Apply Within

Bob Davis: Remember Egypt is a type of the world. When the children of Israel are set free out of Egypt, they start to complain there is not enough food here and they want to go back to Egypt. That is what Christians do. We forget what we are all about and we want to go back to the world where there is more money to be made. People say they have a lot more fun than we do. I do not think so, but it depends on what you call fun.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply His word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible. Our study continues in Genesis Chapter 13 as Abraham and Lot separate and God reaffirms His covenant promise to Abraham. Here is Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: So now they head back to the promised land and that is where we start in Chapter 13. Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, his nephew, into the south. They left Egypt, going up north and headed to the southern part of Israel. The land of Canaan is what it is called.

Abram was very rich. How did he get that way? He lied. He lied and so the leader of the area there, the Egyptians, paid Abraham handsomely for his beautiful wife and he made Abram rich. So he went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the south. Abram, in verse two, was very rich in cattle, wait, and silver and gold. They gave him money. They paid a lot for that girl.

He went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first. There Abram called on the name of the Lord. Okay, I like it. His faith faltered. Yours does too, and mine does too. It happens. Watch Peter and you see it happen right before your very eyes. He said, 'I would never do this. I would never do that.' Then he falls straight on his face. Abraham repented. That is what the language is basically saying here as he left Egypt. He repented. He is turning back to do what?

Is the famine over? No. He got kicked out of the land he was in. Now what is he going to have to do? Turn back to God, confess and say, 'I need food. There is a famine. I should have stayed here and trusted You, but I am coming back, Lord.' He repented. He goes up out of Egypt and they head back to the land of promise, the place they should have stayed in in the first place.

I know I do that. I have done it. Have you done it? You go back to the world for a little bit of a helping hand here and there and not forgetting God, just getting a little help. That is how we do it and we try to justify it, but Abram did not have to do that. He cost himself quite a bit of witness. His faith shook. It was shaken but not gone. He should have never strayed from that place. Everybody remember this saying: back to Bethel. That is where he went, back to Bethel. That was the place where he built an altar to worship God. He is coming back to God, kind of like a prodigal son. They are coming back.

Abram's faith faltered. He sinned. He should not have left but we are just like that. A little pressure, a little stress, a little 'I am not sure we are going to make it,' and we will turn from God instead of trusting in Him and start to come up with our own ways to make a living, our own ways to do this, our own ways to that. Abraham left Egypt and he turned back to God. That is what we call repentance. He turned back to Bethel, back to fellowship with the Lord again.

He was out of fellowship. He still belonged to the Lord, but he was out of fellowship. He had sinned. He needed to repent and he did. He turned back and he came back to the Lord right to that first place where he built an altar. So look at verse five. Now they are in the promised land and he is now in fellowship walking with the Lord. He went back to the place of worship. He offers to the Lord, he prays.

Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents. He got rich down there too. In verse six, the land was not able to bear them. Lot and Abram and their families were so rich they were grazing up the land too quickly. The land could not handle it because their herds and flocks were so huge. They have got a lot of servants, you have got to feed them. Lot's got some tents and everything else you will see that coming up.

The land was not able to bear them that they might dwell together for their substance was great so that they could not dwell together. Now their family and now the family has got a problem and they brought it on themselves. Families have problems just by being families, trust me. They just do. But they brought this specific problem on themselves. It was not this way before and it was great and God had it under control but we had to fix it and they fixed it.

The land was not able to bear them that they might dwell together for their substance was great so that they could not dwell together. In verse seven, there was a strife. Strife does not mean just yelling back and forth. It means fisty-cuffs. It means arguing and fighting. There was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle. And everyone, the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.

That seems to come out of nowhere but it is something that is important. Abram said to Lot, 'Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and you. We cannot fight like this and between my herdmen and your herdmen for we are' the language is, 'we are family, Christians. We are family. You may not like us, but we are brothers and sisters. And now they are fighting. There is fighting in the family. We did not have that before, but God bless them they do now.'

Abram says, 'Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself, I pray thee, from me. I am asking you to leave. I have too much stuff. You have too much stuff. We cannot walk together like this anymore. I pray you, separate from me. If you will take the left hand, I will go to the right. You depart to the right hand and I will go to the left.'

Lot lifted up his eyes and he beheld, or he took note of, all the plain of Jordan, the valley of Jordan out there, that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. That is interesting. Even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as thou comest unto Zoar. So he looked at that then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan and Lot journeyed East and they separated themselves the one from another.

Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. All right, trouble. Abram was made rich by that lie he told. That was not his plan, that just came out of it. He told the lie and the one that is called Pharaoh here, the one in charge, he paid him a crazy amount.

Huge bunch of donkeys and cattle and sheep and goats and maid servants and men servants and silver and gold. He loaded them up. He paid a fortune for Abraham's wife thinking it was his sister. Abram gained, had gained, many more herds and flocks and servants and silver and gold while down there in Egypt. So did his nephew Lot.

Now it may seem like a blessing but they have a burden on their hands. There are so many animals and so large and so much stuff that they are grazing the land down to the dirt. Because of the huge flocks and herds, they were actually now in each other's way, the Bible says. That is what Abram is saying. The herdmen of Lot started fighting and arguing, physically fighting and arguing, with the herdmen of Abram. They argued and fought over pasture land. We need more land. You need to move your stuff, get away from here. There is a fight going on, physical fight.

Keep in mind, God did not stick this in here just because Moses thought, 'Oh yeah, let me tell you it was the Canaanites and Perizzites.' No, there is a reason. The Canaanites are perverts anonymous. You name it, they worshiped it. They had bizarre sexual rituals and some of the sexual rituals included the animals and so that was why when God would send the armies in, He would say, 'Destroy the animals as well. Do not keep them alive.' They have got diseases and things and it was a mess, the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

Why would God bring it up here? Because family is fighting each other but who is watching? The perverts in the land who worship the trees and the God of the moon. They are watching the witness of these two followers of the one true God and they are going, 'We are better off than they are. We are doing the right thing.' In other words, it is driving them away from paying attention to the one true God. That witness drives the perverts further away. Think about that.

People do not get it. When Christians argue and fight, understand this: the Canaanites and the Perizzites are watching. The world out there, practicing whatever thing that you say is filthy, foul, gross, yet the Christians have a pitiful witness and they are not thinking about it. James 3:16: 'Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.' You are jealous, you do not like that girl over there because of... you do not like that guy, you do not like those kind. You are jealous of people.

Where there is envy and strife, James writes, there is confusion and every evil work. Paul rebukes the Corinthians over and over for being so carnal. We are the witness to the rest of the world. Abram is following the one true God. Lot is a believer and a follower of the one true God, but right now they are making God look just like one of the other perverted gods out there.

Look, you have got a lot of stuff, I have got a lot of stuff. We cannot fight. Abraham, in humility, tells Lot we have to do something. We have to separate because this is no good. You are my family, I will not fight with you. This is no good. Look all around. Look, the whole land is before you. Choose the place you want to go. Choose the place you would like, just look around and pick the place you like and I will tell you what I will do. If you go left, I will go right. If you go right, I will go left. If you go up, I will go down. It does not matter. I will let you, I will put you ahead of me, and you do this.

Now, if you go through the Old Testament and the New, you are going to find that the younger should submit to the older. I realize not in America anymore, but according to God's word, yes, that the younger would submit to the elder. But not in this case. The elder is the one who is going to humble himself. Lot should be going, 'No, look, you know what, man? No. You are right, Uncle Abram. You pick the spot you want to go and I will go the other way.' But he does not do that because he believes in the Lord but he is walking, everybody, in the flesh.

So Abram has to be the one. He tells Lot, 'You look around. We have got the whole land.' How do I know? God said we do. We have it all. You choose. Wherever you go, I will go the other way. I will get out of your way and you pick, you pick the best, you pick whatever you want and I will take what is left.' That is humility. Philippians 2:3 and 4: 'Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Do not look every man on his own stuff, on his own situation, on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.'

Abram says to Lot, 'I want you to be blessed. Go. Pick whatever you want and it is yours.' Out upon that land, just from there all the way around, and he saw, let me say it again, he looked, he saw, and he chose. He did not pray about it. Though Lot trusted in the Lord, notice something: he is walking by sight, not by faith. He is walking by, 'Oh, that would be the best place.' Why? Well, because it is the greenest, it is the wettest, it is the most beautiful, it is the most lush, it is producing the most. That is a no-brainer. Whenever I hear no-brainer, I automatically think you better pray about it, Bob. If someone tells you something is a no-brainer, pray about it.

Just like Abram's faith faltered, right here, Lot's faith is faltering. He is not even thinking about what is important. Look what he does. He looked upon the land, he saw it, he chose it. He was trusting God, yes, but he was walking by sight. Abram is walking in faith, trusting the Lord God would take care of him. Remember, he just walked out of the will of God and it cost him dearly. He got in trouble. He is not about to try it again. 'You do what you want to do. I am just going to do whatever God tells me to do.'

That is the way I believe all of us Christians should be. I want to do what God wants me to do because people give me advice constantly. 'Why don't you do this? Why don't you do that?' It sounds like a great idea, but God needs to tell me to do that or not do it. So the heart of the problem is the problem in every heart. Lot's heart was centered on his own well-being, the wealth. He has got a lot of wealth. He was not rich before, now he is. He kind of won the lottery by going to Egypt.

He is centered on wealth, he is centered on worldly possession and it looks like he is centered on his own accomplishments. While Abram, what he wants to do now is, 'Lord, whatever You tell me to do, I just want to please God.' You know who is going to turn out smelling like a rose even though Abram is going to have a rougher life than Lot did for a little while? It is going to turn out to be Abram, the wise one, trusting in God for everything. Only his road will be a little rougher.

He will not own any of the land. The only piece of the land that he owns before he dies is the cave at Machpelah where he buried Sarai years and years and years from now. He had to pay for the land even though it was his because God gave it to him. But he trusted God. That is why he buried her there. That is why he was buried there. Because the land is his, God promised him, and so in faith they did that.

He pitches his tent toward Sodom. That means not in it, but a little ways away so he can do some trading in the big city. He can make a lot of money that way. Now the next time we see him, he will not be near Sodom. He will be in it and holding a place of a judge or position of authority in the city. You start playing with fire and soon you are in the big middle of it. Not you and me, we are always going to be smart. No we are not. We are going to be just like Lot. The reputation of Sodom and Gomorrah even then was that the people were wicked, sinning greatly before the Lord, literally in the eyes of the Lord. Sinning greatly in our language means sinning extremely before the eyes of the Lord.

Verse 14: 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. Just look, anywhere you look right now, just look up and look around. For all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your seed forever.' That does not just mean until the world is over. That means eternally. They will always own that land. God is going to make a new earth, a new heaven and a new earth, and Israel will have their land for all eternity.

Verse 15: 'For the land which you see, to you I will give it and to your seed forever.' Verse 16: 'And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Get up, arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it and I will give it to you.' Abram removed his tent and he came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and there he built another altar to the Lord.

He is walking with God now. Worship, staying in fellowship, just walking with the Lord every day. I will give it to you and to your children forever, for all eternity. It has never belonged to the Palestinians. It has always belonged to Israel. They have been there for near 3,000 years. They were gone for a couple thousand but they are back. In faith only I believe Abraham could let Lot choose whatever he wanted. That took faith in God. 'God, You promised it to me, but this is not working out and it is a lousy witness and I do not want to fight with my own family. Lot, choose what you want and go and I will just take something else. You take the best, just take what you take.'

You see, that is the way we are walking today, or should be, in the promises of God, the sure promise of the word of God. I wonder how much we actually depend on the Bible, on God's word and on God Himself? Or do we just have this 401k and everything is fine? Or do we just have this something and we could always sell it and now we have got money rapidly? Are we trusting in our own abilities or are we trusting in God and His word, which is always sure?

The sure promises of God's word. Dr. Wolvert wrote this: 'A person who has the promise of God's provision never has to cling to things.' I will say it again, I like that. 'A person who has the promises of God's provision never has to cling to things.' Why? We have got God's promise. 'I will never leave you and never forsake you.' That is what He says to everyone that belongs to Him. He will never leave you, never forsake you. Do you think you are going to be all right?

We have God's promises. Do you believe God's promises? Do you take Him at His word? Or is this just a nice book to read and it is nice to go to church and some of the people I like and some I do not? Do you really believe you will be in heaven? Why? Because He said you would be. You have never been there, you do not know how to get there. The only way to get there is through Jesus Christ, but you believe you are going to be there, true? And you believe your sins are forgiven completely. Why would they be? Because Jesus, God Almighty, shed His blood for all sins, mine and yours and anybody who will surrender to Jesus Christ and say, 'Count me in,' and in He washes your sin away and you know it. Why? You have the sure promise of the word of God.

The devil tries to use circumstances to cause you to trust in yourself. God uses circumstances to test us and to draw us closer to Him. Same circumstance can get you in trouble or the same circumstance could draw you nearer and nearer to God Himself, depending upon whether we walk in the flesh or in faith.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is a radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are at 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM. You can download today's message in its entirety at NorthCountryChapel.com/studies. That is NorthCountryChapel.com/studies.

If you would like a copy of today's message, write to us and ask for the message with today's date. The address is Apply Within, 2281 West Seltice, Post Falls, Idaho 83854, or call us at 1-800-572-8851. That number again: 1-800-572-8851.

Our mobile app is available for iPhone and Android. Download it to listen to full-length studies, watch the live stream of our services, or to find out more about church events. If you have been blessed by the teaching or have prayer requests that you would like to share with us, write, email, or call us as well. Please join with us every Monday through Friday as we study together verse by verse on Apply Within, sponsored by North Country Chapel.