Good evening.
Take your Bible if you will and open it to
the book of Genesis.
Let’s begin, if you would, with a word of
prayer,
and then we’ll get into our study.
Our gracious Father in heaven,
we come before your throne grateful for
the day you’ve blessed us with,
grateful for the opportunity that we have
to worship you,
mindful of the gifts and the blessings
that you present to us,
and mindful of how we are to live in
accordance with your will and your word,
that we might be.
Able to serve you in a way that is right
and holy in your sight.
Lord, we pray that you be with those who
are traveling,
those who are away from us. We also pray
that you be with those who
are dealing with illness and injury.
We pray for Riley’s dad that they may be
able to
do something to reverse the course of the
cancer.
Lord, we pray that you be with all those
who are dealing with cancer and other very
harmful diseases, we pray that you give
them the strength that they need
to overcome those things and may the
treatments be available to to help deal
with
those things. Lord, we pray that you
forgive us when we sin and fall short
of your glory. All this we pray and ask in
Jesus’ name.
Amen.
We’ve been noticing some of the occasions
of worship that exist
in Scripture. And as we have been doing
that,
we’ve been noticing some of the things
that we learn about worship along
the way. So we’ve seen a few of those
things.
Yes, sir.
Okay.
So as we look in the text, notice exam and
and examine chapter thirteen.
We got into Genesis chapter thirteen.
No, but w I know who he is.
Know who he is. ~ Judah?
Yeah. That’s all right. That’s all right.
So ~ here in Genesis chapter thirteen,
we read, Then Abram went up from Egypt,
he and his wife and all that he had and
lot with him to the south.
Abraham was very rich in livestock,
in silver, and gold, and he went on his
journey from the south as far as Bethel.
To the place where his tent had been at
the beginning,
between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the
altar which he made there at first,
and there Abram called the name of the
Lord,
called on the name of the Lord.
Lot also, who went with Abram,
had flocks and herds and tents.
Now the land was not able to support them
that they might dwell together,
for their permissions sorry, for their
possessions were so great that they could
not dwell together.
Together. And there was strife between the
herdsmen of Lot Abram’s livestock
and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock.
The Canaanites and the Perizzites then
dwelt in the land.
So as you look at the text, you have Abram
coming up out of Egypt.
He’s dwelling in this land, and he is
offering worship to God.
He builds an altar and worships there at
the altar,
and he calls on the name of the Lord.
We’ve noticed this.
connection, this correlation between
calling on the name of the Lord
and the altars being built.
And this idea of calling on the name of
the Lord is
an expression of trusting in God.
It is an expression of so as to say,
we are going to do what God says to do.
When you turn over to Acts chapter 22,
you’ll notice that
Ananias will come to Saul of Tarsus,
this individual who has been persecuting
the church.
He has been disrupting the church.
He has been br going into places,
into houses, and pulling people out and
carrying them off to prison and to death.
And as you look at that, what you find is
that Ananias comes
to Saul of Tarsus because Ananias has been
told by God to do so.
And he comes to him and says, Saul,
why tarryest thou? Arise and be baptized
and do what?
Call on the name of the Lord. Ananias is
telling Saul,
who, by the way, has been praying for
three days straight.
Hey, we’re we’re told in the text that
Ananias arrives
and Saul has already been praying.
He’s not saying, you know what,
what you need to do is pray. Saul would
have looked at him and said,
I’ve been doing that. I’ve been praying
for three days.
What else do you want me to pray for?
That’s not what calling on the name of the
Lord is.
It’s not a prayer, it is an action of
life.
It is a decision to do what God said to
do and to trust that God will do what He’s
promised.
It is a reliance on.
The authority of God.
So as you look at the text and as you’re
reading that they’re calling on
the name of the Lord, it is a picture of
reliance.
It is a picture of submission to the Lord.
Now, notice another passage.
Let’s go down to verse 14. That same
chapter,
Genesis chapter 13. And the Lord said to
Abram,
After Lot had separated from him,
lift up your eyes now and look from the
place where you are,
northward, southward, eastward,
and westward. For all the land which you
see I give to you
and your descendants forever. Now notice
something as you’re looking
at the text.
Abram and Lot have just separated from one
another.
And as Abram offered Lot the first choice,
he says, you decide which way to go.
Whichever way you go, I’ll go the other
way.
Right? So he offers Lot first choice.
And Lot looks out and sees the
well-watered plains of Sodom.
And he goes to the place that is visibly.
The better choice, the richer land.
He goes to the place where his flocks and
his herds can clearly prosper
and grow and expand and be enriched,
and that’s where he goes. But what does
the Lord tell Abram
to do?
Which direction does he tell them to look?
All of
W does that include the direction Lot
went?
Yeah, it does.
So Abram has made a commitment to separate
from Lot,
which he will do in the near term.
But this promise to Abram isn’t about the
near term,
at least not exclusively. This promise to
Abram is about more than the near term.
And God tells Abram,
you go ahead and look the direction Lot
already went.
You look north, you look south,
you look east, you look west, you look
every direction you can turn.
And you’re looking at the land that your
descendants will possess.
So he already is giving Abram a
perspective
of the scope of the promise.
North, south, east, and west, every
direction you can look,
that’s where your descendants will be.
But beyond that, as you consider that
Abram and his flocks,
his herds, and his people at that day in
time could never have filled such a land.
They could have gone to the edge of a city
and had space.
They weren’t sufficient enough to fill a
land or multiple cities
or multiple provinces in a land.
So there’s a future look, but add into
that future look.
There’s not a descendant. There’s not a
person.
God can’t even say to Abram, Hey,
look at your son and see what he will
have.
There’s no son.
So as Abram is being told,
look every direction and you’ll see the
scope of the promise.
He’s also told to trust in the scope of
the promise that includes a
son that he doesn’t have. To include
descendants as the sand of the seashore
that
he doesn’t have. What’s God calling upon
Abram to do?
Trust me.
Because you’re looking at a land that you
just promised to not go into
and I’m going to give it to you.
You’re looking at a land you haven’t even
yet gone to and I’m going to give
it to you. You’re looking at a land where
you don’t currently dwell,
and it’s going to be yours. And it’s going
to be inhabited by a people,
the first one of which have never even
been born.
God is commanding Abram’s trust.
And here’s why that matters in worship.
Too many times individuals come in
to the assembly to participate with others
that they can see and who sit next to
them,
who sit across from them, who they can
look at,
who they can lay their eyes on,
who they can give a hug to, who they can
greet in person.
And far too often they forget that the one
that they’re there
to assemble with, they cannot lay their
eyes on in person.
They have to trust in his presence.
They have to trust,
not through an emotion, not through a
feeling,
not through going through a service and
and walking away with the feeling that,
~ God was in the presence, our presence
today.
But rather in his promise
When we look at what the New Testament
tells
us concerning acts of worship like the
Lord’s Supper.
What does the New Testament tell us we are
doing in that act of worship?
Remembering Christ. It’s a memorial.
But what’s another word that we often use
to describe the Lord’s Supper?
Communion. What does communion mean?
It is joint participation with someone
in something. When you there there’s
an old preacher joke. ~ it’s it’s not
terribly old,
but it it goes around, makes the cycles.
The preacher students can accord this or
can agree with this.
~ let us all in one accord. Well,
how many people can you fit in a Honda
Accord,
right?
Let us all in one accord. Well,
if you’re all in one accord, you’re in
communion together.
One of the reasons that Paul rebukes the
Corinthian brethren
in how they are participating in the
Lord’s Supper is they’re
not waiting on everybody. Their one
person,
this group is getting there first,
and they have possessions and they have
the things needed for the Lord’s Supper,
and they’re just going ahead and having
the Lord’s Supper.
And then another group shows up and they
don’t have anything,
and they didn’t even save anything for
them.
They’re not in communion together because
they’re doing it out of their
own selfish self-interest.
But it’s not just communion with one
another.
Because Paul makes the point as he’s
writing to the Corinthians
in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. If you want
to eat,
if you’re hungry, you’ve got a house.
Could you invite somebody over to eat?
Sure, you could. Would you be in communion
with them if you ate a meal with them?
Sure. But that’s not what the Lord’s
Supper’s about.
It’s not about filling a belly that’s
empty.
It’s about a ~
Fellowship an event whereby in which
God and Christians are in communion with
one another.
But that means you have to trust the
promises
of God that the person you can’t see,
can’t feel, can’t touch.
is present in the worship.
So, all the way back in Genesis,
you have these tentacles
of concepts like calling on the name of
the Lord that tell us that even then
God was teaching his people
to worship and to base their worship.
In trust in God’s presence.
And we’re supposed to do the same thing.
If you notice back in the text,
verse 14, the Lord said to Abram,
After Lot had separated from himself,
lift up your eyes now, look from the place
where you are,
northward, southward, eastward,
and westward, from all the land which you
see,
and I give to you and to your descendants
forever.
I will make your descendants as the dust
of the earth,
so that if a man could number the dust of
the earth,
then your descendants also could be
numbered.
Arise, walk in the land through its length
and its width,
for I give it to you. Then Abram moved his
tent and went and dwelt
by the Terebinth trees of Mamre,
which are in Hebron, and built an altar
there to the Lord.
Over and over and over again.
Where Abram goes, what does Abram do?
Builds an altar.
So, skip over to chapter twenty-one.
In chapter twenty one
Isaac has already been born.
And we read in chapter 21, we’re going to
begin down about verse 22.
It came to pass at that time that
Abimelech and Fikal,
the commander of his army, spoke to
Abraham,
saying, God is with you in all that you
do.
So so the background behind this
is the famine that has happened,
and Abraham has
Now gone to a land that is near that of
Abimelech.
And we read verse twenty-three Now
therefore swear to me by God that
you will not deal falsely with me,
with my offspring, or with my posterity,
but that according to the kindness that I
have done to you,
you will do to me and the land in which
you have dwelt.
And Abraham said, I will swear.
Then Abraham rebuked Abimelech because of
the well of water which Abelech’s servants
had seized. And Abimelech said,
I do not know what who has done this
thing.
You did not tell me, nor had I heard of it
until this day.
So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave
them to Abimelech,
and the two of them made a covenant.
And Abraham set seven new lambs of the
flock by themselves.
Then Abimelech asked Abraham, What is the
meaning of these seven Ewlambs which
you have set by themselves? And he said,
You will take these seven Ewambs from my
hand,
that they may be my witness that I have
dug this well.
Therefore he called that place Bersheba,
because the two of them swore an oath
there.
Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba,
so Abimelech rose with Phikal,
the com ~ commander of his army,
and
And they returned to the land of the
Philistines.
Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in
Beersheba,
and there called on the name of the Lord
the everlasting God.
And Abraham stayed in the land of the
Philistines many days.
As we get into this passage,
we see the events that transpire between
Abimelech and between Abraham.
And there’s this discussion and this
discourse concerning the land.
Concerning the people, concerning their
descendants,
concerning this well, and what someone has
done,
which by the way, there’s going to be a
looping back into this discussion
in the life of Isaac. But as this covenant
is made between Abraham and Abimelech,
and Abimelech goes his way,
you find that as Abraham is dwelling in
the land,
as he stays there in the land,
he plants a tree there in Beersheba.
And he calls on the name of the Lord.
But here Moses gives us something
additional.
Because he says he called on the name of
the Lord,
but then how does Moses describe the Lord?
The everlasting God.
See, Moses
is writing these details,
not in conjunction with has they happened.
He’s not walking along beside Abraham and
let me write that down.
Let me write that down.
Moses isn’t alive when Abraham does this.
Who tells Moses what Abraham did?
God does. Peter points this out to us that
the writers,
the prophets of the Old Testament spoke
and wrote as they were moved
by the Holy Spirit. So it is the work of
the Holy Spirit
to decide and to give to Moses and to
others what they
are to write.
So the Holy Spirit deemed it necessary and
useful as these events transfold
to reveal more about what Abraham knew.
When Moses writes the book of Genesis,
who’s he writing it for?
The Israelites. The indication of the text
of Scripture is that Moses will write
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
and Deuteronomy during the 38 years of the
wandering in the wilderness.
During the time after they leave Egypt,
and between the time they leave Egypt and
the time that Moses dies,
the penning of these things will be
written.
There’s even points in which, as Moses is
interacting with the Lord,
the Lord will tell Moses: write these
things in a book.
But he’s writing them.
And depending upon the time at which a
particular letter was
or particular writing was was written and
handed off,
he’s writing them to the first generation
that left Egypt and
to the second generation that left Egypt.
Why do you think it’s important for the
people who are leaving Egypt
to know about the things that transpired
with Abraham?
Absolutely. It was their record
of the promises made about them.
It was their confidence to know what it is
that they’re supposed
to do. You can turn over to Exodus chapter
three.
In Exodus chapter three
As Moses is tending the flock of Jethro,
his father in law. And as he does so he
sees verse two,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
flame of fire from the midst of a bush.
So he looked, and behold, the bush was
burning with fire,
but the bush was not consumed.
Then Moses said, I will now turn aside and
see this great sight,
why the bush does not burn. So when the
Lord saw that he had turned aside to look,
God called to him from the midst of the
bush and said,
Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am.
Then he said, Do not draw near this place.
Take your sandals off your feet,
for the place where you stand is holy
ground.
Moreover, he said, I am the God of your
father,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his
face,
for he was afraid to look upon God.
Notice that as God introduces himself to
Moses,
he introduces himself as what?
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
the God of Jacob.
Now there’s an interesting connection here
’cause there’s going to be a time over
in the book of John
Where the Jews are going to ask Jesus,
Are you greater than our father Abraham?
And Jesus is going to respond to them
before Abraham am.
You see, before Abraham ever worshiped and
called
on the name of the Lord, the everlasting
God.
The everlasting God was there.
And long before Abraham ever left Ur of
the Chaldees and ventured through
the land that he would eventually possess
and that his descendants would eventually
possess, the God who was the everlasting
God was there.
And he wasn’t like the fictitious gods
that the people in Abraham’s day believed
in.
They believed in a god of the mountains,
they believed in a god of the hills,
they believed in a god of the valleys,
they believed in a god of the sun,
they believed in a god of the storms,
they believed in a god of the oceans,
they believed in a god of the land,
they believed in a god of this and a god
of that,
that only had they only had power over a
certain thing,
and they could only go so far.
That’s not what Abraham believed in.
You see, Abraham believed in the
everlasting God.
The one without bounds, the one without
end,
the one who has authority over everything.
The one true God.
And Abraham’s worship was connected
to his understanding of who God is and his
nature.
Does it matter if you worship God and
believe that Jesus Christ
is just a created being created by God,
one of the most elevated of beings,
but just a created being? it absolutely
matters.
John will say it matters so much that your
worship isn’t accepted
by him and you’re not in fellowship with
God.
Because when you mess up your
understanding
of the nature of who God is.
Changes your worship. It turns it from
acceptable to unacceptable.
Now, does that mean that we have to
explain every detail
of everything about God before anybody can
actually worship Him?
No. Part of what individuals do.
Is they learn a little bit about God and
they learn a little bit more about
God and they learn a little bit more about
God,
and as they do so, they grow to a greater
understanding of who God is.
The contrast, though, is when someone
rejects what God says about
who God is. When you begin to change what
God said about
who God is, now we have a problem.
Now
Notice that Moses is going to write these
things
so that Israel might know who brought them
out of Egypt.
When Moses is sent into Egypt,
and Moses asks there at the burning bush,
who should I say has sent me? What does
God reply to Moses?
You tell them the I am that I am has sent
you.
But he doesn’t just say that. He says,
the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob.
God says you you need to connect what they
do know.
Over in Joshua chapter twenty four.
Joshua as the Israelites receive the land
and as things conclude in the time and the
reign of Joshua will present
the covenant to them at Shechem.
And he says verse thirteen,
I have given you a land for which you did
not labor,
and cities which you did not build.
And you dwell in them, you eat of the
vineyards and of the olive groves which
you did not plant. Now therefore fear the
Lord,
serve him in sincerity and in truth.
As Joshua confronts Israel with their
having received the promise,
the promise that they had heard about as
they read and heard
the speaking of what Moses wrote.
The promise that they had heard about from
the lips of their fathers
and their grandfathers and their
great-grandfathers
and their great-great-grandfathers.
And as they realize and should realize
that they now have what God
had promised to Abraham.
He says, fear the Lord. Serve him in
sincerity and in truth,
and put away the gods which your fathers
served on the other side of
the river and in Egypt. Serve the Lord.
So the river there,
not a reference to the Nile River.
~ Most times, not all the time,
but most times in the Old Testament
scriptures,
when you read the river, it’s actually a
reference to the Euphrates.
Up in Ur of the Chaldes,
up where Abraham came from. And
so Joshua is saying, your forefathers.
Where Abraham came from served other gods.
How do we know that Abraham’s family
served other gods?
Scripture tells us but what what event in
the life of Abraham’s descendant
do we find a issue with idolatry coming
out of Abraham’s family?
All right, when Jacob is returning from
Laban,
Laban, a descendant of Abraham,
~ Abraham’s family, and Laban comes
chasing
after Jacob because what has disappeared
from his house?
His household idols. Somebody
has taken my gods.
And who had taken them?
Laban’s daughters. Rachel is sitting on
them and she’s with child
and she can’t Daddy, I just can’t get up
right now.
Just go sit right here on the camel.
So Joshua says, You know what your fathers
did.
You know what how they worshiped.
You know who they served back in Ur of the
Chaldees.
But he also points out that they didn’t
make it through
the Egyptian persecution and captivity and
time without being
inundated with the sins of Egypt.
He says, you also know that your fathers
served the gods of the Egyptians.
You know, quite often we think about the
events in Egypt
as a lesson to Pharaoh and the Egyptians
about serving
God and about being obedient to God.
But it wasn’t just a lesson for the
Egyptians.
Because the Israelites had been serving
Egypt’s gods.
And Joshua tells us they were.
So he says, You need to serve the Lord in
sincerity
and in truth, and you need to put away the
gods which your fathers served
on the other side of the river and in
Egypt.
Serve the Lord.
And if it seems evil to you to serve the
Lord,
choose for yourselves this day whom you
will serve,
whether the gods which your fathers served
on the ut w that were on
the other side of the river, or the gods
of the Amorites in whose land you dwell,
but as for me and my house, we will serve
the Lord.
So the people answered and said,
Far be it from us that we should forsake
the Lord and serve other gods.
For the Lord our God is he who brought us
and our fathers up out of
the land of Egypt.
From the house of bondage who did these
great signs in our sight and preserved
us in all the way that we went,
and among all the people to whom we
passed,
and the Lord drove out from before us all
the people,
including the Amorites, who dwelt in the
land,
we will serve the Lord, for he is our God.
They answer with the right answer.
No, hey, we’re exclusive. We aren’t
serving the God
of the Amorites because the Lord defeated
them.
Clearly, their gods aren’t the gods.
And we’re not going to serve the gods of
Egypt because the Lord defeated them.
We’re going to serve the Lord
and him alone.
But notice what Joshua says. Verse
nineteen.
But Joshua said to the people,
You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a
holy God.
He is a jealous God. He will not forgive
your transgressions
nor your sins.
Now, was Joshua unaware of God’s
willingness to forgive?
Was Joshua somehow confused about the laws
and the ordinances and
the sacrifices and the things which Moses
had given in the law for them
to do when they sinned and when they No,
Joshua’s not confused.
Joshua’s well aware of who he’s talking
to.
and their rebellion, and their rebellious
attitude and nature,
and their refusal, even in the process of
taking the land,
to do what God told them to do.
Joshua’s point is verse twenty,
if you forsake the Lord
and serve foreign gods, then he will turn
and do you harm and consume you after he
has done you good.
Rather than being confused, Joshua is
actually very well aware of the nature of
God.
And he’s going to declare to the
Israelites the same thing that
the Hebrew writer over in Hebrews chapter
ten declares about the Lord.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of a living God.
Believe it or not, there’s not a whole lot
of fear in falling in the hands
of a God that doesn’t exist. A God that’s
dead,
a God that’s powerless, a God that can do
nothing.
Not a whole lot to fear from that.
But the Hebrew writer says there’s a whole
lot to fear from the hands
of a living God.
We need to learn as we’re understanding
worship.
That God
Really does exist.
That we cannot show up and worship
him half hearted.
That we cannot pledge half
of our allegiance to the Lord.
That we can just determine to bow before
him in action,
but not in heart.
That we can come to him in doubt.
Turn turn to James chapter one as we
close.
In James chapter one.
James is going to write, just what just as
we noticed
~ this last week in our sermon,
he’s going to write about trials.
But he says, if any of you lacks wisdom,
James chapter 1, verse 5, if any of you
lacks wisdom,
let him ask of God, who gives to all
liberally and without reproach.
And it will be given to him.
But he says, let him ask in faith,
with no doubting, for he who doubts is
like a wave of the sea,
driven and tossed by the wind,
for let not that man suppose that he will
receive anything from the Lord.
He is a double minded man, unstable in all
his ways.
Now, James is not here saying
You need to understand everything.
You need to know everything. You’ve got to
be certain about everything,
or you’re not going to get anything from
the Lord.
Well, if you were certain of everything
and you knew everything
and you understood everything,
why do you need wisdom? Why do you need
more wisdom?
No, he says, if you lack wisdom,
ask it from God. But don’t do it doubting
that he’s able to deliver.
This calling on the name of the Lord is an
integral part of worship.
It is not just a response of salvation,
as we see in Saul’s ~ conversion.
It is a reference to that, but it is more
than that.
It is a continual action in worship
and in life to submit to God and to trust
him.
To know that what he has promised,
he will do.
And to know that when we assemble together
and when we worship the Lord.
We’re not just assembled with the people
who are standing in the room.
That God is present. And as a matter of
fact,
He is the most significant person when
it comes to what we do in worship and how
we do what we
do in worship and how we should feel about
what we do in worship.
People who lose sight of the Lord in
worship invariably find
themselves more focused on what they want
out of worship.
And yet I can’t find any occasion where
Abraham said,
Lord, if I could just worship my way,
if I could just have a little more say
concerning how I you know,
these altars, I’m getting older,
those stones are heavy.
No, not Abraham.
Even by the way, where we were headed
next,
when God says to Abram or to Abraham,
here’s what you’re going to offer in your
worship.
Thank you for your attention.
