruling verse 28 it seemed good to the holy spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things and they are necessary for fellowship what do you mean you'll see that you abstain from meats offered to idols from blood and from things strangled and from fornication from which if you keep yourselves from these ye shall do well not you'll be saved but you'll do well why did they do this because you've got jews who've come out from this kosher set of backgrounds you've got gentiles who have no such rules at all and somehow they're supposed to have a potluck so how do we do this well look for sake of fellowship among the jewish and gentile church abstain from these things so it doesn't stumble part of the congregation and you can have fellowship didn't say you'll be saved by observing this it says you'll do well what about things offered to idols i knew you wondered turn to first corinthians first corinthians chapter 8 and you might say well we don't need this you might be surprised people listening might actually need to know this what about things offered to idols paul writing to the church answering questions he said to them look we know that an idol is nothing those who have knowledge know this but knowledge can puff up but he said verse 4 concerning that question concerning the eating of things that are offered in sacrifice to idols we know that an idol is nothing it's a block of wood or an object of metal or stone it's an object that there is none other god but one amen church for though there be that are called gods whether in heaven or in earth as there be gods many are lords many but to us there is but one god the father of whom are all things and we in him and one lord jesus christ by whom are all things and we buy him albeit there's not in every man that knowledge for some with conscience of the idol thinking it's a real possible so-called god unto this our eat it as a thing offered to an idol and their conscience being weak is defiled they're not able to see it just as an object but meat commends us not to god for neither if we eat are we the better neither if we eat not are we the worst but take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours being able to eat anything you want become a stumbling block to them that are weak for if any man see you which has knowledge that an idol is nothing sin it meet in an idol's temple shall not the conscience of him which be weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered two idols and through thy knowledge again that an idol is nothing shall the weak brother perish for whom christ died they join you they eat later on they feel like man i was unfaithful to god what was i doing and they struggle now and so through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom christ died verse 12 but when you sow sin against the brethren you will wound their weak conscience you sin against christ wherefore if meat make my brother to offend or stumble i will eat no flesh while the world standeth lest i make my brother to offend well great but what if you get invited to a party i knew you'd ask it chapter 10 verse 23 corinthians all things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient all things are lawful for me with all things edify not let no man verse 24 seek his own but every man another's wealth whatever is sold in the shambles the marketplace that eat do they have refrigeration no so you slaughter an animal you got a bunch of meat what do you got to hurry up and do eat it sow these different idols and different places of worship there in corinth they would have their big festivals whatever slaughter a bunch of meat and then they would put the excess in the marketplace so you go to the marketplace to buy some meat whatever's sold there that eat asking no questions is it kosher was it bled properly was it ask no question for conscience sake besides it's on sale sorry it doesn't say that i just point out for the earth is the lords and the fullness thereof if any of them that believe not an unbeliever bid you to a feast and you be disposed to go go whatever is set before you eat asking no questions for conscience sake you have no idea what they might say in front of you but just eat it but if any man say unto you at that event hey this is offered in sacrifice unto idols eat not for his sake that showed it and for conscience sake for the earth is the lord's and the fullness thereof but conscience i say not of your own you know it's nothing but for the other the guy who pointed it out he's obviously troubled so why is my liberty judge of another man's conscience the guy's troubled why stumble him for if i by grace be a partaker why am i evil spoken of for that which i give thanks whether therefore you do eat or drink or whatsoever you do do all for the glory of god so you can eat anything they put in front of you unless somebody points it out then it's obviously a problem him so better just to pass lastly for us as far as got new testament at least the epistles romans 14 romans 14. there's a point to this but trust me we'll get there in a minute romans 14 paul writing says him that is weak and the faith receive ye he's a brother but not to doubtful disputations not to just argue here's one of the things he argued about verse 2 one believes that he may eat all things i want to ask you to raise your hands another believes who is weak he should eat only herbs i don't know if it's kosher i don't know if it's properly prepared i don't know if it was strangled the blood was drained so you know what i don't want to offend god so i'm just going to eat vegetables fine he eats only herbs let not him that eats or eateth despise him that eats not let not him which eateth not judge him or eateth not judge him which eats for god has received him who art thou to judge another man or judges to another man's servant to his own master he standeth or falleth yea he shall be holding up for god is able to make him stand in other words you eat but you have a clear conscience to eat and you respect the fact others do not lastly matthew 15. you said lastly i know it's the last lastly matthew 15. jesus is there with his disciples they begin to eat and the pharisees are always watching them charge them with not properly washing their hands at that time they had their traditions of how you should do that if you go to israel today you'll see these little cups that have two handles and the orthodox what they do is one handle they take it and they well they usually left and they wash this hand and that's now clean then this hand they take it and grab the handle they wash his hand and now they're both clean yet they've never crossed match so they're both you know at the time of christ it is reported to us by historians not only would you have to do this kind of washing but then you were to let your hands hang or dry so all the water would come off and you just sit there and who knows right and if you were to turn them back and the water comes back you've defiled them jesus disciples show up they're like start eating the pharisees go after them about it why do they not follow the tradition of the elders etc etc jesus rebukes them and he gathers everybody around in verse 10 says hear this and under listen carefully not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man but that which comes out of the mouth this defiles a man of course the pharisees leave his disciples said hey verse 12 we think they were offended and jesus said leave him alone they're blind verse 14. peter thankfully said well then declare to us the parable we don't get it he said are you also yet without understanding do you not yet understand that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast out in the draft anybody need help with that one but those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart they defile the man proud of the heart proceed evil thoughts you thought you're the only one murders adulteries fornications thefts false witnesses blasphemies these are the things which defile a man but to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man you can eat whatever you want whatever you do do it to the glory of god if you feel you need other dietary restrictions praise god have it between you and him but don't judge others but back to genesis so once again i note here they put out milk butter beef oh yeah yeah you already said that in three times in exodus 23 19 in exodus 34 26 and in deuteronomy 14 21. three times it says you shall not seethe a kid in its mother's milk you might say well what does that mean you shall not take the milk from a cow or a goat or whatever it may be then take the offspring of that animal butcher it and prepare it in the milk from its own mother it is argued by historians it was a fertility slash a cult sort of practiced by the the paganite the gentile nations around them that whether it was an increase of fertility or increase of power it was a cult power it was considered to be something they did that they thought would enhance them in some way but what's at the heart of it is you're taking the milk that was meant to sustain the life of that offspring and are using it now to basically cause its demise it's cruel and it has pagan overtones according to historians so god says to his people you will not see they kid in its mother's milk because they did not want in any way shape or form violate that potential the ultra-orthodox will not serve dairy with meat even to the present day where some ultra-orthodox will maintain two different spots within the kitchen one for dairy preparation the other for meat others maintain two different sets of cookware and cookery so that they can use one for meat the other for dairy if you go with us to israel in the morning you can find milk and butter and eggs and cheese and all that you come back at night and it's not there there's meat this was so not in any way shape or form that could possibly get a kid that might be connected to its mother get anywhere near being seeded milk in other words they took what was supposed to be a restriction to be not like the pagans and not be cruel and they took it to the nth degree i know it's hard to imagine that they would do that but that's why it's really hard to find a cheeseburger when you go to israel but now i want to point out to you here is the lord himself capital l-o-r-d having milk butter and meat so here's god eating this meal with abraham and technically the ultra-orthodox would say he's not being kosher does god ever violate his rules he's holy so just go have a cheeseburger just pointing to album some people need to know he took butter milk and the calf which he had dressed said it before them and he stood by them they did eat please notice by the way if they're eating they have to have a body it doesn't say they took a fork of beef and it went through the back of their head it doesn't say his servants went to wash their feet they couldn't touch him they took human form they could interact with them they ate and they said unto him while they're eating verse 9 where is sarah thy wife wait a second what was he told last chapter sarah your wife is going to have a son within the time of life one year basically you're gonna have a son i wonder if the voice here of the lord was the same voice he heard in chapter 17 the same voice he heard in chapter 15 and the same voice you heard in chapter 12 who call them out i'm going to wait till i get to heaven to ask that question but where is sarah thy wife and abraham said verse 9 well behold she's in the tent and he said i will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life and lo check it out sarah thy wife shall have a son who does he knows with him now god the one who promised him this i'm sure his eyes now are wide open sarah heard it in the tent door which was behind him normally in this culture the women are separate from the men when someone would entertain the women would be in kind of again a compartment within the tent they would stay within ear shop are not usually in the same presence of them so she's probably there with you know a little clay pot against the wall of the tent that's how they got information she was listening she heard it the tent door which was behind him now abraham and sarah were old and well-stricken in age he's 99 she's 89 before the flood noah for example 500 years old when he had his kids well what changed they lost the water canopy that was around the planet the windows of heaven opened that slows down the radiation coming from outer space that causes genetic and somatic mutations that we call aging we also know from doing research that the oxygen levels before the flood were higher some 30 percent it's increased stamina resistance to infection and bacteria gives you greater greater basically general health and vitality increased atmospheric pressure they were in a better physical state before the flood when the flood came and these things were lost the oxygen levels drop the barometric pressure drops their health begins to decline their lifespans again begin to decline and their vitality begins to decline all things that would make sense scientifically so now here at the age of about 100 they're well stricken next thing in verse 11 and it ceased to be with sarah after the manner of women we're going to fly this plane at 30 000 feet hopefully everybody understands what that means it's now 25 years in which is 300 months of not being pregnant yet there was this promise and now it ceases to be after the manner of women and perhaps when that first happened she might have thought oh here we go but then months passed and month passed and month passed and no evidence she was pregnant and yet last chapter abraham comes home and tells her you're gonna have a kid you wonder if she's getting relief just don't even tell me don't i don't want to hear it there's some important things to consider here modern day you've homeschooled your kids from preschool all the way up to high school it's a hard job they finally get into college or trade or military wherever they're going they get out of the nest and off they go and you had one go and two and if you had whether it's one two or ten eventually they all off they go and suddenly a job that some days you hated let's be honest but most days you loved you were fired from without warning they grew up and they left that's a really hard place or even if the kids are in public school and everything else but they're home every day and they've got their buddies and you're doing the rides and everything else and then off they go that's a very serious time for for a mother for a woman that they sort of well who am i now what and if they've been out of the working world or maybe got married early and stayed out of work whatever it is i mean who who's going to hire me and where am i going to go and in many ways when that time comes where these changes of life occur with you know kids growing up or the second issue it ceases to be as the manner of women that's a major life change with the ceasing to be after the matter of women there's there's an inherent message and no no disrespect intended and that is that youth is passing that's a really hard time so she's been hearing for years they're going to have a child now she's listening to the tent door where sarah your wife she's gonna have a son and she's like you're late it's over don't torture me guys if your wife is in any of these places where the kids are flying the coop or other things are occurring she needs to know she's your girl you love her and the beauty you know the wedding day wow was amazing but you both had no idea what you were saying oh i do i do there's no clue what he's saying she's like i do she has no idea what she's saying you know but now with time the beauty and the friendship and the love and the things that you have with time you had no clue when you're there at the altar but the richness now she needs to know she's your girl she needs to know you love her she's beautiful to you they don't want to be invisible especially to you this is a very hard time for her kids get out they go to college and then they get married then they move away how dare they sarah's in a hard spot it ceased to be with sarah after the manner of women therefore sarah laughed within herself yeah after i'm waxed old maybe a little late shall i have pleasure that word is eden garden of eden eden pleasure delight shall i have delight my lord being also old am i actually going to birth a child and be able to nurse a child and have the closeness of my own baby you right and the lord said and that's a broken heart that's involved in this and the capital lord who is it god himself at this event god said unto abraham wherefore did sarah laugh does abraham know he's outside he is an inclusion what are you talking about what do you mean she left wherefore did sarah to same word we had last week where did she why did she laugh so shall i have a surety bear a child which i'm old verse 14 the question is anything too hard too marvelous too wonderful or too much of a work is anything too hard for the lord is it too hard if you're god to create the heavens and the earth in six days no is it too hard if you're god to take on human flesh live a sinless life die in our place rise again to pay for his own law and the judgment that we deserve no is it too hard for god to take the bodies of all those who've died before us who have been scattered whether his ashes or their cat you know eventually they decayed for him to reassemble and resurrect them no how big is your god is it too hard for god to change your husband's heart heart no is it too hard for god to bring your wife to christ or your kids no is anything too hard for the lord and notice he used the name yahweh for himself he's there doubling down on what we learned last week at the time appointed i will return unto thee according to the time of life gestation and sarah shall have a son she's in the tent going wow you know like then sarah denied denied three times submit three times lie five times then sarah denied saying i laughed not what is she doing like i know none of you would ever lie to god none of you no not this service she denied it saying i laughed not for she was afraid regular human being and he said nay but thou dids laugh and the men arose up from thence and look towards sodom the meal is over and abram went with them to bring them on the way now if the farther you go to greet a guest shows how much you respect them guess another way you can show respect the longer you go with them as they leave or depart and so now we have the opposite they got up from the table and they're leaving sarah's just learned she's going to be pregnant even though it's humanly impossible and nothing's too hard for god and so verse 17 the lord said capital l-o-r-d shall i hide from abraham that thing which i do seeing he shall surely become a great and mighty nation which means they're going to have a kid and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed through or in him blessed howl eventually god himself through the line of abraham will take on human flesh live a sinless life surrender it bear our sins and the wrath we deserve so that it rise again to prove it's accepted so that if you will turn from your sin and put your faith in jesus christ god can be just and dismissing your case because he paid for it and yet he himself is the justifier of those who believe you put your faith in christ god can dismiss your sins and he can make you a son or daughter but you have to receive him shall i hide from abraham the thing that i'm going to do well the answer is we don't know because we're out of time we have to get an extra come on how do you teach on kosher and then sarah and then the judge of all the earth is god a just judge come back next week let's stand let's pray father god we thank you for your word and i thank you that you do not hide the human condition i'm sure there are quite a few people in this room that think you have completely forgotten about a hope in their heart and it's been deferred for so long it has made them sick i think of those lord also that there are things breaking their heart today within their homes and they wonder do you hear their cries have you forgotten them i thank you lord you are always right on time you're never late you're never early our problem is we don't always appreciate your timing but for those who are in agony waiting for you i pray that you would encourage them and minister to them and bless them you are well aware of all these things be with your people this week lord strengthen us and as we head into a couple of powerful chapters you are a just judge you have to judge but you will pull out those who trust in you thank you for these wonderful truths in jesus name amen

Channel: Calvary Chapel Chester Springs Media Ministry

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Keywords: Pastor Chris Swansen, Calvary Chapel Chester Springs

Id: 8u2KXzu_S6Y

Length: 38min 3sec (2283 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021