Citizens of God in the City of Man
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Scripture passage: Gen. 12:10-13; 13:1-18.
Introduction
Introduction
This morning, we observe the first week of Advent. For those of us unfamiliar with the term, advent is a season where the Christians around the world prepare for Christmas. Advent comes from the Latin word adventus, which meaning ‘Coming.’ And it does not only refer to the first coming of Christ, but also to His return as the second coming Lord.
It has been the practice of the church to devote itself to one of four aspects of the gospel for each week of Advent, namely, hope, love, joy, and peace. And so this morning we look at hope. Now, there are two kinds of hope. The first is a hope without assurance. That is your day dreaming, your wishful thinking, your fantasizing. There’s no real reason to believe any of it will happen. But there’s the other kind of hope, a hope with assurance. I’ve put two very old and very expensive copies of John Calvin’s Instituties of the Christian Religion on a chair backstage. And the elder who came up with me earlier saw it. And the praise team would have seen it also. They would tell you the books are there. They are witnesses, and you can trust them. Why? Because there’s no reason for them to lie about it. And likewise, the Apostles had no reason to lie about the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ. In fact, they proclaimed the Gospel truth even when it brought them suffering, torture, and death. They had seen Jesus with their own eyes, and they witnessed how Jesus fulfilled the covenantal promises of God.
See, the gospels do not begin with ‘once upon a time,’ but with a genealogy of the Messiah rooted in history. The Messiah has come as promised, He has fulfilled the promises, and He is coming back to finish the last one. This means that the Gospel is good news; it’s not just good advice.
This morning, some of us might still hope in Jesus and the Gospel story without any assurance or certainty. But I want to encourage you this morning to take active steps toward growing in assurance. This is of utmost importance and must be done without any delay. And here is why.
Two Cities, Two Governors
Two Cities, Two Governors
St. Augustine was one of the most prominent fathers of the early church, and he wrote a book in the fifth century called The City of God. In it he talks about two cities: the city of God, and the city of Man. Now all human beings live in the city of Man, with all its godless vice and worldly pleasures. But as for Christians, they have changed allegiance. They have changed governor. And they are now citizens of the city of God, but are currently living in the city of Man. And the governor of the city of Man knows this. Who is this governor? The Apostle Paul calls him ‘The prince of the power of the air.’
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
Adam and Eve, in obeying the word of the serpent, had submitted themselves and the human race to the authority of the serpent. And the serpent is a cruel governor who drags us along in following the course of this world, of the city of Man. And when the course of this world meets its end, woe to its citizens. Woe to those who fail to prove their heavenly citizenship. And what is that proof, if not faith itself? And what is that faith, if not without assurance? So we must take action to grow in assurance without delay, before our Lord returns.
The world will mock us for it. They will call us mentally fragile, smoking a spiritual opium. They will say that church is a waste of time, effort, and money. The governor of the city of Man will tempt us with what his city has to offer. Power, fame, wealth, comfort, safety. But the last of these is a lie and an illusion. There is no safety for those living under Satan’s jurisdiction. And St. Augustine writes about the efforts of the enemy to gain a foothold in our hearts. He says that every human being has an Ordo Amoris, an order of affections or loves. It’s a ladder of loves, and at the very top of that ladder is a throne. And whatever sits on that throne governs our lives and makes decisions for us. And as it stays seated up there, we offer sacrifices to it. For example,
If your career sits on the throne, then it’s going to demand you to work harder and harder for the next promotion. It’s going to demand that you work overtime, sacrificing your time for family, for hobbies, and so on.
And whatever is enthroned in your heart is going to demand that you constantly think about it, look at it, and anchor your life upon it. But here’s the crucial point: if that thing seated up there is from the city of man, it’s going to be a cruel governor over your life. And that’s because such things do not last. They are temporary, fleeting attractions used by the enemy to keep us distracted from the impending fate of his city. He knows he’s going down, and all he wants is to drag us along, using his weapon of mass distraction. And we have a case in point in the story of Abraham and Lot. We have two citizens of the city of God, living in the city of Man.
Abraham in the City of Man
Abraham in the City of Man
In today’s Scripture passage, we have Abraham and Lot, his nephew. Now, Abraham and Lot have gone through thick and thin together. When God called Abraham to go to the promised land, Lot followed. So the two of them reach the land of Canaan, and God tells them, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ (Gen. 12:7). But the promised land fails to meet their expectations. All of a sudden, three bible verses later, the harvest fails, the supermarket prices skyrocket, and they’re at risk of starvation. They must have been so confused. “God, didn’t you promise to bless me? What is this?” And so they look to Egypt. They see its abundance, its luxuries, its comforts, and, they decide to compromise with their faith. “God, I’ll come back when things get better. But for now, I’m going elsewhere.” God’s promise lost its place on their ladder of loves, and Egypt now sits upon the throne. And as the new, cruel governor, Egypt demands a sacrifice. In order to live in the city of Man, you need to sacrifice something. And so Abraham sacrifices his wife: ‘Tell them you’re my sister.’ He remains silent as Pharaoh claims her for himself, and takes her into his bedchamber. And he receives the abundant gifts of Egypt: sheep, oxen, donkeys, camels, and servants. And we see what happens next. God judges Pharaoh and Egypt with plagues, and Abraham and Lot leave the land of Egypt for the promised land.
But then comes another test. They’re both now wealthy nomads with an abundance of livestock, but the promised land is unable to support their parallel prosperity. Whereas the land once failed them when they had nothing, it now fails them when they have everything.
so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together,
So Abraham gives Lot the first choice, even though he was the elder of the two. And in giving Lot the first choice, he was really giving the first choice to God: “God, whatever it is You want me to have, I will have it. Be it a land of little or a land of plenty, I will hold onto Your promise.” Abraham here evidences his true repentance before God, and assurance in God’s promise. And so he says to Lot,
Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”
What’s happened in Abraham’s heart is that he’s refused to entertain the temptations of the city of Man. He’s not giving the enemy a foothold in his heart. His selfless actions here evidence that he is living as a citizen of the city of God. In other words, he has enthroned the God of blessings in his heart, rather than the blessings of God.
Now what about Lot? Had his repentance remained at the level of geography?
Lot in the City of Man
Lot in the City of Man
If you were to open Google maps on your phone and search for Israel, you will find that it’s very tall, but very skinny. This means that they were probably facing East or West. And in actuality what Abraham was saying was, ‘If you go to the north, I’ll go to the south. If you go to the south, I’ll go to the north.’ But what does Lot do?
And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
Lot does what any normal person would do. He scales to the highest vantage point, looks for the most opportune place, and chooses it for himself. And he heads not to the north, nor to the south, but to the east. And it isn’t sin to grab a good opportunity. That’s not the point of this message, nor is it biblical to surrender every opportunity you get. In fact, Lot chose an area which was still within the boundary of the promised land. So we could say that he wasn’t breaking God’s promise either. So what’s the problem? The problem is that Lot saw the boundary of God’s promise, and sprinted right up to the edge. He had started compromising with his faith, and soon would compromise his faith entirely.
To those of us who are dating, you need to know the boundaries. You need to know what you can or cannot do. But that doesn’t mean you should do anything and everything you can get away with. That’s not the point. When you start compromising with your faith, you will compromise your faith. Your greed must not govern your actions.
But we see this in Lot. Whatever dictated his steps to move east to the Jordan Valley was not God, but God’s blessings. In the Bible, movement to the East has an ominous spiritual meaning. The entrance of the Tabernacle was on the east, and so to move eastward was to depart from the Tabernacle and from the Lord’s presence. For example, Cain departed from the Lord and journeyed east (Gen. 4:16). The builders of the Tower of Babel also journeyed to the east (Gen. 11:2). So Lot’s journey eastward indicates not only the physical movement of his body, but the spiritual movement of his soul. And this is made plain in the descriptions of Lot’s area of choice.
A Jewish scholar by the name of Robert Alter wrote a commentary on the book of Genesis, and on this passage this is what he says. He says that what we’re getting here in Gen. 13:10 is not the voice of the narrator. Grammatically speaking, what we’re getting is the way Lot’s heart interprets what he sees. Here God gives us a glimpse of the inner workings of Lot’s heart. And so what are these descriptions?
It was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord
Like the land of Egypt
The first description tells us that Lot wanted to recreate the garden of the Lord. That he did so beside the city of Sodom tells us that he didn’t mind its wicked inhabitants.
Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.
And what this tells us is that Lot wanted the garden of the Lord, but not the Lord of the garden.
The second description tells us that even though Lot had left Egypt, Egypt had not left lot. The allure of Egypt still had its grip over Lot’s heart, and that motivated him to move to the Jordan Valley. As a citizen of the city of God, Lot still lusted for the things of the city of Man. The Israelites, hundreds of years later, would also dream of Egypt as they journeyed to the promised land.
Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.
People, how desperate must you be to dream about cucumbers? Egypt here symbolizes our lives before repentance, our lives when we didn’t live according to God’s Word. And even though many of us repent, how many of those times are we repenting of the same sin? The sin of lying, of lust, of greed. All because we cradle in our hearts the past pleasures of the city of Man. And we reserve a step or two on the ladders of our hearts. But God calls this spiritual adultery. We must not welcome the things of the world like this.
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
This is what we mean when we say that even though Lot had left Egypt, Egypt had not left Lot. We must guard our hearts against the allure of the enemy. If we hope in the things of this world, they will fail us on the day of judgement, and their governor will bring us down with him. And that day of judgement is foreshadowed in the additional comment.
(This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
Herein lies another reason to hope in city of God. Lot wanted to indulge in the things of the city of Man. He compromised with his faith and moved right beside the city of Sodom. But it wasn’t long before he moved into the city itself.
They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who was dwelling in Sodom, and his possessions, and went their way.
See, by the very next chapter, Lot was already dwelling in Sodom. And he gets kidnapped. And Abraham rescues him, and guess what? Lot returns back to Sodom. In fact, by Gen. 19, what we see is that Lot is now seated at the city gate. That means he’s on the board of governors. What’s more, his two daughters are engaged with two men from Sodom. He’s fully immersed himself in the city of Man. And Lot enjoys this life for how long?
Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven.
Only six chapters pass by before the city is destroyed by sulfur and fire. Six chapters feels like a long time when we’re reading the Bible at night, but Lot was just getting started. He had work to do. He had marriages to plan. He had businesses to expand. But in the blink of an eye, he lost everything. The book of James gives us a similar warning.
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
Lot had given up all hope in God’s promise. He had given up his heavenly citizenship for the privileges of the city of Man. God had no place on his Ordo Amoris, his ladder of loves. But somehow, he was spared from the judgement, from the wrath of God. And this brings us to our third and final character.
The Son of God in the City of Man
The Son of God in the City of Man
We must notice a special element in this story. See, in Gen. 18, the Lord appears to Abraham as a group of three men.
And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth
And having enjoyed Abraham’s hospitality, and having promised the birth of Isaac, the Lord faces Sodom. And out of the three men, two of them, angels, came to Sodom. And they warn Lot about the judgement of the city.
As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.”
And because of these two angels, Lot escapes the judgement of fire. Now, you might be wondering with me, where is the third? This is just my speculation, but I reckon the third person, the Lord himself, brought the fire. See, God saved Lot from the judgement, even though Lot had no place for Him in his heart. And I’m still speculating here, but perhaps these two angels from God foreshadow Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, whom He sends to the city of man, to us our wickedness, to warn us of the coming judgement, and to offer salvation and amnesty.
The city of Man has many names. It is called Egypt. It is called Sodom. And the Book of Revelation calls it both.
and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.
And here, two thousand years ago, in the city of Man, the Son of God, Jesus Christ was born. Here, He declared the impending arrival of the City of God. And on the cross, Jesus bore the judgement of God’s wrath and gave us citizenship, that we may walk through the pearly gates when our time on earth is done. And so, even though we live in the world, we are not of it. As Jesus prayed to the Father,
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Conclusion: How shall we journey to the City of God?
Conclusion: How shall we journey to the City of God?
This Advent season, we anticipate the birth of Jesus and His return. Some of us have come here this morning with a heavy heart. You might’ve received a bad report from your doctor, your teacher, your manager, your customer, or even your congregation.
But let’s find comfort in the Word of God. Let this Advent season be a time of recentering on the hope that never fades, a hope that is eternal, and a hope that we can welcome from afar. The Gospel is a hope that gets clearer and clearer, as the cross we bear gets heavier and heavier. The Apostle Paul was no stranger to trials. In his second letter to the Corinthians, he writes,
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
So, therefore, what shall we do? We are not to wait passively with idle hands, but with vigor and diligence. To this point the book of Hebrews gives us three exhortations.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
We must lay aside every weight and the sin which clings so closely
What does this mean? It means that we should reflect on the Ordo Amoris of our hearts. The enemy is constantly trying to purchase a unit to take up residence in our hearts. And he offers a larger and larger sum each day.
Have we given the things of this world a foothold on the ladder of our hearts? Let us vacate their flats.
We must run with endurance the race that is set before us
The word for endurance is ὑπομονή (hypomone), meaning ‘the capacity to hold out or bear up in the face of difficulty.’ This means that our journey will be difficult. But it will not be long. The race track has already been set. And so the brevity of the city of Man translates into the levity of our hearts.
We must look to Jesus
But how can we look to Jesus, when we cannot see Him? We must scour and scavenge the scriptures, all of which testify of Jesus. We must pour through the promises of God and how God fulfilled each and every one of them in Jesus Christ. In the words of Deut. 32:7, we must ask our fathers and our elders, our forerunners of faith. We must ask Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the Apostles for their testimonies of Jesus. That is what it means to see Him. It is through the Scriptures that our hope in Christ will not be minimized to merely wishful thinking, but maximized as a concrete assurance in His second coming.
Abraham left his Father’s house to claim the promise of God. Jesus left His Father’s house to claim God’s promise for us. And He’s arriving soon to usher in the city of God, the kingdom of heaven itself. And as the angels called Lot out of the city of Man, so too, today, does our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ call us from the right hand of God in heaven,
Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,
“Come out of her, my people,
lest you take part in her sins,
lest you share in her plagues;
Let us pray.