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Bob Davis: Every time you hand out a bulletin or you stand behind that counter and help people with their lost and found and every time you do anything at all to serve one of God's people, you are serving the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And no matter how tired you get, you just never get tired enough, do you? I'll sit some other time, I'll eat some other time, I'll rest some other time.

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. Beginning in Genesis Chapter 18, three visitors arrive and Sarah overhears something unbelievable. Here's Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: Now we're going to go into Chapter 18, and I want you to know that Chapter 18 is not long, not long at all after the events of Chapter 17. Chapter 18, verse one: "And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he (Abraham) sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; and he lifted up his eyes and looked and lo, three men stood by him."

The language means three men were walking toward his tent. And when he saw them—now this man is 99 years old—he got up and he ran to meet them from the tent door and he bowed himself toward the ground. In humility, perfect strangers. Well, not perfect. One of them is, as you'll see what I mean, but he doesn't know them from anyone. But look at the respect this man—this man is very, very wealthy. This man has his own army. This is Abraham. And he bows down and he says, "My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant."

So not long after God promised him and gave them that ritual of circumcision in the flesh, not long after the events of Chapter 17, three men come by and they're walking near Abraham's tent. Abraham and Sarah. So they stop, it looks like they're coming to visit. We're told they're at the plains of Mamre, and as you recall, the way you look at it today if you were looking at a map, it's about 22 miles south of the city of Jerusalem. So that gives you an idea of where they're at if you look at your Bible maps.

Well, out there in the Middle East, scorching hot, usually starting around noonish. Well, the heat of the day is what the Bible calls noonish for just a little while. So Abraham is not out working, probably none of his folks. Remember, he's got a lot of servants and so forth. They're all probably sitting in the shade of their tents because it's the hottest part of the day and it's difficult even for the animals. You have to make sure the animals have plenty of water. So they're sitting in the shade of his tent—Abraham is—at the tent door and he's just looking out. He's just looking across. It's wide open. There's no city there. He's not in a city, he's just out.

And he looks and he sees three men approaching. And some say, you know how Christians are, we'll debate this really because we just have nothing else to do. God wants us to serve, but sometimes you just don't feel like it. So instead of serving, we're sitting around arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a straight pin. Do angels bowl? The things that we think of.

These men are approaching. Now some say one of these men was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Some argue, no it's not. Okay, let's just put the argument to rest right now. Why don't we read the Bible again starting with verse one of Chapter 18: "And the Lord appeared unto him." Who do you think it was? It was probably Elijah. I think it was probably Jeremiah. No, he hadn't been born yet. Who was it, everybody? It was the Lord. You see how easy it is to stop some of these arguments? How embarrassing is that? I don't think it was God. Really? Who do you think it was?

It was the Lord. You and I would call that, if you will, a Christophany, an appearance of Jesus Christ before His birth. He took upon Himself human flesh and He looked just like one of the other two men. By the way, the other two men are angels. We see that as we walk on and read and go into Chapter 19. So there's nothing to argue about here really. So I would suggest, stop it. Take God at His Word. It makes it so much easier, doesn't it?

It's an appearance of Jesus Christ. Abraham jumps up. Now he doesn't know who these three are, right? He just sees three strangers. That is what servants do. That is what a minister would do. And we are all to be the minister. All true believers are the minister of everybody else. We are the servants of everybody else. Not just the guys and the girls in ministry, but all of us are in the ministry.

And when Paul, you look in Ephesians, you look through Galatians and you see that a pastor-teacher's job is to teach. God gifts them to teach so that the people learn and grow and do the work of the ministry. We've got it all upside down here in America. That's all, just upside down. So Abraham jumps up. He's 99. I'll say it again. He's 99 years old. How do you feel at 60? You don't jump up and do anything. You think about it quite a ways before you just jump right up there.

He jumps up and he goes out to meet those men, doesn't know who they are, to invite them into the shade of his tent. Come under the covering. If you've been out in the desert or in very, very warm places, you know that it might be 100 degrees out there, but you'll step in under a little cover and it's like the temperature drops 20 degrees. And if there's a breeze you think, "It's not bad today." He hurries out to meet them. "It's hot out there, come inside under the shade and rest yourselves," basically he's going to tell them.

Abraham does not know yet that one of these men is God Almighty that is talking to him, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Do you remember Hebrews in the New Testament, Chapter 13? Isn't every Christian warned here in verses one and two? It's not a warning, it's a reminder if you will. Let brotherly love continue. Okay, well I loved last week, I was a Christian and I loved people. Today I hate people. No, it's going to continue on. We love because that's what our Lord does. We're becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. We love people. They don't have to love us back. And trust me, they don't love us back at times. That doesn't change what we do, does it?

We love them. That's what we do because that's what Jesus does to me and for you. That's what we do and that's what we're about. So let brotherly love continue. Do not be forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Abraham does not know the two of these are angels, really does not know the one is the Lord. He just knows it's hot out there and there's nothing around for miles and miles.

He's out there in nowhere. He's got huge herds and flocks, so they're way from anything built. He's just got a tent, a few tents going on. And so he goes and says, "Please get yourselves cool." Have you ever been around an angel? You don't know, do you? And they don't show up with wings and clean bowling shoes like some people teach. They look just like everybody else. They could look homeless, they could look like a billionaire. They could look anyway that you want them to look.

So look, how about verse four? He says this: "Let a little water," remember he has already said, "My Lord, if now I have found favor in your sight," verse three, "don't go, keep going. Don't pass my place. Stop, I pray thee from thy servant. Let a little water, I pray you be fetched and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree." So there are some pretty good-sized trees there. "And I will fetch a morsel of bread and comfort ye your hearts. After that you can head on. You can then go on where you're headed. I don't know where you're going, I don't know where you're coming from, but you can go on where you're headed. For therefore are you come to your servant."

What did he call himself? Their servant. He is rich. Remember how rich he is? He is powerful. He's got his own army and it's growing, and he is a very wealthy man. And he humbles himself at 99 years old and says, "I'm your servant." And they said, "So do as you have said." He said, "Please stay. Please stay and let me go get water to wash your feet. Let me make you some food, let's get some food in front of you here. I want to just do that." And they say, "Okay, go for it. Thank you, go for it."

And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah. He ran in there, he hurried. And he said, "Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it and make cakes upon the earth." You know what I say? Fresh baked bread. "Sarah, would you make, I know it's hot this afternoon, we've got three guests, would you make some of your homemade bread you make?" And then Abraham runs to the herd. Man, this guy's good. 99 years old. Keep that in your head. And he fetched a calf. That's what you want to do when you celebrate everybody. Notice it's not a little sheep, it's a calf.

Abraham runs to the herd, fetched a calf tender and good and he gave it to a young man and he hasted to dress it. "Take care of this, butcher this calf. We're going to have prime rib and fresh homemade bread." I would have loved to have been there myself. And he took butter and milk, cool milk, cold milk, and the calf which he had dressed and he set it before them and he—mark this down—he stood by them under the tree as they ate.

What's wrong with standing there while they ate? Nothing, is it? He could sit down. He's rich, he's got the servant. "Come on guys, everybody come on over. Hey, make sure he has more stuff. Hey, make sure we're not running low on that." He stands there. But you know those servants are keeping an eye on everything, but who's watching? Who's overseeing? And who's ready to get them anything they need? Father Abraham.

He says, "Come in, let your servant do this for you. Stay, sit in the coolness of the shade. I'm going to get some water so you can refresh yourselves. It's dusty roads, it's hot. You can wash the dust off your feet. Comfort your hearts." In American we say this: sit down and relax a bit. "You've got to be tired, you're walking in this heat. I don't know how far you've walked but there's nothing out here. You've walked a long way as far as I can tell. Come in, sit down, take your shoes off. We'll get some water, we'll rinse your feet off, that'll cool you right down. And come on in and comfort your hearts, relax a bit from your journey. Sit for a while, rest. Take it easy. We'll feed you some lunch. You can relax a while here and then when you're ready to, it's up to you, then you can go on your way. But please stay." And the three men say, "Thank you very much, we'll stop, we'll stay."

And he asks his wife, "Would you please make some fresh bread, homemade bread?" And then Abraham himself hurries out to the flock, personally chooses one of the calves. A good one, right? Gives it to the servant and says, "Prepare this. Prime rib coming up for these men." Got some butter for the bread? That would be good. Maybe even a little honey, maybe. Whatever. Some cool milk. Now I'm hungry.

And Abraham stood. Why would you stand? I think many of you know why, because you'd want to just in case if I've forgotten something or maybe there's something they might need or I think of something, I'm going to go get it. I'm not going to say, "Hey, would you do this? Would you do this?" I'm going to run over there and I'm going to grab it. Don't you do that? I think many of you do. You just don't give it any thought. That's Abraham. That's what he's doing.

He served these three men personally. God Almighty. He is serving God Almighty. God didn't tell him to, didn't command him to. He is serving the Lord Jesus. And each time you serve someone else, you're serving the Lord Jesus, aren't you? And you want to. No matter how you feel. You could be tired and feel like, "I've got to sit down now," but you say, "I can go a little longer. Let's just do this. Make sure everybody's got something to eat. Make sure they eat too much because some of them don't get to eat a lot sometimes." Just make sure that they're doing good. And that's what Abraham's doing. And that's what we want to be like when we grow up.

He could have let his servants take care of everything. He could have sat there and said, "Everybody, do your thing. I'm just going to talk to these men. I'm important and they're probably important and..." No, not Abraham. He personally served those three men. He doesn't know what they're about. He doesn't know anything. Who cares what they're about? He personally served them. Lessons for me and you. He picks up on it pretty quickly as they start talking. He doesn't realize that one is the Lord God Almighty and the other two are angels. He is personally serving Jesus.

And every time you hand out a bulletin or you stand behind that counter and help people with their lost and found and every time you do anything at all to serve one of God's people, you are serving the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And no matter how tired you get, you just never get tired enough, do you? I'll sit some other time. I'll eat some other time. I'll rest some other time. And that's Abraham at 99 years old. I can't even imagine that.

He didn't sit down until his guests were completely finished with their meal. Then he could sit and fellowship with them. Don't overlook Abraham's humility and his age. The lessons, my goodness, the lessons we can learn. I don't want to stay here any longer, but the lessons we could go over with that. He bows down to his guests, he humbly serves his guests. He bows down to them when they come in. He bows down to them and he calls himself their servant. "Let your servant do this for you." This is father Abraham.

He didn't do everything by himself. Mark that, you saw that. He didn't do everything. You can't do everything. I can't. He allowed others to be a part of the blessing. Sarah, she baked the bread. The young man, he dressed the meat. Some of the other servants, they brought the butter, they brought the milk, they got the water and the water basins and all that. You know, we can all, you and me, Abraham too, we can all, if we truly belong to the Lord, if we're born again, we can all serve the Lord if it's in our hearts.

It needs to be in our hearts. You must be born again. And once you're born again, it comes naturally for you. That's just amazing to me. If we have the desire, or let me word it another way: if we have the heart. Abraham has the heart, the heart of a servant. Dr. Moody, D.L. Moody, wrote this. It's very, very famous. You've probably heard it many times, it's quoted all over the place. Dr. Moody said this: "I would rather put ten men to work than do the work of ten men." You find some people, you know, so Abraham's doing his work, he's serving, but he's got others serving as well. We can all serve. All of us that belong to Jesus can serve if we have the heart.

So verse nine. Now they've eaten and they said to him, "Where is Sarah, your wife?" They know Sarah's name too. And Abraham is slowly catching on here. "What? How did you know who I am? And how do you know my... Wow." "Where's Sarah, your wife?" And Abraham said, "She's in the tent, behold, in the tent." And He said—who's He? I'll read verse one again: "And the Lord appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mamre." The Lord Jesus, God Almighty, right there having lunch with Abraham.

He said, "I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and lo, Sarah, your wife, shall have a son." Who told him that already in the last chapter? God said, "Sarah's going to have a baby boy." Remember that? And now here's God saying it again: "I will return to you according to the time of life, almost the same time next year, and Sarah, thy wife, shall have a son." And Sarah heard it in the tent door, meaning she was standing just inside where they can't see her, but listening.

Sarah heard it inside the tent door, which was behind him. So Jesus is facing that way, straight behind him, there's the door and Sarah's back out of the way, listening. Now Abraham and Sarah were old. Yes, that's true, verse 11. And they were well-stricken in age and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. She could not have children. Therefore, because of that, Sarah laughed in her heart, everybody, within herself. She didn't laugh out loud. There was no noise. She laughed within herself in her heart and she even said, "After I am grown old shall I have pleasure, and my Lord also being old? Abraham's too old."

And the Lord said to Abraham, "Wherefore did Sarah laugh?" Hey everybody, she did not laugh out loud. Abraham doesn't know what Jesus is talking about here. "What? Why did your wife laugh?" He heard what she said, everybody, in her heart. What she thought. She never said it out loud. She didn't laugh out loud. You've done it. You've said things in your head. People are standing there and you're going, "Look at that guy, he looks weird," right? God heard that.

And the Lord said unto Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying shall I of a surety bear a child which am old?" And then he asks, and he's asking Abraham, but he's asking Sarah who's behind him there hiding, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Now everybody, that is a rhetorical question, but I don't know, maybe it does deserve an answer. Do you think anything is too hard for the Lord? And you would say no. But you think it. "Well, yeah, God could do anything but it's not going to happen for me." As soon as you said "but," you erased everything, right? Is anything too hard for God? No, nothing's too hard for God, but Sarah is having a bout of unbelief.

Even you and me sometimes have a lapse of faith, don't we? "I don't think God can do it. I better try this. I don't think God can do it. We better start doing that. I don't think God can do it. I think we're going to lose our house. I don't think God can do it. So cancel Christmas," right? "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" And then God, Jesus doesn't stop. He says, "At the time appointed, what I just told you, next year, I will return to you according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son."

So God just said it twice. "Your wife's going to have a baby boy, she's going to have a son." She laughs. "No way," but in her heart. And she even says, "No way." She's thinking but not saying it out loud. God was listening to Sarah and Abraham and he's listening to you and me. "I will return to you according to the time of life and Sarah will have a son." She said, "I can't." So notice, it wasn't her faith doing it. It was what? The power of God and His promise. He made the promise before they even asked him. Get it?

And then good old Sarah, just like I would do, she denied it. Nobody heard her say it, therefore she could say, "I didn't say that." She denied it saying, "I didn't laugh," because she was afraid. And Jesus said, "No, but you did laugh." I would have loved to have seen the look on her face and the look on his. "I didn't laugh." "No, but Sarah you did laugh. It would be best to go make some more bread now, excuse me. I'm going to go make some bread."

What could she say? She just lied straight to God's face. You can't lie to God, He knows. We try. He says—the Lord said to Abram—no I want to go on. Verse 15: Sarah denied saying, "I laughed not," because she was afraid. You know how you just made a fool of yourself even though you didn't do it out loud? God listened and called you on it. And so now you're embarrassed, you're a little bit ashamed, you're afraid. "Oh Lord, I really do love you." Oops. And that's what Sarah did. She was ashamed and Jesus said, "No, you didn't say it. Yes, you did, Sarah. You did laugh."

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 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's 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.