on Jesus. In your name we pray. Amen. If this is your first time visiting I'm on the fifth of a several part series on the life of Abraham and before we actually get into today's text, you've got to have background not only if it's your first time but probably because most of the rest of you forgot. If you remember in Genesis 12, God calls this pagan, this guy from nowhere, Abraham, out of the land of earth. And he says, Abraham, I want you to leave earth and I want you to go to this place called Canaan, the promised land. And he makes all these promises to him. He says, I'll make you a great nation and I will bless you and I will make your name great. And he says that I will all the families in the earth will be blessed in you and he says whoever curses you will be cursed and who are blessed as you will be blessed. And God says no matter what happens I'm going to fulfill my promise to get you into the land. And at first Abraham obeys and he goes to the land and then you remember the next sermon there is a famine and Abraham thinks man how am I going to live in the land if there's a famine and there's nothing to eat and there's no water so what I will do is I'll go down into Egypt and I'll sort of scheme and I'll lie and I'll sort of cover my own butt and if I can do that for long enough then I can get back to the promised land and get back about the business of being the blessing bearer. And we see when he goes into Egypt what happens. Remember Pharaoh looks at his wife and she's so beautiful Pharaoh takes Abram's wife and in the process makes Abram a very rich man. Remember what Abram said? Nothing. Abram didn't do anything. And so God faithful to his promise he intervenes into Abram's life and he rescues him from Egypt and what does God say after he rescues Abram from Egypt? Nothing. He doesn't say wait till we get to the promised land. You know you're going to get yours. You're going to be grounded. He says nothing because God sold Abraham. I promise I will fulfill it and he does it and you see graces like that. God doesn't ever hold your sins against you. He didn't hold them against Abram. And so the next thing we have is Abram has to deal with the consequences of his sin if you remember. What was the consequence of Abram's sin? He was very wealthy. All of the wealth in Egypt caused trouble. Why? Because he got to the promised land and his nephew Lot also had too much stuff and their herdsmen began to fight over it. And it probably would have escalated to the point where someone would have gotten killed and one of them would have had to die. Abram are Lot and so Abram believes God that God's going to give him everything and so what does he do? He pays the bill. He tells Lot. Lot you take whatever you want. You go if you go to the east I'll go to the west if you go to the west I'll go to the east and then Lot is given this decision. Do I give up everything and just stay here with Abraham the blessing bearer because remember God said whoever blesses Abraham will be blessed and whoever curses him will be cursed so it would seem to be in Lot's best interest to stay with Abraham but does he? No he doesn't. So what he does is he looks across the plane of the Jordan and he sees the best land. He sees the best piece of property and you have all these editorial comments remember it was just like Egypt. And the men of Sodom lived there and they were exceedingly wicked and Lot chooses to go with by sight by what he can see what he can sort of get his hands on and he says that looks like the best thing to do that's what I'll do and so he forsakes Abram. He leaves the blessing bearer behind and he goes into the land of Sodom if you will and he lives there and you see it could be a whole sermon just on Lot's progression because if you remember the end of last week it said Lot went and he pitched his tent near Sodom. This week's text he is living in Sodom and in a few weeks he is a prominent citizen of Sodom you see this whole progression is Lot does not get better and better but Lot goes more and more far away you see remember I told you last week that the witness of Lot for the rest of the Bible is that he is a buffoon. Why is he a buffoon? Because he left the blessing bearer and that's where we are today is Lot is in Sodom you know he's sort of he's sort of just he's just bought a nice house in the city if you will and the city government is now making some silly decisions that's what all the stuff I grade out you know it's sort of like the king is going to ban the circus or something or they're going to raise his taxes whatever that's not it what happens is the king of Sodom and several other kings in the valley of the Jordan were what are called vassals that means they sort of paid protection money if you ever seem like the corruptor remember the Chinese mafia would come in and say we're going to protect you and you need to pay us and you'd say but I don't need protection and they'd say hey that ain't how it works pay us or get hurt and so what happens is these four kings were vassals they would pay protection money if you will to a big king and then Ketter Leomar you know well I'll call him Ketter for sure they're vassals to Ketter and what happens is for 12 years they pay their protection money they pay the protection money to Ketter and all the sudden in the 13th year they said man I'm tired of paying taxes we're just not going to pay him anymore and just see if he notices see what he does and guess what they don't pay their taxes and Ketter Leomar gets angry he gets angry enough so angry that what does he do he invades them what happens is Ketter Leomar grabs four of his friends four of his allies and they go in and they loot and they pillage and they invade Sodom and the rest of the valley and they take everything they either kill everything or they steal everything or they take people hostage and so that's where we are today that's the problem why because who's taken hostage who lives there now lot a lot lives there now if you look at your text let me turn in my Bible if you look at verses look at verse 11 it says then they that's Ketter Leomar and friends they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food supply and departed they also took a lot Abram's nephew and his possessions and departed for he was also living in Sodom you see what happens is they invade and the kings do that does the king of Sodom defend a lot does he defend his people no he runs you know then the gray part up above on your analogy it says that they fell into the pits in Sodom well that word is probably more hid is the king of Sodom all of the kings the leaders went and hid out which we did what it left all of their people unprotected and so lot being unprotected you know they come in and they take lot in all of his possessions and so here is lot he's gotten what he deserved right he is bearing the fruit of his decision you know and he's sitting there thinking you know now I'm in I'm a hostage to these kings I'm I'm removed from the city they taken all my stuff you know I've should have gotten renters insurance that I didn't right I hear that all the time from you and so what is lot going to do what's lot going to do he's hopeless he's in despair and you've got to be thinking he feels guilty and you got to be thinking that he's going I got what I deserved I'm just here and so enter the hero who's the hero the blessing bear you see what we're going to look at first is Abraham's injustice Abraham's injustice look at the text verses 13 through 16 says then a fugitive came and told Abram the Hebrew now he was living a fugitive told Abram the Hebrew now he was living by the oaks of Memorate the Amorite brother of Eschol and the brother of Anna and these were allies with Abram and when Abram heard that his relative had been taking captive he led out his trained men born in his house 318 and went in pursuit as far as Dan he divided his forces against them by night and his servants and he defeated them and pursued them as far as Hobo which is north of Damascus he brought back all the goods and also brought back his relative lot with his possessions and also the women and the people now before I go on I want to point out to you some irony right Moses the Bible is very big on using irony and literary device to let you know to sort of inform you and it's as a fugitive came and told Abram the Hebrew who was living with his allies now what is ironic about that well what's ironic is that the word Hebrew means landless outcast the word Hebrew means landless outcast and so notice the irony here Abram the landless outcast and his allies you see Abram the landless outcast is neither landless why because he's living in the promised land nor is he an outcast because he has allies why is Abram why is Abram the landless outcast actually blessed because he believes the gospel he believes the promise of God now who is lot remember lot was the landed high society person he had a great place in Sodom and now where is lot a lot is now a captive and and the Bible Moses wants you to get that he wants you to see the difference here you see he wants he wants Israel to notice that they are not called the Hebrews for for no small reason and so what happens here Abram does that which is not fair Abram does a very unfair thing here you see what would the fair thing be the fair thing would be to let lot deal with his consequences right the fair thing would be tough love Abram imagine Abram Abram could have thought to himself hey the fugitive comes and tells him hey your lot your nephew lot is a fugitive and Abram could have said hey you know he chose to leave me he chose to go to the land of Sodom he knew that whoever blesses me is blessed and whoever curses me is cursed he knew that so hey you know a pox upon him and his children he can deal with it it's his life why should I risk my neck why should I put myself on the line for lot you say I'm the blessing bear Abram could have could have claimed the promise he could have said hey I'm the blessing bear you can't touch me I'm at the top of the food chain I don't go down and save people like lot but does he do that no he doesn't do the fair thing he does the gracious thing you see because that's the core of the gospel you see the other night a Thursday night I think it was we all ate dinner in flanery and I were the only ones who finished our dinner so we were the only ones who got dessert in flanery and I were sitting at the table having a bowl of ice cream and all of a sudden flanery just looks at me and she says dad I'm gonna give you 10 kisses after dinner I said beautiful what did I do to deserve that in flanery well she didn't smile she didn't blink she was expressionless she said oh you don't deserve anything she said she said I just love you you know and I said I said you have learned well young Jedi and then of course she said what's a Jedi but you see flanery gets it apparently I don't deserve anything anything she gives to me is totally out of grace I don't deserve anything I'm not a good father I'm inconsistent and I lose my temper and I'm not there when I should be I'm terrible father that's a false humility she says I just do this I love you that's what Abraham was doing Abraham looks out a lot doesn't deserve a thing but Abram says I will rescue I will put my neck on the line because if the promise is true nothing can touch me anyway so what does Abram do he goes in and he does you know a night ranger raid he takes 318 men against armies that have conquered a valley that have conquered cities and you know what's so beautiful is the bible doesn't even tell us how he did it it just as he went in at night and he came out with the goods and he came out and he had all this stuff and you know what Abram says to lot serve you right hope you learned from this friend what did you say to what Abram doesn't say anything to lot Abram says the same thing to lot that God said to Abraham when Abraham screwed up nothing you see because it's grace if grace is true you don't pay for it the four but you don't pay for it after either and you see that is the core of the gospel the core of the gospels we don't deserve anything you don't deserve anything from God do you realize that some of us think gosh man I work really hard I deserve everything I get you really don't if you work it back and the fact that God would send Jesus that Jesus would pay your bill that Jesus who could have looked at us and said hey they can just get what they deserve they can they you know they deserve to perish in their sins he didn't say that he paid the bill he comes and he says you know I I'm the one I deliver you from your sin and all you have to do is trust me do you trust me and if you trust me what does Jesus say after that is anything and if he does it's nothing but blessing I'm glad you're here and you see the Israelites the original audience they could have gotten this from the text they could have gotten the fact that since they have been shows show grace from God that they ought to be gracious people and we can see that message is very a very obvious message what is not so obvious is what comes next what's not so obvious is what happens with Abrams interaction with these two kings that come right in some sense the story could have ended here and we would have gotten a good a good lesson out of it and we could have all gone home and said in the gospel beautiful it's about grace but you see it's bigger than that it's what we need to look at next is Abrams interaction with these two kings if you look at the text 17 through 24 it says then after his return from the defeat of Ketter Lehrmar and the kings who are with him the king of Sodom he must have come out of hiding went out to meet him at the valley of Shaba that is the king's valley and Melchizedek the king of Salem brought up bread and wine now he was a priest of God most high now what's happening here is you see two kings and Moses is going to contrast them he's going to sort of set them against each other and what's going to set them against each other is how they deal with Abraham and what he says here is that he that is Melchizedek blessed him and said blessed be Abraham of God most high possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be God most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand he gave him a tenth of all and the king of Sodom said to Abraham give the people to me and take the goods for yourself and Abrams said to the king of Sodom I've sworn to the Lord God most high possessor of heaven and earth that I will not take a thread or a sandal thong or anything that is yours for fear you would say I have made Abram rich I will take nothing except with the young men have eaten and a share of the men who went with me and her echelon and memory left them and take their share now the two kings here with both of these kings the original audience Israel one of them would have been very easy to understand Abrams response to the easy response would have been the king of Sodom I mean think about the king of Sodom he in fact is a weasel the king of Sodom went and hid the king of Sodom fled and left his people to to die and to perish and what happens is Abram comes and rescues him and then the king of Sodom comes back and what does he immediately try to do he tries to cut a deal now the irony of this is he has he has no capital he has nothing with which to deal he has nothing Abraham has everything and he comes to Abram and he says okay I'll take the people but you can take the goods now what does Abram say he could have said oh that's beautiful I'm I'm going to be even wealthier than I was before what did Abram learn about the wealth thing that's not a good thing but also he apparently swore to God that he would not cut deals with the other nations why he didn't need to he owned everything remember God said Abram everything is yours so Abram didn't need to cut deals with the other nations and Israel should would have seen this is a very obvious lesson because remember when they walked through the promised land what did God tell them he said you go into the promised land and you don't cut deals with the Canaanites the hitites the parasites these people you don't cut deals with them you just go in and take it and the land is yours you don't need to cut deals it's very similar actually this passage is to Jesus temptation by Satan remember Jesus is out in the wilderness as well and Satan comes to him and he says if you'll just bow down to me I'll give you all the kingdoms of the earth and what does Jesus say he says don't put your Lord the Lord your God to the test you know he says you mock me Satan leave you don't own anything you've got nothing to offer me and you see that's a very easy thing to see we can look and say hey we don't need to cut deals with the king of Sodom now the hard thing the more difficult thing for the Israelites to see is what happens with Melchizedek who is this guy Melchizedek what is his role here why does he doing why does he come out of nowhere and you see they would have had a lot of dissonance with Melchizedek let me read Melchizedek what happens with Melchizedek again so then Melchizedek king of Salem Melchizedek the name means king of righteousness and then king of Salem that means peace brought out bread and wine now he was a priest of the most high god and he blessed him and said blessed be Abram of God most high possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be God most high who is delivered all your enemies into your hand and he that is Abram gave him a tenth of all now this guy Melchizedek would have totally and utterly confused the original audience why because they were wasn't Abram at the top of the food chain didn't God come to Abram and said Abram whoever blesses you will be blessed and over curse is you will be cursed and why are you being blessed by this guy you see it's always the case that the greater blesses the lesser and so the greater Melchizedek is blessing the lesser Abram and they wouldn't know what to do with that and then on top of that look at Abram's response the king of Sodom came and tried to cut a deal Abraham looks at Melchizedek and he gives he pays a tie their attempt to Melchizedek so they would be thinking why who in the world is this guy Melchizedek that Abraham our father the guy who is the blessing bear would bow down to Melchizedek and they didn't get it that's the point they just didn't get it I wish I had some slick application but they just didn't get it you know how you know they didn't get it is because they didn't know what to do when Jesus came we know that they didn't get it the first time because when ultimately Jesus came they didn't know what to do with Jesus remember the Psalm we read today David says this king David says that my Lord the Messiah will come and when the Messiah comes he's going to be a king but he's also going to be a priest he's going to be a priest of the order of Melchizedek you see they wouldn't have known what to do imagine if you will that Jesus comes along and the Israelites of his day sort of give him a job interview and they say all right Jesus you know what what do you think he should be the Messiah and they say um Jesus I want a prophet you know I tell people to repent from their sins and I preach the word of God to them and even your own people said preachers one having authority and that's okay you get the prophet thing down well Messiah is supposed to be king he'd say well I'm son of David and remember who traces lineage all the way back son of David son of Abraham and they say okay that's great Jesus you you will grant that you're a prophet and will grant that you're a king but you know that Messiah also has to be a priest and you're from the tribe of Judah pal and we're Jesus the lion of the tribe of Judah you're from the tribe of Judah and all the priests come from Judah I mean all the priests come from Levi not Judah and since you're from Judah I guess you're disqualified and what's the answer to that hey guys you you forgot there's a loophole there's a loophole because your system doesn't work see many people are they have dissonance with the fact like in Hebrews that the Levitical system the system of sacrifice that God gave to the Israelites where they would come the priests would come in every day and once a year the high priest would come in and he would have to sacrifice a bull for his sins and then he would go in and he would sacrifice an animal on behalf of the people and the people were at weight outside to see if God heard and you know what they never worked you know how it never worked you know how you know it never worked because they had to do it again and again and again and again and again and again why because the priest was not pure and the blood of bulls and goats can never purify us from sin so what do you need you need something infinitely bigger you need another priest you need a priest who's not simple you need another system if you will you need a priest who's not simple and you need a priest whom you know God can hear and enter Melchizedek if you want to reference Hebrews 7 says it's in great detail that Jesus comes in the line of Melchizedek who is without beginning and without end and he like Melchizedek had the power of an indestructible life so what do I mean by that you see in the old days the priests will go in and make a sacrifice for sins and the people would wait outside hoping and praying that God had heard them and God had forgiven them well what Jesus does is Jesus goes behind the veil Hebrews says and he goes to the cross and dies and when he raises from the dead he comes back and you know what that means that means God heard him you know that God heard him why because the sacrifice comes back and tells you the book of Hebrews says the day after day after day these priests sacrifice bulls and animals but this priest Jesus he enters one time to offer a tomment for sins and because of that he cleanses you not only from the power of your sin but from the guilt of your sin you never have to pay for it again he never holds it against you you see it's like David Dury one of our members gave me this great story this week he saved me there's a great story called gentleman's agreement by Mark Richard and it's beautiful because it opens up and apparently there's a little kid who has a problem with throwing rocks and he throws rocks so much that he gets breaking windshields and windows and putting dents and cars and his father gets fed up and he said the next time you throw a rock I'm gonna hammer nail your hand to the wall of the shed so the father who's a fireman gets called away on a fire he's like a smoke jumper or something out in the woods and he's gone for two weeks and while he's gone the kids pondering this and he's walking down his driveway one day and he sees the perfect rock and he walks along and he sees the rock and he says well I told him I promised him I wouldn't throw any rocks but he didn't say anything about kicking and so he begins to kick the rock and he's kicking it around and then he said well he I promised I wouldn't throw the rock but I didn't promise him I wouldn't touch the rock and so he picks up the rock and he sort of just he's admiring it and he's walking along and then he walks and he sees he sees actually the shed and the shed has one of these steel roofs that makes a lot of noise and he sees a huge rock pile and he says well I promised him I wouldn't throw any rocks but I didn't promise him I would toss a rock and so he takes the one rock and he tosses it on the roof and it goes wham and it sounds like a bullet went off and he says that is beautiful and so he throws another rock up wham and beginning before he knows that he's in a huge fire fight right well wham wham wham and he said he's in the middle of this battle hearing these rocks bounce off the ceiling and finally he finds a huge rock the mother of all rocks and he says this is the rock right this is this is going to be Nagasaki and he takes the rock and he tries to heave it up on the roof to win the battle and as he throws it up in the air he can't make it and it comes back down right on his head and it splits his head open and his mother rushes into the doctor and the doctor stitches him up and says this is going to take about two weeks to heal his father comes back and his father among other things is practically burnt to a crisp physically from fighting fires and his father comes back and his mother goes to church one day and the father looks at the son and he says okay son it's time to go the shit and the father takes him one hand all of the bills that the son had caused for broken windshields and broken dented cars and in the other hand he has Richard directs it very politely he has his little green paste up and the paste up is nowhere near enough to pay for these bills and the son sees that right and so they're walking out to the shed and he tells his son sit down son and he begins to rattle through his toolbox and if he's rattling through the toolbox the son simply shuts his eyes and winces and puts his hand up against the shed wall and the father says this is going to hurt a little bit and then it says he pulled out his shears and began tugging at the stitches on the torn flesh of his only son you see that's the court the message of the gospel is that Jesus pays those bills and he doesn't nail your hand to the wall most of you I know walk around life with like this with your hand up against the wall waiting for the hammer to fall and what the gospel says is that when Jesus this priest of the order of Melchizedek went into the to the temple if you will on the cross and paid for your sins that you'll never have to pay for them again that instead of nailing your hand to the wall what he begins to do is he begins to pull the stitches from your wounded flesh he begins to to help you why not because you deserve it but because he loves you let me pray Jesus I pray simply that you would write your word upon our hearts and that you would teach us the gospel and that you would keep us from living as ones who wince and are afraid of you but you would help us to understand what it means with that you have gone to the cross and have paid for everything and now that you receive us as sons and daughters and never hold our sins against us we thank you and pray for you your name amen