Amen. Amen. If you were turning your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 18, we'll be looking at verses 16 through 22. Genesis 18, 16 through 22 last time we saw God again appear to Abraham in the person of a man and two angels also disguised as men. And that was ultimately in order that Sarah could hear the Word of God concerning the promised Savior because God in his grace, and this is the reason, had determined to save man from his sins. He did that in eternity past, and that salvation would come to those who believe. And so Abraham had to believe in order to be saved, but Abraham also had to believe in order that God's salvation would come through him so that he could be a father to Isaac. And that also means that Sarah, through whom the Savior would also come, she also had to believe to be saved and in order to conceive the child of promise she also had to believe because the Bible said that she would conceive by believing. And so Hebrews chapter 11, verse 11, by faith Sarah also received strength to conceive seed and she bore a child when she was past the age of childbearing because she had judged him who had promised faithful Sarah had to believe to receive this miraculous conception power in her body. That's the way God determined to do it. And so she had to hear the Word and she had to believe. And of course Sarah did first did not believe, until the Lord reminded her of his omnipotent power. Repeated the promise, showed that he was the Lord by showing a supernatural knowledge of what was in her heart and immediately. Sarah was so embarrassed that she laughed, that she lied and said, I didn't laugh. And God, because he loved Sarah, would not allow that false denial to stand. We have to admit, or since we have to accept review, we have to humble ourselves when we're wrong. And in love and free grace God corrected her again without any other chastening, he just said, no, but you did laugh. And Sarah doesn't argue anymore, doesn't say a word, she accepted it. She humbled herself, she accepted the review, she recognized she did laugh. And she asked God no doubt in her heart to forgive her and no doubt he did, because she was restored as the mother of the church. And when she has the baby, she actually celebrates, God made me laugh. The very thing she was ashamed of, she now celebrates because she was so converted again as it were. She was so repented, she was so much receiving God's word that she rejoiced even when she had stumbled. And so today our text has something interesting. It only happens a few times in scripture where God, as it were, speaks to himself, we do that a lot, I do that a lot, I hate to say it, talk to myself a lot, Robin will hear me sometimes I'll do it out loud. So before I haven't answered myself yet, that's when you, that's when it gets weird. That God speaks to himself, in order to show just how much he cares for his people. If you are a believer in Christ, God looks at you and treats you differently because you know him, but even more importantly, because you are known by him. Let's pray if we turn to God's word, Father again, we thank you for your word, we thank you that we know it, but we thank you even more that you know us, help us to see the great joy, the great assurance that you know us, Lord God, help us to be able to be strengthened in that. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Here now the word of the Lord from Genesis 18, beginning in verse 16, this is God's holy and perfect word. Then the men rose from there and they looked toward Sodom and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. The Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him, for I have known him. In order that he may command his children in this household after him that they may keep the way of the Lord and do righteousness and justice that the Lord may bring to Abraham. But he has spoken to him. And the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done all together according to the outcry against it that has come to me. And if not, I will know. And the men turned away from there and they went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. The word of the Lord. I want you to notice, first of all this morning, the secret of the Lord, the secret of the Lord, verse 16, and the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom and Abraham went with them to send them on their way. Abraham is continuing to show that Middle Eastern hospitality, really that Christian hospitality that God commands us, that we would help strangers when they are in need. Remember, that's what hospitality is. It's literally the love of this stranger, loving someone who can't pay you back, who can't do anything for you, you're not doing it for yourself. You're doing it because this person is made in the image of God and you want to glorify God by blessing them and helping them. And so in that time and in that culture, even after you've refreshed the person, fed them, given them rest, had them spend the night if they need be. When they finally left and went on their way, you would go with them. Sometimes for my house, just to give them company, just to speak with them, just to make sure that all their needs truly have been met and Abraham does that. That's what you see here, in verse 16, Abraham goes with them to send them on their way, the way you would do it. Then if you really cared for someone and wanted to meet their needs, and it's interesting because if Abraham would not have welcomed them with that hospitality, Matthew and Henry Summoner are surmises that he wouldn't have got that word from God. Then Sarah wouldn't have got that word from God. Then Sarah wouldn't have been able to conceive by faith. You could see where this goes. God oftentimes, I think it seems to me in Scripture, makes his plan dependent upon his people. In other words, if they don't do the thing that he had tell them to do, the whole plan of salvation will fall to the ground. That happens many times in Scripture. It's wonderful to think about, right? I mean, if Chalk of Ed doesn't make the ark and put Moses in it and put him in the Nile, the whole plan of salvation goes to the ground. When they're about to leave Egypt, actually when they do leave Egypt and they're standing at the Red Sea and the Egyptian armies behind them, God says to Moses, you remember what he says? Why do you call to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward, lift your hand and part the sea. He says that to them. Moses doesn't lift his hand. The sea doesn't part. All of Israel's wiped out God's salvation falls to the ground. Over and over and over again. So if Abraham doesn't show love of this stranger and Sarah doesn't hear the word, she can't conceive because she hasn't heard the word, she doesn't believe. But not only that Matthew Henry some surmises again and he can, you know, this is speculation, but it does happen this way, surely God could have done something else, right? But this is what God did, right? But again, if Abraham doesn't go off with these strangers and doesn't show them this kind of concern and care for their, well, of course he knows that they are from the Lord at some level, whether he knows fully that one of them is the Lord. But at this point, he knows, but he still shows them this grace, this love and because of that, he gets another revelation. It's not interesting that when we fellowship with God, when we linger with him, he blesses us, right? There are so many people who are struggling in new wrestling, you know, I don't know what to do. I don't know where the Lord is. When was the last time you just stayed with the Lord? You just sat down in the Word and you just sat before the Lord, prayed, let His Word come into your life. Do you do that on a daily basis? I think when we do do that, we're not going to be in the dark as often. We're not going to be troubled, where is God? Because we spend time with God, and not that God gives us a new revelation, okay? You know I'm a cessation, I'm just, you know, meeting potatoes reforms, cessation, God's not going to, I don't think speak to you, but God is going to quicken His Word to you that you already have in the scriptures, remind you of it, and maybe bring something new out of it to you that you need in that moment. But if you don't spend time with them, well, no wonder. You wonder where God is. Abraham spent this time. It cost him effort. He's 99 years old, and he walks miles with these people. We know because it says they look towards Sodom, and from mammary where we think mammary is around Hebron, you have to go several miles east of Hebron, we in the modern west bank, to where there's a set of hills, there's only one place where you can see the dead sea on a clear day, 18 miles away. We know Abraham went a good ways with these, man, at, again, difficulty to himself. Yeah, it's not easy to make yourself sit and pray and read the Word. It's not easy to do anything in life. But if when you do that, I believe God will bless you, with His presence, with His comfort, with His strength, He says, when you work out and make yourself do those hard things and do the sets, push yourself, it pays off, you're in better shape, life is like that for a reason. God wants us to subdue our flesh that we would take the effort to spend with Him. Remember when David was going to offer the sacrifice, and he wouldn't do it until he could pay for it? I will not offer God something that won't cost me anything. If it was easy to spend time with the Lord, it wouldn't mean anything. But when you have to struggle to do it, doesn't that show that God's worth it? I think that's a significant point here. God brings Abraham into his secret counsel because Abraham strives to stay in the presence of God. Verse 17, and the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? I love this verse. God's talking to himself. He's letting us into the divine deliberations of His mind. And yes, it's anthropomorphic in the sense of God already knows what He's going to do. He's showing us again the significance of having a relationship with Him. This is the way God thinks of His people. This is how important Abraham is to Him because God has chosen Him. God has done something in the past, and God now changes as it were, the way He's going to operate with respect to Abraham, and even with respect to the world. He's going to talk to Abraham about things. It's amazing, tax, when you think of it, that God thinks this way about His servant. Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? Let him know my purposes, my thoughts, my motivations, why I'm doing what I'm doing, what this is about, what I'm about to do, why I'm walking in this direction. Psalm 25, Psalm, I did my exegesis work on it, seminary. Verse 14 says, the secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and He will cause them to know His covenant. There's so many places where we get this secret of the Lord, this secret counsel, this intimate knowledge of what God is up to. It's the privilege and the prerogative of the church to be brought into the counsel of God, to be brought into the inner thoughts of God. I was reading a little bit earlier today about Johan Kepler, the father of modern astronomy. When he was asked at one point what he was doing, he famously said he was thinking God's thoughts after him. That's the way he saw his science. He saw the order and the beauty and the splendor with which the heavens were laid out. This is before they invented the telescope, and he developed and founded the three laws of planetary motion that to this day are used without a telescope, just by observing so clearly, so intimately because he was convinced God did it, and it was beautiful. And he was thinking God's thoughts after him. He was brought into the intimacy, the inner workings of the divine mind. That's the way he saw it. As he saw God and everything, he saw God in the stars, he saw God in creation, and he was able to give God the glory. And as made Abraham his confidant, he's brought him in to relationship with him. He's had a saving relationship with him since he called him out of the caldians back in chapter 12, and then he enters into that formal covenant in Genesis 15. Amos chapter 3 verse 7 says, surely the Lord God does nothing, unless he reveals his secret to his servants, the prophets, Abraham is a prophet, but in Abraham I want you to see this, is the whole church. The whole church has this benefit, the whole church has the prophecies. We have a lot more prophecies than Abraham had, and we are brought into that intimacy. And it's one of the greatest privileges that we have, that we are brought into the intimacy of the divine mind, that we know what's going on in the world. We understand the purpose of life. Everybody else is going nuts and crazy and scared, and they don't know what's going on, and they don't understand this, and they're constantly asking why, and that's one thing that we never have to do, is Christians. Yes, we don't know maybe the specific reason, the specific thing is happening. But when there's disaster, when there's war, when there's hardship, when there's suffering, when there's sorrows, when there's sweat, when there's thorns and thistles, when there's death, we know God's judgments on this world, because it's fallen. We know that God's wrath is being revealed from the heavens, Romans 118, that we see it that we see God's displeasure. This doesn't mean that everybody who suffers is under God's wrath, that's not it at all. But it means that's why it's here, that's why people die, that's why people get sick, that's why people suffer, because this is a sinful fall and war. We understand that. The rest of the world doesn't, doesn't make sense to them. It's why they get caught up in all these crazy movements that they think they're going to bring utopia in, but they're not because it's not the problem of this or that natural thing, whether or not we use fossil fuels or something ridiculous. It's the sin of man that brings hardship that brings pain. We understand that, and we understand when we see people loving one another, when we see God's name exalted, when we see somebody loving the stranger, when there's nothing in it for them, when we see somebody standing up and enduring persecution and refusing to compromise the word at great cost, maybe even of their lives, what do we see? We see evidence of the power of the Spirit of God at work. We see that God is alive and well, that Christ is at the right hand of the Father, that He is quickening His people, that He is giving them the face, faith in the strength to live for Him and we see it. And we understand it, and the world has no idea what's going on, they're in the dark. So many verses talk about this great privilege of the church, Proverbs 3.32, the perverse person is an abomination to the Lord, but His secret counsel is with the upright. Isn't it interesting? The way to contrast those two things. This is what Jesus said was why He told the parables. Because the world doesn't get to know the inner workings of God, the disciples get to know. Matthew 13-11, it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. You know these things, you understand these things. This is why Jesus said in John 15-15, no longer do I call you servants for a servant, does not know what His master is doing. But I've called you friends for, listen to this, all the things that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you, God doesn't keep any secrets from His people, and that's unlike all of us, because every person in this room keeps secrets. We all keep secrets. We keep secrets from our children, our children keep secrets from us, and even as husband and wife, we don't bear every thought that comes into our hearts, yet a person will probably knock us out. So what was going on there, we keep secrets. We have to, because we're sinful, and we have to repent before God, but God doesn't keep any secrets from us. He lets us know what He's doing in the world, and it's not as if He's keeping it from the unbelievers, right? Oh, the unbelievers are just struggling to know God too, and God's just so mean He won't let them, that's no, that's not it at all. They could know God at any moment if they wanted to. It's their own desires, and will that keep them from knowing God's Word, from knowing His counsel, from being brought into that secret, that special intimacy again. First Corinthians 2.14, the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to Him, that's what the world thinks of His Word, that's foolishness. That's why they don't receive it. That's not God keeping them from it, nor can He know them because they are spiritually discerned. They don't want to know. They stop up their ears. But the church's privilege is right here. God has told us what He is doing in the world, and we know Him, and we know His ways. This is the secret of the Lord. Secondly, I want you to notice the work of the Lord, notice the work of the Lord. We often think of the work of the Lord, we think of creation and providence, and that's good. That's what the confession teaches us. Two ultimate works of God, creation, providence, right, and the glorification eventually, but God created all things in six days, and since then, He governs and rules over and cares for everything. That's providence, right? God does all, and is over all, and He's sovereign, over all, and He knows all, and He's governing, and He's bringing His plans to pass, and remarkable, amazing ways, right? God's purpose is in everything. That's the wonderful thing about being reformed, that you understand that God's sovereignty means that everything's part of His plan, right? Everything. Right? That's the difficulty, I think, when you're not, and you're like, oh, well, you know, I don't know, maybe if I do this or that thing at this moment in time, maybe I'll be part of His plan. Everything's part of His plan. Even when you sin, God's going to use that somehow for your good. But the chief work of God in this text, as well as in your life, is not the things that are happening, you know, in the cities, or, you know, in the environment, or among the nations, or all of that stuff, the chief work of God in this text, you can see it, it's what God is doing in Abraham. The chief work of God is Abraham, that God is doing something in and through Abraham. God is changing Abraham, and the chief work of God in your life, Christian, is you. God is working on you. That's what you should be understanding. Yeah, you have all these circumstances, like Abraham, he's standing 18 miles away from the cities on the plane, and God is contemplating whether or not he's going to tell Abraham about what he's going to do to those cities on the plane. That's the context we see that that's his plan his day. But the chief thing God is doing is Abraham, look at it, shall I hide from Abraham, what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become, see what the real work here is, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. How is God so confident of that? Because that's what God said when he chose Abraham, when Abraham was in his father's house across the river, worshipping other gods, Joshua tells us, wasn't like Abraham was, oh, he so writes as God had to find him. Genesis 12, the Lord had said to Abraham, get out of your country from your family, from your father's house to a land I will show you, I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, you will be a blessing, and then you, all the families of the earth will be blessed, and that's what we get repeated. Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him, because I have chosen him, so it will happen, it will come to pass. God is going to complete that work, right? He is the author and the finisher of our salvation. That's what God is, He will keep, He will accomplish, this is a great verse, in fact it's seminary and a presbytery in my exams, I still remember that I memorized, you know, lots of different verses, and this is a verse I memorized, just in my own studies, because I was thinking about being a minister some day, but I memorized this verse, and when I was asked, they were really pushing me on preservation and persevering scriptures in the differential, that's perseverance, that's preservation, and I think part of that's actually not legitimate, both of them kind of include the other, but anyway, so at one point in the exact word that I gave, you know, they wanted a particular verse, I said, Genesis 18, 19, and they didn't know what it was, so they're like looking in the Bible to find it, and they looked it up and read it, and then there was an argument among them, whether or not it was perseverance or preservation, with this verse should give us comfort, right? That God finishes what He begins, He called Abraham and He's going to do this, that's why He knows it's going to happen, because He called them, because He's doing this work, the work of the Lord is Abraham, He's the chief work of the Lord and the chief work of the Lord in your life is you. The specific circumstances is, again, pondering, should I reveal this stuff to Abraham, and He does, we know we don't get the answer from God as it were, but we get in verse 21 and 22, God does, God tells them the secret thing that He's going to do, I will go down now and see whether they have done all together, according to the outcry against it, that has come to me, and if God I will know, verse 2021, God says, because of the outcry, so God does reveal these things to Abraham, even as God chose Him and is doing these things in Abraham, but that means that it's good for Abraham to know these things. Do you see the connection? God is working in Abraham, Abraham is the number one work, and God is pondering whether or not He should tell Abraham this over here, and when God tells Abraham this over here, that means telling him this over here is good for Abraham, it's part of the work that God is doing in Abraham, this further revelation that will help Abraham, all right? And Calvin sees in Abraham here all of the posterity of the church, that in other words, it is good for all of the church, all of the people of faith to know that God supernaturally destroyed the five cities of the plain, that it's good for us to know that, that's why God revealed it, this is something that we should know. Calvin says, if this way, quote, God wills, that the destruction of God should be recorded, that the wicked may be drawn to God by the fear of the same vengeance. Calvin sees an evangelical purpose, a gospel purpose, in just causing the wicked to think that God's going to judge. That's one of the main things that God does use to draw people to Him, at least in the beginning. Certainly Jonathan Edwards believes that, and many reformed fathers, it's good to be struck by the fear of the Lord when you're in unbelief, right? That doesn't create faith, but usually that stops you and wakes you up. That's my conversion story, living in this life, you know, partying and drinking and carousing, and oh, yeah, someday when I get old, I'll come to Christ, thinking that I'm guaranteed that, and then, you know, at 20, and immediate accident, my friend on the ground dead. And I was, that woke me up, and I saw the judgment of God. And I felt the judgment of God. And as I prayed to God, I felt that He would not hear me, because I chose to live without. And it was that fear of God that woke me up. And Calvin says that same fear will help people when they hear what God did to Sodom and Gamora. Doesn't Jesus sparking back to that multiple times? What happened in Sodom and Gamora? But Calvin goes on and says, and so not only those who are the wicked may be drawn to God, by the fear of the same vengeance, but also that they who have already begun to worship God. Believers may be better formed to true obedience. That when we see that God is just and God is holy, this helps us as believers to recognize things, right? There are certain things that I knew growing up as a kid, I did not do, because not that I didn't want to do them, but the cost was too high. I feared my Father. And if my Father knew enough, I did something, and I know that He would know, I just wouldn't even enter into my mind. There were certain places I would not go because I feared my dad. And it wasn't that I feared my dad, because I feared that He hated me and was going to kill me. It was that I feared Him because He loved me, but I was going to be punished severely if I did something. And even the embarrassment that I would bring to Him and to myself, that I was my Father's son doing this, all of that's part of it. The Calvin sees that, right? And so consider God's work in your life, how as you know His Word, right, as you spend time in His Word, and you get to learn who God is, how that helps to call you out of sin, how that helps to call you to obedience, right? This is part of what God is doing here in this text that seems to me, that Abraham is being thought about in these ways, because God is working on Him. He brings him another word, because Abraham needs to hear this word for his good. And so third day I want you to notice the knowledge of the Lord. I want you to notice the knowledge of the Lord that the Lord knows us. It's interesting when you read verse 19, right, for I have known Him. You know, there's a certain sense in which there's nothing more superfluous, really, or bigger waste of words in a sense, than to say that God knows something, right? Okay, or be like saying God has enough might to do this or that, or God knows all things. There's so many verses that we could look at first, John 3, 20, God knows all things. Hebrews 4, 13, there's no creature hidden from His sight, all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him, to whom we must give an account. We could multiply scriptures all day. God knows everybody. He knows Abraham, of course, he but he also knew King fully, knew Enoch, but he also knew Lomac fully, knew Nimrod, and all of the wicked, and all of the Nephilim, and all of the righteous. What doesn't God know? He knows everything, but that's not what the scripture's talking about here. It's interesting when you look at it. God knows Abraham, right, for I have known him, but what does God not know in this text? He doesn't know what's going on in Sodom and Gomorrah, and isn't that interesting? The way God describes it, I have known Abraham, but he's got this report about Sodom and Gomorrah. It's come to him from a distance. He doesn't know for sure if it's true or not, and so he's got to go down there and check it out because he doesn't know. He's not again, God knows everything about these cities, but he's communicating something significant to us, and something very ominous for Sodom and Gomorrah because when God knows his people in this way, this is transformative. This is a game-tanchor. Psalm 1, verse 6, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly, it doesn't say he doesn't know. It says, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. This is the kind of knowledge we're talking about, the kind of knowledge that keeps you from perishing, right? That kind of knowledge. Many other places that talk about this knowledge that God has only for his people. It was the confidence of David that God knew him this way. Many times in the Psalms, at least three or four times, searched me and know me. See if there be any wicked way in me. David wanted God to know him. That's really important. He didn't want to hide anything from God. He wanted God to know him fully, the very thing that we don't want anyone to do, right, of us. We don't want anyone to know what's always going on in our minds or whatever because of this in and the shame, but David wanted God to know everything. He didn't minimize. He didn't hide it. Again, one of my favorite passages from Psalm 25, the central passage of that psalm because it's in a cross-dick psalm and it's 22 verses, 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. So the center verse is the meaning of the psalm in that form and the center verse is verse 11. Forgive my iniquity, O Lord. Four. Here's the reason why I want you to forgive it. Four. It's not as bad as it was. It's not as bad as Saul's. It's not as bad as, you know, some of my wives. Was over here. Forgive my iniquity, O Lord, because I've been really working hard to improve myself. Forgive my iniquity because I'm really trying. I'm a lot better than I was. Be patient with me, Lord. I will get better. Forgive my iniquity. Look into the future. No. Forgive my iniquity, O Lord. Four. Here's the reason why I want you to forgive it. For it is great. That's the reason he gives God for forgiveness. That's maybe because I'm so bad. That's somebody who's trusting in God and not in himself. Somebody who's trusting in God's pure grace that the more God knows him, the more he can be certain he's forgiven. Because he's not looking to his own personal, you know, reservation or improvements that he's hoping to do. Resolutions, I couldn't think of the word New Year's resolutions. He's not looking to that. His promises, I'm going to make this better, God. Forgive me because my sin is so bad. That's the reason. That's when we know that we are hoping in God and in his knowledge. That's why you would want God to know you more. Because you recognize that as he knows you, there's your assurance, there's your forgiveness as you don't hide anything because his grace will forgive. But you've got to make it known. You've got to be naked before him. When you're hiding something, you're not trusting in him. It's a Psalm 139, oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. This is his confidence, isn't it? You know my sitting down. You know my rising up. You understand my thought from a far off, David delighted in the fact that God knew him. In fact, when he was hiding in the cave from Saul, this close to death, he writes Psalm 142 verse 3, when my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then you knew my path. It was God's knowledge of David, that gave him comfort. Even when the shadow of death was literally looming in the cave in front of him. Job's hope was in this. As much as Job struggled, nobody wants to ever be put through the test that Job was. But Job says in 2310, he knows the way that I take. And when he has tested me, I shall come forth as good as God. It's not so much that we know God. I mean, we need to know God, and that's important. And we grow in our knowledge of God, but our ultimate hope is that God knows you, Jim Stewart pointed this out to me yesterday from Galatians 4.9. But now after you have known God or rather are known by God, Paul kind of corrects himself under the inspiration of the Spirit, well, yeah, you know God will wait a minute. What's really important is that you're known. And then he goes on and gives him this admonition. How is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage? It's not that when God knows you, that's the end, that's the beginning. That doesn't paralyze you or make you inactive. Well, God does it all when he knows me, and I don't do anything. Now I'm active. Now I go forward and live for him, but with confidence, because he knows me. He's not looking for this, you know, super-saint work. He's looking for this work of a sinner saved by grace. Now I can go forward. Now I'm free. It's freedom to serve God. This is why those who don't get the imputed righteousness of Christ never get sanctification right. Because what they always say is, well, if all of our righteousness is already completed by Jesus Christ, then people are going to do anything. They're not going to try to obey God at all because Christ has already done it. Because their mindset, when they say that, is it works righteous mindset? They're locked into it. They don't see it another way to think. Why would I do something good? And that's accounted. Why would I act unless I needed to for my own righteousness? They don't see that all of the righteousness that you need is already accomplished. It's all yours by a gift, and now you're free. Because you can't fail. There's no earning anything. It's already there. Now I want to serve Him and I'm free. And my sins aren't going to stop me. It's like Luther said, I reminded you a couple of weeks ago. When Luther said it, you know, when I was in college and those kids came around and they wanted me to go to chapel, and you know, I just let them in because there were two girls, you know, they were smart to go to the boys' dorms with two girls. And oh, yeah, yeah, come on and talk to us and they gave me this cup, you know, along with some candy. So come to chapel, I never went. But I kept the cup for the longest time, and it said on it, real big sin boldly, Martin Luther's quote, sin boldly, and I always call it my sin boldly cup, where's my sin boldly cup? But underneath it, in smaller print, it said, but rejoicing Christ more boldly still, Luther understood this, Luther understood what it meant to be free, what it meant to be able to serve God because God knew him, and he didn't have to try to work out his righteousness anymore. He wasn't paralyzed in the monastery, sleeping on the hard floor without any covers, hoping that somehow that would make him right, rolling around in the thorns and some of the others did, I don't know if Luther ever did that, but trying to quench their lust because yeah, that's going to do it. But recognizing you can rest in Christ as a sinner, forgive him because your righteousness is all ready there. This is why we read in Neham, the Lord is good as stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who trust in him. That's why we confess our sins. This is why Jesus said in John chapter 10, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and that's why my sheep know me. It's God's knowledge that comes first. That's what we rest in, not in our knowledge, there's no rest there. All that Abraham is, all that he will be, all that he will ultimately do, comes about because God has known him. Walter Bruggeman, the scholar, calls God speaking to himself about Abraham here. He's a great phrase for it. He says it, it may be the, he says it, well, he calls it an extravagant credentialing. He says it may be perhaps the most extravagant of all of scripture, that God would talk about somebody like this. Say this about one of his servants, for I have known him, so I'm going to bless him. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them and what, and they follow me, because I know them. That's your hope, Christian, that's your confidence. It's the knowledge that God has for you. If you follow Jesus Christ today, it's because he has known you, rest in that, let that come home to you, that it would bring you more rest and so forth, and lastly notice the salvation of the Lord. The salvation of the Lord. So God's knowledge of us saves us, God's knowledge of us keeps us, God's knowledge of us changes us. As I said, this is the beginning, not the end. That's the point of verse 19, for I have known him and ordered that. He may command his children in this household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. That's wonderful verse. This is an incredible chain. The God knew Abraham for the purpose, ultimately, of the salvation of the whole people of God. This is all of Abraham's posterity here. This is all of the church in Abraham. The God is going to keep and save all of his electives, not going to lose one of them, and he's beginning to do that in Abraham. There's a peculiar sense in which Abraham and these promises are only to him, right? We've got to recognize that. There's a sense in which Abraham is promised land and descendants and a nation, not every Christian is promised that. Not every Christian is promised children like the stars of the heavens, right? At least not biologically. And so there's some uniqueness here. You can't just bring this in one-to-one. Abraham is a prophet. Abraham is a cheatton, right? He's like a king over his moving camp, and so we can't do everything in that sense, but there are principles here that are for us in the church. In fact, John Calvin sees here, quote, the duty of parents to communicate what they've learned from the Lord to their children, and quote, and I agree with him. There is a duty on parents here in verse 19. Notice God has known Abraham in order that he may command his children and his house after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, isn't this what we do when we categorize our children? Again, Abraham is commanding because he's the Lord of the house, but you've got to understand he's still communicating, right? The truth, this is what we do as parents, what we must do as parents, we must categorize, we must teach our children about the Lord, and don't like, you know, okay, yes, you're not a prophet getting new words from God, but don't try to make this too hard. I think it's the best thing you can do as a parent, and I mean this even as a minister, I think the best thing you can do as a parent for your kids is bring them to church every week. Bring them to church that the word of God is preached, that they sing the praises of God, that they pray the prayers of God's people, that they see the examples of God's saints, that they fellowship with other covenant children. That's the best thing you can do. Every Sunday bring them to church, bring them to Sunday school. We have these tatechism classes that instruct them in the teaching of the reformed faith for hundreds of years. They're meant for the children, and we use that in the Sunday school program. Bring them to youth group. During the week Wednesday nights from the fall through the spring, and then they go on a trip in the summer where they actually practically go out and serve people who have less than they learn by doing it to show mercy. Bring them to those things, and you're way ahead of the world. You don't have to be a scholar, you're not called to be Abraham, but you can read Abraham's words, which are God's words, a chapter a day to your family. That's so easy to do anybody can do that, and you can pray with and for them. You should pray with your kids every night, out loud. They hear you praying for them, and with them. That's what we take one of the vows in our baptism of our children, that we would pray with and for them. We would raise them up in the fear of the Lord, and we do this, and we don't want to think that by doing this, we ensure that they're going to be saved, because salvation is by grace, but we can be great means of grace in their lives, and Calvin picks up on that, because you can read verse 19 as if it's a cause effect, cause effect, and it's, you know, it's always going to happen. Well, first of all, it didn't always happen to Abraham. He's already prayed for his meal, and God's already said no, and there's a whole heck of a lot of Jews that aren't going to be saved, and they're all descendants of Abraham, right? You can't do that. God means he will save his elect here. God is going to keep Abraham's seed until the Messiah comes again. That's part of the uniqueness that's not to us, but even Calvin picks up on this, and I love this, because Calvin says, you can read this again as if it is a cause effect, and bring your works, and oh, if I do my, if I command my children after me, then they'll, you know, continue to walk in the Lord because of my works. Calvin says this, he comments on the phrase, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham. That what he has spoken to him, and he says this quote, it would be false for anyone hence to infer or listen, that the faithful could either cause or deserve by their own diligence, by their faithfulness, by their obedience, that God should fulfill those things which he had promised. Calvin says, you would be wrong to infer that. He says in scripture the word that often denotes consequence, not cause. That's what's being said here. It's a consequence. God knows Abraham so that in consequence of his knowledge, Abraham is going to command his children after him and his house. And as a consequence of that, there are going to be those who keep the way of the Lord, and his line is going to continue until everything God says will be fulfilled, including Jesus Christ, the seed in whom everyone will be blessed. That's what God is promising here, and these consequences do follow, but they're not causes. Calvin again says the grace of God alone begins and completes our salvation, and he traces quote, the cause of his beneficence to himself and not to the merits of Abraham. Calvin really harps on this point because he's not going to allow anyone to bring works in and trust in their works. He says the blessing of Abraham flowed from no other source than the divine fountain. And again, that's why we can have this confidence that your works never call down anything from God, from heaven, except wrath, that's all they can call down. It's the works of Jesus Christ that call down grace, and that's what we want to trust. And that's resting in the knowledge of God and then being free to go out and do these things and serve God. Because God has no gospel of it, we do continue to know him, and we should seek to know him in everything. This isn't just for parents. I mean, that's a significant part, catacizing our children because Abraham's supposed to do that with his children, but to know the Lord in all things, to press on in all things, whether you have children or not, whether you're older young, and to see his knowledge in all things. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, now we see in the mirror dimly then face to face, now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am already right now, fully known of God. That is the blessing and the message of this text as I see it. That we don't want to, that as we let ourself, as we want ourself to be known of God, then we will more and more in this life, truly know who he is, and we'll be able to serve him more as a result. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word, we thank you, that you knew Abraham, more of what a blessing that is, that you knew him intimately. You knew him, as you say in your word, as a friend, even as you said Jesus, you no longer call us servants, but friends, you know us in that way, help us, Lord God, to know you and to rest in the knowledge that you have of us, that we would know you more, that we would serve you freely and with joy and without fear all of our days, because you have known us, and therefore we are safe. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.