Abraham's Prayer for a Wicked City
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Introduction
Introduction
How does it make you feel to know that God uses ordinary people to accomplish His purposes?
Makes me feel good knowing that the bar is set relatively low. You just have to humble yourself and trust in Him. You don’t have to be perfect or have a PhD. You have to trust in the Lord and rely on His power. Proverbs 3:5-6 talks about this reality.
We’ve been studying Abraham’s life and obedience in recent months. While he hasn’t been perfect, in fact, he’s stumbled often along the way, he’s demonstrated time and time again that he trusts in the Lord. He obeys whenever God gives him a task. Does he do it perfectly? No. Yet, we see that this is a man who has faith in the Lord.
MacArthur points out on page 68 that Abraham has both faith and works. Why are both important?
Page 68 points out that genuine faith results in heartfelt obedience. We are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17) and as a new creation, we live differently! We have a new heart (Hebrews 10:15-18) and God’s law is written on it. Therefore, our faith in Christ leads to Christlike living. John 15 shares with us that one who abides in Him will bear fruit. Galatians 5 speaks of the new fruit that we bear
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.
24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Tonight we will look at how Abraham prays for a wicked city and intercedes on their behalf before God. We’ll also look to the New Testament at how Jesus does this for us and how we should pray for others as well.
Please read Genesis 18:16-19. What is Abraham’s responsibility according to verse 19? Is this still a responsibility for people today?
16 The men got up from there and looked out over Sodom, and Abraham was walking with them to see them off.
17 Then the Lord said, “Should I hide what I am about to do from Abraham?
18 Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.
19 For I have chosen him so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. This is how the Lord will fulfill to Abraham what he promised him.”
He was called to command his children to keep the way of the Lord. To do what the Bible says to do. To raise up his children in the way they should walk. This is a responsibility for parents today as well!
God desires us to live a holy life - we see this in Scripture that God is holy and wants His people to be holy as He is holy. Yet, we look around and we see that our world is everything but holy. What is the remedy to this? We can’t look to the world to tell us how we should act as Christians. Tony Evans at the Missouri Baptist Convention earlier this week delivered a powerful sermon and reminded us about the Kingdom of God and how the Kingdom is supposed to be of utmost importance in our lives because our world will draw us away from the Kingdom. He said something along the lines of this: We can’t look to elephants or donkeys to tell us about the lamb. What’s his point? We can’t look to society to tell us how to be a Christian because we’re living in an anti-Christian world. So what is the solution?
We must have people, specifically parents, who train their children up in the way of the Lord. I saw an interesting piece of research about how quickly we can lose generations in the church. Take 4 generations. The first grows up with parents who make church optional. Their kids grow up and only show up when its convenient. Their grandkids grow up and never go to church. Their great-grandkids, therefore, have no understanding of who God is. 4 generations and we can lose millions of people! God chooses Abraham and his descendants - this is remarkable. He does this in order to have a people who make His name great throughout the world and to eventually bless all the world through Abraham. However, we know that we live in a fallen, wicked world. It was this way in Abraham’s day and it remains this way today.
Please read Genesis 18:20-23. Put yourself in Abraham’s shoes here. Would you step up for Sodom and Gomorrah?
No way! These are wicked people. They deserve to be destroyed and are a threat to Abraham and his loved ones (Lot). Yet, he intercedes for them. He has a concern and love for others that is uncommon for many of us. This is something we could learn from Abraham’s character throughout Genesis.
20 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious.
21 I will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to me. If not, I will find out.”
22 The men turned from there and went toward Sodom while Abraham remained standing before the Lord.
23 Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
We know according to Isaiah 6 that we are sinners and people of unclean lips. As a result, there is a gap between ourselves and our holy God. The gap is so pronounced that we cannot climb it, we cannot leap over it, we cannot use technology to avoid it. We are separated from God as Romans 3:23 shares with us. We all fall short! Yet, we also see in the book of Hebrews that through Jesus we can draw near
16 Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.
How can we come before God with boldness? Because of Jesus’ sacrifice.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe,
There is a closeness and intimacy as MacArthur draws out in our study guide between God and Abraham. The same exists in our world today between God and His followers. We are able to draw near to Him because of what Jesus has done. As a result, we are able to worship Him and come before Him with our requests and leave with boldness and assurance and encouragement. This is something that our world cannot experience outside of Christ. This is why it is so significant that Abraham intercedes on behalf of these evil people. Maybe it makes sense to come before God to lift up a really nice person or a loved one, but a bunch of wicked heathens? No way!
How can we do a better job of praying for others in our world who we might not always agree with?
Please read Genesis 18:24-33. People often look at this story as being “unfair” towards the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. What would have been “fair” in your mind?
Sin deserves punishment. An entire city being wicked deserves to be punished. If anything, 10 people being righteous would have been an immense amount of mercy on the part of God.
24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away instead of sparing the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people who are in it?
25 You could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of the whole earth do what is just?”
26 The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
27 Then Abraham answered, “Since I have ventured to speak to my lord—even though I am dust and ashes—
28 suppose the fifty righteous lack five. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”
29 Then he spoke to him again, “Suppose forty are found there?” He answered, “I will not do it on account of forty.”
30 Then he said, “Let my lord not be angry, and I will speak further. Suppose thirty are found there?” He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
31 Then he said, “Since I have ventured to speak to my lord, suppose twenty are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it on account of twenty.”
32 Then he said, “Let my lord not be angry, and I will speak one more time. Suppose ten are found there?” He answered, “I will not destroy it on account of ten.”
33 When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he departed, and Abraham returned to his place.
Because God is just, His people should be as well. One of the things that we see in Scripture is a call for Christians to seek justice in our world. We see this at the beginning of our text in verse 19 as Abraham is to command his children to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is “right and just.” We are called to be like our God and because God is just, we should pursue justice as well. Abraham isn’t trying to get God to change His mind (as we see in chapter 19 there weren’t any righteous people in these places), instead he is trying to understand God’s plan and purposes.
It’s interesting that we see Abraham go down in units of 10 from 40-30-20-10. The logical next step would be 1. It follows that Lot and his family are righteous. But he isn’t a full citizen of the city (Sodom) we see in Gen 19:9 that he is a sojourner/alien
9 “Get out of the way!” they said, adding, “This one came here as an alien, but he’s acting like a judge! Now we’ll do more harm to you than to them.” They put pressure on Lot and came up to break down the door.
Abraham is interceding on behalf of this city and praying that God would show mercy on them. We see that Jesus does this same thing for us as He intercedes on our behalf
34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.
What does this mean? It means that Jesus Christ is praying for us right now. He loves us. He is praying for us to be strengthened and to continue to walk in obedience. This is something that we should do as well! We should pray for others and pray that the Lord would be gracious, merciful, and encouraging towards us.
MacArthur transitions to a New Testament text - a familiar one at that! In James 2 as we find the famous Faith without Works text.
Please read James 2:17-20. Why is faith without works useless as verse 20 shares?
They are useless because they benefit no one. Works reveal our faith. They don’t save us, but because we are saved, we work and live a changed life! James’ argument is that a faith that produces no works is a faith that is not genuine. This is a strong statement! Yet, consider John 15, we see that when we abide in the vine, we produce fruit! If we’re not producing fruit, we have to ask why that’s the case? Faith in Christ should produce Christlike action.
17 In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.
19 You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder.
20 Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?
To believe isn’t enough. The Demons do that and they’re lost. To have the right knowledge isn’t enough. The Legalist in Luke 15 had all the knowledge but he was lost because it didn’t change him. What must we have? We must be changed! The Gospel changes lives (Acts 9) and the Gospel must change the way we think and act.
Thoughts on these verses and the importance of living as a new creation? Lots of people like to gloss over James 2 because they say that we’re saved and our actions don’t matter because we prayed the prayer. This is so far from the truth, though! Works don’t save, but they do follow salvation because we’re a new person.
Please read James 2:21-26. How do we know that Abraham truly believed in God? What evidence do we have?
James points to his willingness to sacrifice Isaac (the son of the promise) and follow God’s call. He was willing to act on his faith in the Lord. He had an active faith. Therefore, God credited Abraham with righteousness because he was willing to lay it all down for God. Are we willing to do the same?
21 Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar?
22 You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete,
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend.
24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route?
26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
He didn’t just mentally believe God - he lived a life of obedience and trust in the Lord. We know that Abraham was willing to take his son to the altar and trust in the Lord - but we also read in that text that he knew that God would provide.
4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.”
He doesn’t say “I’ll” come back to you. He says “we’ll” come back. Theologians are divided about why he says this. Some speculate that Abraham believed that he was going to have to offer Isaac on the altar and that God would bring him back to life (This is what happens to Jesus - the greater Isaac - who was sacrificed on the altar) while others believe that Abraham believed that God would provide a substitute for Isaac. Either way, Abraham was willing to go through with this and follow the Lord. He believed in the Lord in mind and practice.
Pg. 76 Questions:
Friendship is a 2-way Relationship
God accomplished our salvation 2000 years ago on the cross. Hebrews 10 Jesus paid it all with His once for all sacrifice! We are responsible to pick up the phone and to obey His commands.
We are saved by Faith but we must demonstrate that faith through good works
Difficult concept to fully understand! We read in Romans 8 that the Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children and we know that the Spirit guides and directs us to follow God’s Word. We listen to the Spirit and through faith in our God, we live a changed life.
Questions on pages 77 and following?