The word access is a technical word in the New Testament.
It refers to the fact that you and I, through Jesus Christ, are guaranteed an introduction
and an entrance into the very presence of God, so that we have freedom to speak in His
presence.
I hope that today's study from Genesis 18, showing the interaction between Abraham and
God, will stir all of us to see prayer for what it is, an incredible privilege, filled
with potential more than we can possibly imagine.
It truly is.
I hope that will grip our hearts this morning, that we will see that prayer is an incredible
privilege and that it is filled with potential.
We can't even imagine the kinds of power that can be released if you and I will commit
ourselves to prayer.
I'm going to begin reading in verse 16 of Genesis 18.
Recall that Abraham had some visitors who came and gave to him the promise of the birth
of a son.
Verse 16 says, Then the men rose up from there and looked down toward Sodom.
You have to understand and see in your mind the geography to appreciate this.
For Sodom was down.
It was down in the valley of the Dead Sea.
The lowest spot on the face of the earth, and where Abraham was, was up in the mountains.
And so they literally were able to look down into that valley toward Sodom.
And Abraham was walking with them to send them off.
And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?
What we have here in these few verses now seems to be a reflective passage.
That is, God is reflecting in his heart regarding this event.
And Moses, who writes these words, is given this information for us.
God says, Since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all
the nations of the earth will be blessed.
For I have chosen him in order that he may command his children and his household after
him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, in order that the Lord may bring
upon Abraham what he has spoken about him.
Notice that God is speaking here confidently about his servant that he will teach his children
to do what?
Righteousness and justice.
And in doing so to keep the way of the Lord.
Now we go back to the narrative where it says, And the Lord said to Abraham, the outcry of
Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.
I will go down now and will see if they have done entirely according to its outcry which
has come to me, and if not, I will know it.
Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom while Abraham was still standing
before the Lord.
And Abraham came near and said, Wilt thou indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city.
Wilt thou indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous
who are in it?
Far be it from thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that
the righteous and the wicked are treated alike.
Far be it from thee.
Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?
So the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare
the whole place on their account.
And Abraham answered and said, Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although
I am but dust and ashes.
Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five.
Wilt thou destroy the city because of the five?
And he said, I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.
And he said to him yet again, Suppose forty are found there.
And he said, I will not do it on account of the forty.
Then he said, Oh may the Lord not be angry and I shall speak.
Suppose thirty are found there.
And he said, I will not do it if I find thirty there.
And he said, Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord.
Suppose twenty are found there.
And he said, I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.
Then he said, Oh may the Lord not be angry and I shall speak only this once.
Suppose ten are found there.
And he said, I will not destroy it on account of the ten.
And as soon as he had finished speaking to Abraham, the Lord departed and Abraham returned
to his place.
There are some observations that I want to make about prayer.
For what we find here really is a marvelous example, one example, of intercessory prayer
as Abraham prayed for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The first observation I make is this, that prayer is really a conversation with God.
I believe it's a conversation with God in several respects.
In the first place, it's ongoing.
This is not the first time that Abraham and God have spoken to each other.
This time of prayer is because of an ongoing relationship that Abraham had with God.
Secondly, it's a conversation because it's two-way.
Abraham speaks and God speaks.
The thing that I find about my praying and so many of us is this, that our prayers are
one way.
We do most of the talking and very little of the listening to God.
But true prayer is a conversation in which we speak and then we are quiet and we let
God impress our hearts with His Word.
It's a conversation, thirdly, because it's one-on-one.
It's two people here talking, God and the Almighty.
Because of that one-on-one conversation, intimacy in their relationship is the result.
That's how you and your wife gain intimacy, by learning how to converse with one another.
That's how you develop any kind of relationship, by learning to talk and to share.
So it is with God as well.
And then it's a conversation in this respect and I think an important respect.
It is well-mannered.
By that I mean Abraham is respectful.
He is not overly familiar or careless in his speech with God.
He does not look upon God as his good buddy in the sky, even though he was the friend
of God.
Beware of the kind of irreverence that is bred by the ungodly age in which we live.
Abraham was humble.
He was careful with his words.
And I understand that some of this is Asian speak.
It is the way people in the mid-east in that day would speak to a superior and yet see
behind it his attitude, his heart, was humble.
Well, prayer is a conversation with God that you and I carry on too.
A second observation is this.
The prayer is motivated by concern for others is righteous.
Abraham's primary consideration perhaps was for his nephew Lot, who lived in Sodom.
He does not mention Lot by name in this prayer, this conversation with God.
But he knows that Lot is there.
Lot was there because of bad choices that he had made in his life.
But Abraham prays for mercy, not just for Lot, but for the entire city, probably due
to the presence of Lot there.
Sodom was a notoriously evil place, as most of us are aware.
The culture there was tolerant of sexual behavior that was deviant and sinful.
Abraham knew that.
Abraham however knew what God wants all of us to know, that all people matter to God.
All people matter to God.
And so Abraham prays not just for his nephew, but he prays that God may have mercy upon
the city if just ten righteous people could be found.
Now I want to insert at this point just a word regarding how those who are pro-gay interpret
all of this.
So there are theologians that have a particular bias and bent, and that is to extract from
the Bible the negative things that it says about homosexuality.
For example, pro-gay theology argues that the real sin of Sodom was not the sexual sin,
but it was inhospitality.
It was that the people of Sodom were not hospitable to these strangers who in chapter 19, as we
know these angels who came to that city to inspect it so that the Lord might see what
was truly there.
The response to that is that such an interpretation of the text does not adequately deal with
what it says.
God's response in verse 7 when these men come to His house wanting to know the two strangers
is this, please my brothers, do not act wickedly.
You see there's something more here than that they wanted to get to know these two men on
a social basis.
Furthermore, the severity of the judgment tells us that it was not merely inhospitality
that was at fault.
They also try to say that the real problem here was the desire to have to experience
homosexual rape.
That that is why God judged the city.
Well, in fact, it is true that that is what the men of the city wanted to do to these
two angels who came to Lot's house.
But it is interesting that it was not merely a small group, but it was as the text says
in verse 4, all of the city came together, both young and old.
All the people from every quarter came to be a part of this event, which indicates to
us that this culture in Sodom was corrupted, entirely corrupted by perversion.
There was not one single act of rape that is involved here, but this was something that
was a part of the violent city of Sodom.
Other ancient writings and historians, including Philo and Josephus, name same-sex relations
as the dominant characteristic of the city of Sodom.
This is not merely a biblical portrayal of the city.
Even secular history says that is what this city was really focused on.
And then pro-gay theologians try to tell us that the real sins of the city were those
listed in Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 49, where it speaks of the pride, fullness of bread,
and abundance of idleness, and failure to strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy.
That it was those kinds of sins that caused God to judge Sodom.
Well, again, there is some truth here in that the city was characterized by those sins,
but this is only partly true.
There was no concern for the oppressed, despite the prosperity of the city.
But history makes it clear that the main character of the city was found in its same-sex activity.
The very next verse in Ezekiel 16 goes on to say, thus they, the people of Sodom, were
haughty and committed abominations before me.
Therefore, says the Lord, I removed them when I saw it.
This word abomination refers in some places to idols and the practices associated with
idols.
Or it is used elsewhere of that which destroys societies and families.
Those things are abominations to God, and that's what was happening in the city of Sodom.
So why was Sodom destroyed?
Because its depravity finally got to the point that it was ripe for the judgment of God.
The extremity of its corruption was denoted by the combination of its various sins, social
as well as sexual.
Abraham, in his prayer, did not argue that God was unfair to Judge Sodom.
Do you notice that?
He merely pleads for mercy because of the presumed presence of a few righteous people.
Even a minority, even a remnant of righteous people, would have the effect of saving the
city from the judgment of God.
Notice how much value God places upon just a few righteous people in a society, in a
company, in a neighborhood.
You as one individual make a difference where you are because of who you are.
I have to quickly go on to my third observation, and that is the prayer, even when rightly
offered, is not always answered as we asked.
Abraham's intercession was for the sparing of the city.
If just ten righteous people could be found, presumably they could not be found, and therefore
God answered Abraham's prayer by delivering Lot and his family, at least his two daughters
ultimately, delivering them while at the same time going ahead with the judgment upon the
city.
I need to note here with you that Lot, though he was delivered from Sodom, paid a terrible
price for his choice as a believer in Almighty God to live for the world of his day.
We see the progression early on in Genesis when Lot pitches his tent toward Sodom.
That is so that when he got up in the morning he would open his tent and there would be
Sodom down in the valley below him.
Then he moved to the outskirts of Sodom, and now by this time, years later, he is living
in the city and is even one of the leaders of the city, being a judge who sits at the
gate to hear cases.
He made a choice to live for the world.
As a result of that, though he was a righteous man, and although the judgment of God did
not fall upon that city until he was taken out, we see that he lost everything that he
lived for.
He lost his daughter's fiancés.
He lost his wife, who so fell in love with Sodom that she turned around to see the destruction
and was consumed in it.
Then there was the disgraceful, shameful, incestuous relationship with his daughters
that produced two whole people groups who became enemies of Abraham's descendants, the
Moabites and the Ammonites.
All of this is in chapter 19, which we don't have time to read this morning.
Lot's presence delayed judgment, but his compromises left him with no ability to influence others
for good, even his sons-in-law, to be.
When he went to warn them to flee the city, they mocked him.
They ridiculed him.
Why?
Because his life had no credibility to it.
Powerful lessons for us to learn living in the society that we live in.
Now I have some questions I want to deal with very briefly before I close.
The first question is this, was Abraham showing more mercy than God?
One might almost read it that way, that God is bent on judging this city.
However, God was not ignorant of what was happening in the city and deliberately went
to the city and these two angels to see for himself what was there.
You see, God, who is all-knowing, is not some infinite hard drive who sits up there in the
heavens like a computer.
God knew what was inside of him, and yet he came there himself to view it so that he would
know in that sense what it was all about.
The same kind of an idea, by the way, was Jesus came into our world, the incarnated
God, to experience with us what it means to live in a fallen world and then ultimately
to bear our sins.
Abraham was praying to God, but he was praying in the direction that God wanted him to pray.
Abraham knows that God will always do what is just, and he prays that God will show mercy
as well as justice.
What this tells us is that God does not delight in the death of the wicked, unlike some of
those claiming to be his people.
God does not delight in the death of the wicked.
He desires the wicked to turn back from their evil and their evil ways and to live.
Ezekiel 33, 11.
What we see here is the patience of God, the long-suffering of God, even with a society
that is totally corrupt.
God is not slack concerning his promises, as some men count slackness, but he is long-suffering.
God is patient, not willing that any should perish, not desirous that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
I believe that one purpose of this being recorded is so that we might see demonstrated God's
desire to show mercy.
The second question is this, does prayer change God's mind?
This is a debated topic in our day, especially in our cities.
Does prayer change God's mind?
Does God change?
Was God here persuaded to do other than what he intended to do?
Well, first I would call upon you to note that destruction did come upon the cities.
Even in the conversation with Abraham, God knew what was going to happen.
God was not surprised by the count down there in Sodom, by what he found.
God always acts consistently with his nature.
Now, to us, from our human perspective, God may appear to change his course of actions
at times.
And so the Bible speaks of God repenting.
And yet, God always changes his course of action when man changes his attitude toward
God so that then God can, consistent with his character, act differently.
God himself does not change.
It is man who changes, and thus God can deal with man according to man's heart.
Thus the Ninevites, for example, were spared, at least for a time, because in their hearts
they repented from their sin, and God relented of the judgment he was bringing on them in
that day of Jonah.
God here was not surprised that ten righteous were not found, although he was grieved by
it.
And so to quickly sum it up, the exchange here reveals God's patience and his long
suffering with sinners.
It just gripped my heart this week as I studied this that God was willing even to spare Sodom
and Gomorrah had only ten righteous persons been found.
It brings me to this concluding statement, that is that the God who purposed the ends
of all things has included in his purpose the means to those ends, which includes our
prayers.
Abraham's intercession was not wasted.
It was not needless.
It played a role in the drama of the destiny of these cities.
Our prayers, likewise, play a role in God's plan.
When you pray, you are not overcoming God's reluctance, nor are you persuading God to
do other than he intends.
But your prayers offered in the Spirit do lay hold of God's promises, and they advance
the purposes of God.
And so today I want to call upon all of us to renew the value that we give to prayer
and to deepen our own personal commitment to pray, to see it for the privilege that
it is, to grasp the potential that there is in prayer, to join God in his work.
There is more power in prayer than you and I can possibly imagine.
As we deepen our commitment to pray, we need to remember that it is a conversation with
God.
We need to pray with righteous motives.
We need to pray trusting God with the outcome of it all.
Oswald Chambers made a striking statement, it's really a question, regarding prayer
when he asked, would your praying be different if the Lord were on his knees beside you?
Well let that picture soak down into your heart of Jesus being on his knees beside you
and how that would affect your prayers.
I urge you to be one who will pray, pray for spiritual renewal.
Back on anniversary Sunday we talked about be one, win one, help one in this year of
ministry.
We talked about being one who would pray for spiritual renewal.
I hope that God would lay upon your heart and mind to pray as never before.
There are a couple of ways in which we can be involved in that.
One is by being a part of the Twin Cities Sacred Assembly.
There's a flyer in your bulletin this morning about it.
It will be held at the state capitol on May the 7th for an hour and a half on that evening.
Thousands of Christians from across the Twin Cities and the state of Minnesota will gather
at our state capitol to pray.
I sense that it will be something like what the Washington rally was with Promise Keepers
last October.
A time for us to come before God as God's people and to pray in the spirit of Abraham
who prayed for Sodom and Gomorrah.
If God would do what he would for Sodom and Gomorrah will he not do for us something similar?
Then there's a second way that I want to exhort you to be involved and that is by joining
what I'm calling the I-Team, the Intercessory Team.
A team of people within Grace Church who will pray for the ministry of this church at least
three times a week after the benediction.
Greg Mockler who's sitting right over here is going to be right there to take the names
of those of you who would say by the grace of God I want to be a part of the I-Team and
pray for the ministry of Grace Church of Roosevelt.
And he has a prayer list there that will get you started.
Six or seven items that will help you to know how to pray right now specifically for the
ministry of our church.
I pray that God will awaken our hearts to see prayer in a new way because of Abraham's
example.
Let's bow together.
We're going to close by singing a chorus that I think most of you know, Spirit of the
Living God Fall Fresh on Me.
I'm going to sing that in just a moment and let's sing it from our hearts.
Oh Father, I pray that Abraham's intercessory prayer for the ungodly city of Sodom would
awaken our eyes to see how we need to be praying for America, a nation given to some of the
very same kinds of sins that Sodom and the cities in that region were.
God break our hearts, take away the self-righteousness and the judgmental attitude that we so often
have and help us to see that people matter to you.
And give us hearts of prayer for them.
Sing with me.
Spirit of the Living God Fall Fresh on Me.
Let's stand together please.
Spirit of the Living God Fall Fresh on Me.
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.
Spirit of the Living God Fall Fresh on Me.
Lord fall fresh upon us in our prayer lives.
Melt us and mold us.
Fill us and use us in our prayers.
That we may make a difference and pray like Abraham and live as righteous people in the
midst of a generation like that of Sodom and Gomorrah with a compassion to reach those
who are lost.
In Christ's name I pray, amen.
You are dismissed.