Word of Salvation – Vol. 14 No.20 – May 1968

 

Talk With The Lord

 

Sermon by Rev. A. I. De Graaf, B.D. on Genesis 18:16-33, 19:27-29

SCRIPTURE READING: Romans 2:1-16

PSALTER-HYMNAL: 315; 94:1,3; 448; 298; 370:1,2,4; 371:3

 

Our text for today is too much for many modern ministers to swallow.

People in our age have trouble in believing in a God who is real,
   who can come here as a man,
   and talk with a man...
            as the Lord in our text talked – just talked, with Abraham.

The god of modern theology is a god who is all but eased out of this world: science and technical knowhow have pushed him out.

After all: when we are ill, we don't need God – we just go to our ultra-modern hospitals.

When we need money to buy bread for our children, well, we can always get an extra job.

When we are tired and downcast... well, there are drugs, you know!

So why do we need God?

In magazines and from pulpits we now hear of a God who may not exist, and if he does exist, He is not one to talk to, one to listen to, one who knows me and whom I may know.  He is an idea... the ground of our being...
            Who of course never talked to a man.
            (Ever seen a man talk with an idea?)

Prayer thus becomes talking to yourself... working out your own problems... or just plain nonsense.

And man is alone again.  The heavens have closed and the earth is lost among the stars.

If science, medicine, the bank manager don't help me, and if I myself don't help myself, then nobody will.

And... of course... no-one will tell me what I must DO, either.

I shall make my own laws, my own rules, or better: no rules at all... just do as I please... till I die, and that's the end.

This is how leading ministers and professors tell us how to go today.

That's what happens when you begin disbelieving the Bible.  When you no longer have any idea of BOWING reverently before the Word of God.

But what do you think?

Isn't Mahalia Jackson a thousand times nearer the truth than all these learned sophisticated doubters, when she sings: "MY GOD IS REAL"?

That was the discovery of the great thinker Pascal, three centuries ago.  He was so learned that all that could be known in his day he knew.
            But he discovered it: God, my God, Father of Jesus!
            NOT THE GOD OF THE PHILOSOPHERS,
                not a vague idea,
                        BUT THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB!

Him I may preach to you.

The God who is real.

Who came... and talked with us.

Whom we find talking with Abraham, here in our text.
    And we see from this talk
            first, how CONFIDENTIAL and YET HOW CRUCIAL it was.

The Lord had shown Himself to Abraham in human form.

He had even eaten with him, in his tent;

He had been Abraham's guest!  The mighty Maker of it all!

A preview of Christmas... a foretaste of Jesus' eating with His disciples.

Now – after having put Sarah's unbelief to shame the Lord and the two angels get up and go in the direction of Sodom, the godless city where Lot is living.

Abraham as a good host goes with them for a while... he cannot yet separate himself from this great and wonderful Guest...!

And then there is that word from the Lord:
            "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?"

Well – why should He NOT?

Why should the Maker of the Universe tell these little earthlings what He is planning?  And surely, after man's sin against God; after we have grieved Him with our neglect, our selfishness, our disobedience, there is even less reason why the Maker of all creation should tell us what He is planning.

He doesn't talk to us - and not even to Abraham either – because He HAS to...!
            Only because He WANTS to!
            Only because THUS He made us, and THUS He redeems us,
              that we may be as children.
            And doesn't Dad talk with His children?

Yes: He has willed it so!
That He should REVEAL Himself to His people...
Here, to Abraham... and later – fully in Jesus Christ.

John was to write about the Lord Jesus:
  "No-one has seen God in all His glory,
    but the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father,
    He has made Him plain...!

And this Jesus told His disciples:
"I call you no more strangers, but I call you friends,
            because I have told you all that the Father has told Me...!”

We have a God WHO REVEALS HIMSELF.
  Who tells us what He is going to do.
  The Bible is full of it:
            not only of all God HAS DONE to save sinners like you and me,
            but also what He IS GOING TO DO with us, and with the world.

Yes: we may know some of the secrets of the whole universe, for He, the very King of kings, comes down and says: "Shall I hide... what I am going to do?"

Oh, the wonder of Revelation!

That we can get together here in a building like this, and open a book that you can buy in any shop, and then listen to the voice of the very Creator of all worlds, as He tells us some of the things that are in His heart... His love for us and His wrath against sin, and how He will bring it all to HIS glorious conclusion!

Don't forget, however, that this talk of God with us – WHICH WE CAN STILL HEAR TODAY – isn’t only confidential, that He confides to us what's in His HEART, but also CRUCIAL: He says to Abram also WHY He talks with him:
            "that he may charge his children and his household after him,
             to keep the way of the Lord, by doing righteousness and justice...!"

You see: to KNOW what is in God's heart, to KNOW the wonderful message of the Bible, is a CRUCIAL thing.

The question then is: "what are you going to do with it?"
God tells us: we shall TAKE IT TO HEART,
            and tell our children of the judgements of the Lord
            that shall go over the earth, as in olden days they went over Sodom.

God tells us...that we shall take this to heart, and that we shall pass the message on...!

It is crucial... we're never the same after we got to KNOW the REVELATION, the Word of the Lord.  For to look into God's heart, is to look into the heart of the JUST AND HOLY ONE!

* * * * * *

This becomes clearer in verse 21, when the Lord talks to Abraham as if He were a man:
  "I have heard of the terrible sins of Sodom.
   So I thought I'd better come down and have a good look myself:
   things are getting too bad.'

As if He did not know already!

The Bible tells us clearly enough that He knows what we think, and what we do in the dark; that even what happens far off in hell is surely known to Him.

We will never understand the depth of His knowledge: how He is aware of every electron moving in every atom of everything He has made, as well as of the remotest object in outer space.

And yet this isn't "just" symbolic language, that He now 'comes down" to "have a look".

It's happened before, you know:

At CREATION, when the Spirit of God came BROODING OVER THE WATERS, and the LORD spoke: "Come, let us make man... in our image...!  It happened in PARADISE, when God came to talk with man, and when he had sinned – it happened again when God called: "Adam... WHERE ARE YOU?"

-

As if He didn't know!  Of course He did.  He saw Adam and Eve crouch behind that bush just as plainly as He saw them when they crept out, blinking in His sunlight.

But THIS IS HIS WAY OF DEALING WITH MAN!

He comes, He makes sure!  He deals with us RIGHT HERE!

Our God is not an absentee landlord, ruling His property by remote control from some faraway headquarters...!

Not the sort of boss who never comes into the factory where the men are working, but always stays in his gleaming office with that handy telephone on the desk...

No: we have a God who gets involved.

He knew of Sodom's sin.  But, before handing out His terrible judgement, He was going to come close first.

No one can ever say: "God doesn't care about what happens here in this lonely 20th century.”

He didn't wipe out Sodom before He had a close look Himself and gathered all the evidence!

He who first came down to the tower of Babel before He said: "Let us mix up their speech...!" is the One who came down to live amidst His people Israel, and He made it plain to them that He knew what they were doing because He was SO CLOSE...!

Oh, that is a fearful thing to realize!
That the maker of heaven and earth is so interested in us!  In me!
That He got involved... with us... with me...!

For we remember how He came at last... after having spoken to us in the prophets...
            He came to TALK to us in THE SON.
            He came to find out for Himself how things were going here...
            And find out He DID...!

As the Son of God came to look at the unfaithful tenants of the vineyard...
            and they grabbed Him... and KILLED Him... on a cross!

He got the evidence of our misery... He got it Himself.
He did NOT rely on hearsay... He found out for Himself!

Do you see it?  How REAL my God is?  How FEARFULLY REAL?  How CLOSE?  How WONDERFULLY CLOSE?

But do not forget, then, that the Jesus who came RIGHT INTO this dark pit to rescue you, is also the one who said, "For judgment I came into the world...!”
  and when He shall come once again on the clouds of heaven,
  we shall not be able to tell Him any fancy stories,
  for He has been CLOSE, yes, RIGHT IN IT, to have a look at it.
  He knows what's going on... from close range,
            as the Holy Spirit is still here... right here...!

One thing is sure, though: with this God, so close and so real, we may talk.
Abraham did.
He knew now what the Lord was going to do in Sodom...
            and he shuddered.  And he did more.

As we see in this most remarkable piece of conversation, this prayer of Abraham, where he BARTERS WITH THE LORD GOD about the righteous in Sodom.

* * * * * *

This prayer which is as your and my prayer may be today: so humble, and yet so bold.

Yes, humble first of all.

Abraham trembles before God, and says:
  "O Holy Lord, I venture to approach Thee, I who am but dust and ashes...!"

Brother, sister: how long ago is it that you prayed like that... and meant it?

For only HE may be bold in prayer, who knows how to be HUMBLE; humble down into the very dust.

Jacob was.  He knew his sin.
That's why JACOB could still wrestle with God and say,
            "I do not let Thee go unless Thou bless me...!”

Oh, the prayer that pleads not MY OWN goodness, MY OWN best attempts to live a decent life...!

Oh, the prayer that knows how to be but dust and ashes, and that pleads mercy alone!  The prayer which, like Abraham's, builds not on OUR virtues, but the virtues of GOD!

Hear how Abraham argues...!

Not: "Lot deserves to be given a chance".

But: "Lord, what about YOUR righteousness, YOUR fairness?  Shall the righteous die with the sinner?  Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?  How else can it be?"

Oh, that is strong argumentation.

Moses was to use it too, later on:
            "Lord" he would say -
            "Lord, what will the heathen say
              when You in anger wipe out your people?
             What about YOUR glory, now?
   Not unto us, Lord, not unto us,
   but to THY NAME give glory
   for the sake of THY righteousness and truth...!"

He who takes refuge in the virtues and promises of the Lord, takes refuge in a very strong tower!

He has the argument with which to convince the Lord!

This happened with Abraham.

But note: In this prayer, Abraham became more and more humble.
Also in BOLD prayer – when we REALLY talk with the Lord –
            we come down to deeper humility.

First Abraham thought: "There may be 50 righteous in Sodom.”
A bad state of affairs, but, after all it could be worse with human nature.

But, as he stood before the Holy God, he realized not even fifty, most likely.... not even 45, not even 40, not even 30, not even 20...!  Lord, what if there are only TEN?
And the smoke next morning told Abraham: No: not even ten...!

It is as if we hear the Bible in that thrice-repeated word: There is NO-ONE that doeth good, NO, NOT EVEN ONE...!

Only ONE RIGHTEOUS we find here on earth...!

Only ONE worthy to take the scroll and break open its seals.  Only One, and Him we crucified!

For the sake of ten, Sodom would have been saved;
  and FOR THE SAKE OF THE ONE – oh wonder of wonders –
            THE WORLD WILL BE SAVED,
            WHOEVER BELIEVES WILL BE SAVED;
            A NEW EARTH WILL RISE UP ...BECAUSE OF THE ONE.

BECAUSE OF THE ONE, ABRAHAM WAS SAVED...
 and - as Abraham found out later – because of that One... Lot was saved, too!

Yes, God hears prayer all right!

But the prayer He really DID hear was better than that of Abraham;

It was the prayer of the Only High Priest, pleading for sinners, pleading for you and for me, right now!

Peter says it: the righteous is saved – but ONLY JUST!
And Paul talks about people who will be saved “AS THROUGH FIRE".

The closer God comes to this world, the more clearly we shall see it:
  O God, who am I that I may stand before Thee?
  I am but dust and ashes.

But whoever pleads God's justice, as Luther did,
            saying to Him, "JESUS DIED FOR ME;
              and, Lord, You are righteous, aren't You?
            You shall not ask from my hand
              the sin which He wiped out in His blood.
            Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

Whoever discovers the wonder of the virtues of God will discover what Mahalia Jackson discovered with tears in her eyes: "My God is real!"
            and he will know the secret of talking with his Lord
              in deep humility AND in godly fear,
            as well as in lasting joy:
                        "My God, how wonderful Thou art!"

He will fear the judgement of this God, which goes and will continue to go over this world, and will call sinners to the Only Righteous Saviour before it is too late.

Amen.