Abraham No.3 Give up your low ambitions

The earth is filled with your glory Oh, Lord of all, you are our majesty You set your glory above the heavens We will magnify, we will magnify The Lord enthroned in Zion We will magnify, we will magnify The Lord enthroned in Zion May I ask my two faithful readers to come up to the pulpit now. If you want to turn in your Bibles just before they get up here to Genesis chapter 13, which Pastor Tony will be speaking from tonight. So Abraham went up from Egypt to the Negev with his wife and everything he had, and lots went with him.

Abraham had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold. From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai, where his tent had been earlier and where he had first built an altar. There Abraham called on the name of the Lord.

Now a lot who was moving about with Abram also had flocks and herds and tents, but the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. And quarreling arose between Abram's herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, though the Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in the land at that time. So Abraham said to Lot, Let's not have any quarreling between you and me or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers.

It's not the whole land before you. Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right.

If you go to the right, I'll go to the left. Lot looked up and saw the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt towards Zohar. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out towards the east. The two men parted company. Abraham lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.

Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord. The Lord said to Abraham after Lot had parted from him, Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give you and your offspring forever.

I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could also be counted. Go walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you. So Abraham moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Memre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the Lord.

So we're making our way through the life of a man by the name of Abraham. And he illustrates the sort of pilgrimage that Jesus Christ wants you and me to take. When our Lord was on earth, He called a group of men, we were looking at the story to some degree this morning, to be disciples, to follow Him.

And as there were people who followed the Lord Jesus in the New Testament times, so you find that there are illustrations of that discipleship sort of life, that pilgrim life in Old Testament days. Why was Abraham's nephew called Lot? The truth of the matter is, I don't really know. I do remember an advert years ago, many years ago, because I was still a kid at the time, for Smarties.

And an avalanche of Smarties was just dropping from the sky, and the little boy was lifting up his hands and saying, what a lot I got, what a lot I got. Well, even that's got very little relevance to Lot. It's the Hebrew word loam, just to show that there are other people besides Joe who know differing languages in the tab.

Not that that will help her in, they must go underground. Loam means dark, colored, devious. Abraham, well, he was the uncle of Lot, and they shared together not only a family relationship, but also they shared some ambitions.

In fact, that's the title that Pastor Tim, who worked out this particular series as far as breaking it down, has given to our address for this evening, Giving Up Your Low Ambitions. Abraham, Lot's father, or rather Lot's uncle, had a slightly superior ambition, starting off from a place where he was born, Ur of the Chaldees. What he wanted to do was to go to the place that God wanted him to settle in.

And from Abraham's descendants would come a great nation. Now, it so happened that Abraham took with him Lot, and Lot didn't demonstrate those same qualities in his lifestyle as I suggested to you. Abraham showed when we were looking at his life last week.

For if there's one thing that Abraham's life is punctuated by, it's the fact that wherever he went, when he moved from the land where he was born to the land where he eventually settled, he always dwelt in a tent. And I said to you that the tent is, if you like, an illustration of the impermanence of life. We're not here forever.

But there's something else that's featured in Abraham's life, and it wasn't actually so obvious in Lot's life. And that was that wherever Abraham went, he built an altar, because he felt that it was important to be in touch with God. And then Abraham was very concerned to build his life on the promises of God.

One of the reasons why I tell you we preach from the Bible is because the Bible is true. There's an old-fashioned preacher coming from an era that theologians call the Puritan era, and he says this, that if you quote the Bible at God, you have him trapped. Well, what does he mean by that? Let's just unpackage the statement.

Well, it means that when God promises something, he will do it. When Jesus says, believe on me, and if you confess your sins, and believe that my blood is sufficient to cleanse you from your sins, then you will be pardoned. That's the words that our Lord Jesus, or those are the words that our Lord Jesus, by his Spirit, caused to be written in the New Testament.

Abraham believed that when God said to him, leave the land where you have been born and move into another area that I will give to you, he believed that that actually would happen. Now, the Bible would be absolutely no use to us if it wasn't not just honest in telling us about God, but honest in telling us about the way that people sometimes failed. And if you were really plugged in last week, you will recall that Abraham, though he's going to be referred to later on in Scripture as a friend of God, he let God down terribly.

He went down into Egypt, because things in the land where he was to have made his dwelling were not going very well, and a lot went with him. In fact, it's possible that Lot, who didn't have that same degree of spirituality as Abraham had, was the one who suggested, when there was a famine in the land of promise, that they ought to go down to Egypt. In fact, you can learn from the story of Abraham and Lot this, be careful who you make your intimate friends in life, be careful who you're going to marry, be careful who your confidant is, because that individual could lead you away from fulfilling God's purposes.

Certainly, there's every evidence in the Old Testament that Lot was not very helpful in his relationship with Abraham. But you can't, of course, blame a nephew for the mistakes that the uncle makes. They're both responsible.

But the Bible will tell you this, that when you go astray from doing what you know to be God's will, He is prepared to receive you back to Himself, if you apologize, because the gospel that we preach is the gospel of the second chance. Oh, not only did Abraham do wrong by going into Egypt and passing his wife off as though she was his sister with the danger that she may have been brought into Pharaoh's harem, Abraham also did wrong inasmuch as he went against the will of the Lord. But if you move into the New Testament, you'll find someone else who did exactly the same thing.

I don't mean in detail, but in principle. Here is Peter. Jesus has said to Peter, Peter, when you find yourself on your own, you will let me down as much as the rest of the disciples have let me down.

And Peter says, no, you've got it wrong. But you remember the story was told, as the story is told in the New Testament, Peter in the palace of a high priest, in the courtyard of the palace of the high priest, he's tempted as a servant girl comes along and she says, aren't you one of Jesus' disciples? And Peter says, no. And he blasphemes, terrible oaths and curses.

And in a flash, at the end of the tempting story, we get the picture of Jesus seeing Peter. And Peter rushes off into the night, absolutely disillusioned with himself. He's let Jesus down.

But the fact of the matter is that whether your name's Abraham or Peter, whether it's Lot or Thomas, if you fail, you can start again in the pilgrimage to which God calls you. Well, in this thirteenth chapter of Genesis, here you find Abraham and Lot. And they're together.

But they're not together for very long because there are some problems. I've got one myself because I don't know where I put my overhead. It seems as though what blighted Jo when she's up here, she's left it around as a bug.

But no, I have now found it. When Abraham and Lot are together, you find that Lot and Abraham, as they return to the promised land, they have a quarrel. Actually, it's not a quarrel caused by Lot himself.

It's a quarrel caused by Lot's men because Abraham and Lot, who have been down in Egypt, find that when they return to the land of promise, because presumably Pharaoh gave to Abraham a dowry for Sarah, who he never actually married, they're much more wealthy than what they were when they set off to Egypt. And with all these men, and with all these cattle and sheep, there's difficulty. Where will Lot go and where will Abraham go? There's a quarrel that breaks out between the two lots of men.

Look at verse 8. So Abraham said to Lot, Let's not have any quarreling between you and me or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right.

If you go to the right, I'll go to the left. And Lot has a choice. If you knew something about the land of Canaan, then you would quickly gather that there are fertile areas and some areas which are not quite so fertile.

And here is Abraham and Lot and they're on some high promontory and they're looking. They've got a panoramic view of Canaan. And Lot is given a choice.

Now there's something that you need to know about the land of promise. Not only does the river Jordan flow through it, but the Jordan overspills its bank at least once and sometimes several times a year with the net result that where the water spills over, that land is much more fertile. And Lot's got a choice.

Not only is the land fertile, but by that fertile plain there are cities which are now famous. The names? Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot, let's not have any quarrel between you and me or between your herdsmen.

Look, there's a lot of land and incidentally, Lot, we've got some problems because there are these strangely named people, the Perizzites and the Canaanites. They're in the land and if we have disagreement amongst ourselves and they are our enemies, then the possibility is that they will be able to hound us out of the territory. Lot, let's have a gentleman's agreement.

Lot, you make a choice. And Lot's choice, as you know from the reading of Scripture, verse 11, was to go for the plain of the Jordan and set out towards, he set out towards the east. Why was it dangerous? Well, you remember how Lot has just come out of Egypt? There's a lot in Egypt that was wrong as far as Abraham and his nephew are concerned.

There are things that happen there which are diametrically opposed to what God wants to happen in terms of human relationship and lifestyle. But Lot's attracted to Egypt and although you find from verse 13, from the first verse of chapter 13, that Abraham and Lot have come out of Egypt, it's not true to say that Egypt has come out of Lot. Sodom and Gomorrah, very much like Egypt and its civilization.

And Lot's got the temptation, you see. He hasn't learned from the past. He hasn't learned from the fact that Abraham, when he went down into Egypt, imperiled his life and the life of his wife and could have brought disgrace to the God who he wanted to serve.

Lot doesn't learn the lesson of the past. And as a result, he becomes foolish. Sorry, that word's just about been rubbed out.

He becomes foolish as he approaches the present. Foolish? Well, you see, he thinks he can cope. Look again at verse 11, Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out towards the east and the two men parted company.

Do you know when you have become a Christian, one of the most important things you need is fellowship with someone else who is mature in the Christian life. Now as far as maturity is concerned, Abraham is feet above Lot. And Lot really needs Abraham and Abraham's fellowship.

But Lot decides as he surveys the present and the possibility of going to Sodom and Gomorrah that he will opt for that particular alternative. He moves out of the company of Abraham. It's the social life of Sodom and Gomorrah that seems to attract him.

The Lord Jesus Christ says that if a man is to be his disciple, then he has to reject the sort of life that he lived previously. He has to know what it is to take up his cross and be prepared to die. The Lord Jesus taught that if a man wants to save his life, he will also have to lose it.

And this is a problem for us today in working through our Lord's injunction as much as it was a challenge to Lot in principle in the days gone by. You see, Lot is more concerned about life on the plain, the material advantage, and living in the sophisticated fashion that the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah live in rather than staying with stuffy, old Uncle Abraham. Abraham, who has confessed his sin in going down to Egypt.

For you read in the fourth verse of this chapter that when Abraham came out of Egypt, he called on the name of the Lord, having rebuilt an altar. And the inference is that Abraham repented of the sin that he committed. But you never read of Lot building an altar.

You never read of Lot in contact with God. What Lot has done is he's cut the artery. He's cut fellowship with Abraham.

He's cut fellowship with God. What happens when a person does that? Well, obviously they deteriorate. Not necessarily materially, but certainly spiritually.

Someone has put it like this, Lot reached out for life and took all of death. You know the pleasures of this world, they're not cheap. When Lot started to go towards Sodom and Gomorrah, I wonder if he realized that as Uncle Abraham, from whom he didn't learn with that bad example in Egypt, had risked the well-being of his wife, so Lot would risk the well-being of his life, of his wife, that Lot would risk the well-being of his daughters.

For you read that when they went into Sodom and Gomorrah, his daughters married the citizens or two of the citizens of these cities. Lot got it all wrong. He had the options.

Now remember, although it's hard for us to believe even when the New Testament tells us this, but it is the case that Lot and Abraham in one sense were righteous men inasmuch as they both believed in God. But you see, there is a degree of spirituality. There is a variation in the way that you serve God.

Some are right in the forefront of service. Some are compromised right up to the back teeth. And if you're in the latter category, then your usefulness in the service of God is obviously diminished.

Lot, I say, failed to learn from the past, from the mistakes of his uncle, mistakes which in some respects he also shared. He was foolish in his approach to the present, and he was blind towards the future. Ah, you say, but he couldn't possibly have known what would happen to Sodom and Gomorrah.

There is a sense in which you cannot judge a man in the present for what will happen in the future. Well, think that one through. Listen to a Bible verse which will modify that conclusion if you've made it somewhat hurriedly.

The Bible says, what a man sows, that's present, he will also reap. That's future. So it's not true to say that you cannot blame Lot for being blinded to the future because he can't see into it.

There is a sense in which you're all preparing for the future by what you do in the present. A man, a woman, who confesses Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour right now is making a decision which is going to determine the future to a large extent. It may not determine it in detail so that it could be said that you fully understand what will happen, but it does determine this, that your relationship to God in future days and at the end of your life will be intact because of the decision that you have made in the here and now.

Lot was foolish. He was concerned about low ambition because he failed to learn from the past. He had every option, every opportunity to be wise after the event having seen what happened to him and also Uncle Abraham.

He had a possibility in the present not to be so greedy and to take a decision which would remove him from the influence of Abraham who in better times was a good guide to Lot. And he is utterly blind to the future. I don't remember much of Julius Caesar, Shakespeare's great play, do you? But one thing I do recall because I had to learn it and to at one stage take the part was the speech of Mark Antony on the death of Caesar.

You remember that famous speech that starts off Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lamerius? If you go into that speech about three-quarters of the way down Mark Antony says Speaking of Caesar and ambition Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. A book written by the principal, the ex-principal of London Bible College says give up your small ambitions. Here's Lot and Abraham.

Here is, shall we say, just plucking a name out of the air, Ken. And here is John in Worthington. Abraham's made a mistake.

He's goofed. He's blown it. He did what he should not have done.

But remember the gospel in the Old Testament is exactly the same though it's developed in the New Testament. This gospel is the gospel of the second chance. Here's a man, Abraham, who will be called a friend of God and he falls and he falls badly but God brings him back.

He goes down into Egypt. God brings him out of Egypt and Abraham determines that from this moment on he's going to live that sort of life which is demonstrated by the tent and by the altar and by the promise. But Lot, he had the option of maintaining a relationship with God but his ambitions were too low.

He wanted to look after himself. He believed that he could live in the swinging city in the sophisticated environment of Sodom and Gomorrah and he watched his daughters and he watched his sons-in-law and he watched his whole household being so contaminated by the lifestyle of that city including his own dear wife that at the end of the story what do you find? Lot was stripped of everything. He's like a fugitive in a cave.

A drunken man deceived by his own daughters and his posterity historically is unspeakably bad. But Abraham, he becomes the father of the faithful when Lot has decided that he will take the better part of the land, the promised land for himself. God speaks to Abraham because God is always true to his promise.

Abraham has God trapped. The Lord said to Abraham after Lot departed from him lift up your eyes from where you are. Look north and south, east and west.

All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth so that if anyone could count the dust then your offspring could be counted. Go walk through the land and breadth the width and length of the land for I am giving it to you.

So Abraham moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron where he built an altar to the Lord. A man who had high ambitions. Look here is the fact of the matter put dramatically but truthfully.

Here is the life of our Lord Jesus Christ absolutely sinless. Here is my life. Here is the Lord of my sin.

What makes me a Christian? When I confess my sins and they are transferred to the account of Jesus Christ that leaves me before God spotless. It leaves me with the potential of a life that may last a year or five years or ten years or fifteen years. But here are two people and they have both done the same.

Their sins have been transmitted so to speak to the cross of Jesus Christ. They are now disciples. Will they both achieve the same end? And the answer is no not necessarily because there are grades of discipleship.

The New Testament says that King Lot was a righteous man. In other words he was saved. But the New Testament also tells you that there was a man he is anonymous but I don't think it needs a great deal of logic to realize that Paul was speaking about Lot who on the day of judgment will be saved through fire to put that colloquially by the skin of his teeth.

He has nothing to offer. Nothing that he achieved. No yardstick of greatness could ever be placed alongside Lot.

He was an abysmal failure even though by the grace of God considered righteous. But on that day Abraham stands tall not because he never made a mistake. He made several.

But nonetheless he is referred to as a friend of God and the father of the faithful. Why? Because he had a high ambition and ultimately by God's grace he achieved it. What's your ambition? Is it high enough? Do you live, and with this I conclude, the life of a person who recognizes its impermanence to the extent that poetically speaking you might say they live a tent life.

They've always got their eye on the thought that life here is impermanent so every decision that they make they make with a view to the future. The tent. The altar.

Where they come before the Lord and ask for His grace day by day and the promise. Believing that what God has written in His Word is the yardstick, the criterion, the standard by which they are to live. T. Tent.

A. Altar. P. Promise. To higher your ambitions you tap into those three things.

So it was for Abraham. So it can be for you. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for what? In the perhaps little read chapters of the Old Testament you did yesteryear in the lives of basically unpromising people. We thank you that the Bible is so honest it speaks of their failures and their frailties and then also shows us how you can take something that seems to have no potential at all and by the indwelling of your Spirit you bring standards and achievements which are almost unbelievable at the human level. We thank you you did that in the New Testament to the disciples, none of which would have probably received an invitation to become members of Worthing Tabernacle because they blew it so many times.

And now Lord we look upon ourselves and we see there is so much failure so much frustration. Some of us have listened to Jo and we feel if only we could be like that and then we appreciate that what you've done for her so you can do for us. Help us Lord to tap in to your grace to live the tent life to build an altar to claim the promises Lord may our ambitions be made of stern stuff for Jesus sake Amen.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Father, we thank you for the appropriateness of that hymn, which underlines again the difficulty of living our lives here on this earth in an unwholesome environment, but also of the great provisions that you have made for us to be successful. Lord forgive us the many times that we failed. Help us to go on, to believe that as we stay by your Son, as we see him more clearly, follow him more nearly, love him more dearly, so we will higher our ambitions and offer to him a better degree of discipleship than we've given heretofore.

We pray for those who perhaps have made some commitment to you this evening. Be with them, we pray. Baptize them in your love and in your Spirit, and for all of us here, we ask that as we step out into this new week, we might go in the blessing of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and always.

And the people of God said, Amen. The less introverted list. Thanks for coming.

Good night. God bless you. I worship you, almighty God.

There is none like you. I worship you, O praise the Lord. That is what I love to do, I give you praise.

For you are my righteousness. I worship you, almighty God. There is none like you.

I worship you, almighty God. There is none like you. I worship you, O praise the Lord.

That is what I love to do, I give you praise. For you are my righteousness. I worship you, almighty God.

There is none like you. Just listen to the instruments. I worship you, almighty God.

There is none like you. I worship you, O praise the Lord. That is what I love to do, I give you praise.

For you are my righteousness. I worship you, almighty God. There is none like you.

There is none like you. Please be seated. Thank you.