But the Bible reads in Genesis, chapter 12, verse 1,
now the Lord had said unto Abram,
get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father's house, unto a land
that I will show thee.
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee,
and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.
And I will bless them that bless thee,
and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed.
So this, of course, this is Abram
being called to leave Ur of the Chaldees,
to go out of even Haran, and to come all the way into the
promised land, the land that God would show him, into Canaan.
And before I go any further, go to Galatians, chapter 3.
I just want to show you how important it is, quickly,
to let the Bible interpret itself,
and especially to let the New Testament be the commentary
on the Old Testament.
A lot of people take a lot of different interpretations
from Genesis 12, 1 through 3, and all kinds of pages
of man's wisdom has been written about this.
But if we actually read what the Bible says,
we can get a biblical interpretation of this
from Galatians, chapter 3.
It says in Galatians, chapter 3, verse 6,
even as Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted to him for righteousness,
know ye therefore that they which are of faith,
the same are the children of Abraham.
And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify
the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel
unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed.
Now, back in Genesis 12, he said,
I will bless them that bless thee,
and curse him that curseth thee,
and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
That's all one sentence.
And what's funny is that the Bible very clearly
takes that last part about all families of the earth
being blessed in Abraham,
all nations of the earth being blessed in Abraham.
This is worded a few different ways
when we see it in Genesis 12, Genesis 15, Genesis 22,
where these promises are being reiterated unto Abraham.
It's amazing how people will take the first half
of the verse and say, I'll bless him that bless thee,
and curse him that curseth thee,
and apply that to the physical nation of Israel.
And then the last part is clearly referring
to the Lord Jesus Christ and the spiritual children
of Abraham.
And over and over again, the Bible says in Galatians
that it's the children of faith
that are the real children of Abraham,
not his physical descendants.
Look if you would at verse 16, it says,
now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
He saith not unto seeds as of many,
but as of one and to thy seed, which is Christ.
Jump down to verse 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek.
There is neither bond nor free.
There is neither male nor female,
for you're all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed
and heirs according to the promise,
nothing could be clearer than the Bible's teaching
in Galatians 3 on this subject.
Go back, if you would, to Genesis 12.
That's a whole sermon in and of itself,
but I just wanted to stop and point that out
as we go through this.
You know, God did make a great physical nation of Abraham
in the Old Testament.
But he also told Abraham that Abraham
will be the father of many nations because of the fact
that all who believe in Christ are the children of Abraham,
and Abraham is our father.
But in this story about Abraham leaving Ur of the Chaldees,
going into the land of Canaan, and then
later going down into Egypt, and then coming back out of Egypt,
Abraham is the father of all them that believe.
He's the father of faith, and so he's our spiritual ancestor.
It doesn't matter if we're red, yellow, black, white.
And so as we study this story, we
can learn from the life of Abraham,
and we can apply it to our own experience
in the Christian life.
Because he went on before us as our spiritual ancestor.
Now look at Genesis chapter 12, if you would, at verse 4.
It says, so Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him,
and Lot went with him.
And Abram was 75 years old when he departed out of Haran.
And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son,
and all their substance that they had gathered,
and the souls that they had gotten in Haran.
And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan,
and into the land of Canaan they came.
And Abram passed through the land
under the place of Sychem, under the plain of Mori,
and the Canaanite was then in the land.
And the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said,
unto thy seed will I give this land.
And there builded he an altar unto the Lord
who appeared on him.
And don't forget Galatians, who's the seed?
Jesus Christ.
OK.
So eventually that land is going to be ruled and reigned over
by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And eventually it's only going to be
those that are saved that are going to inherit that land.
But in the millennial kingdom of Christ, of course.
But the Bible says here in verse number eight,
and he removed from thence unto a mountain
on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent,
having Bethel on the west and Haai on the east.
And there he builded an altar unto the Lord,
and called upon the name of the Lord.
Now I believe that this calling upon the name of the Lord
is a reference to Abraham's salvation.
And let me tell you why I believe that.
Go to Joshua 24.
Joshua chapter 24.
Because the Bible tells us in Joshua 24 verse 2, it says,
and Joshua said unto all the people,
thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time,
even Terah the father of Abraham,
and the father of Nachor, and they served other gods.
And I took your father from the other side of the flood,
and led him throughout all the land of Canaan,
and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.
Jump down to verse 15.
It says, and if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord,
choose you this day whom you will serve,
whether the gods which your fathers served that
were on the other side of the flood,
or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
And the reason I point that out is that the Bible is clear here
that when Abraham, and Terah, and Nachor
were on the other side of the flood,
meaning the other side of the great river Euphrates,
they worshipped other gods.
So it's not like Abraham just grew up in Ur of the Chaldees
in a Christian home where he's being
taught to worship the true God.
No, Abraham is over there worshipping
false gods with his brother Nachor and his father Terah.
That's what the Bible says when they're
on the other side of the flood.
It's when he crossed the river Euphrates
and comes into the land of Canaan
that he calls upon the name of the Lord.
Now this concept of calling upon the name of the Lord
goes all the way back to the end of Genesis chapter 4
when Seth begat Enos, and it says,
and then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.
And this spans all the way into the New Testament
when the Bible says, for whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And it says that in Acts chapter 2 and in Romans chapter 10
verse 13.
And so we see here that Abram comes into the land of Canaan,
he builds an altar on the Lord, and he calls
upon the name of the Lord.
But look at verse 9.
It says, and Abram journeyed going on still
toward the south.
And it says, there was a famine in the land.
And Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there,
for the famine was grievous in the land.
And it came to pass when he was come near to enter into Egypt
that he said unto Sarai his wife, behold,
now I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon.
Therefore it shall come to pass when the Egyptians shall
see thee that they shall say, this is his wife,
and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.
Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister,
that it may be well with me for thy sake,
and my soul shall live because of thee.
And it came to pass that when Abram was come into Egypt,
the Egyptians beheld the woman, that she was very fair.
So here we see Abram, he obeys the Lord.
He takes this great step of faith
by coming into the land of Canaan,
into a land that he'd never seen before.
But when he gets there, and after he
is called upon the name of the Lord,
he ends up having a bit of a lapse of faith
here in a couple of different areas.
Number one, he leaves the promised land
where he was supposed to dwell.
And he goes and dwells in the land of Egypt,
which is always symbolized in the Bible as a bad place.
Now sometimes God specifically tells somebody
to go to Egypt for whatever reason.
But in general, Egypt is considered a bad place.
Just proof for that would be Revelation 11, 8,
when it says, dead bodies shall lie
in the street of that great city, which spiritually is
called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
So right there, when God wants to put a bad name on a city
spiritually, he gives it the name of Sodom and Egypt,
just to show the spiritual wickedness of that place.
So Abraham goes down into Egypt.
And not only that, while he's there, he lies about his wife.
And he tells her to lie and to say that she is his sister.
And this leads him into all kinds of problems.
Because when they get down there, it says in verse 15,
or verse 14, it says, came to pass
that when Abram was coming to Egypt,
the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
The princes also of Pharaoh saw her
and commended her before Pharaoh.
And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
And he entreated Abram well for her sake.
And he had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants,
and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels.
So here Abram is put in a really weird situation.
He was just trying to save his own skin,
because his wife is extremely beautiful.
And he doesn't want to go down there and have somebody
kill him to get to his wife, because he doesn't really
know what's going to happen when he gets down there.
And instead, he says, it's his sister.
So then they take her from him and say, oh, we're
going to introduce you to Pharaoh.
We're going to bring you to Pharaoh's house.
And then they give him all kinds of gifts.
And he's kind of like, thanks for this stuff.
But what does he do?
His wife is being taken away.
And they don't realize that she's not single.
And they don't realize that it's actually his wife.
But they think it's his sister.
But watch this.
This is interesting.
It says in verse number 17, and the Lord
plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because
of Sarai, Abram's wife.
Now what this shows me is that when we sin,
we hurt the people around us.
A lot of times, innocent people around us
suffer because of the sins that we commit in our life.
It's easy to just read over that quickly when it says,
oh, the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues.
But the Bible says they were great plagues.
What does that mean?
I mean, we're talking about disease.
We're talking about sickness.
We're talking about some kind of illness
that was a great plague that God is tormenting
the people of Pharaoh's house with.
And it really isn't their fault. But rather,
it's Abram's fault for lying about the status of his wife.
And it says after that, and Pharaoh called Abram
and said, what is this that thou has done unto me?
Why didst thou not tell me she was thy wife?
Why sets thou she's my sister?
So I might have taken her to meet a wife.
Now therefore, behold thy wife.
Take her and go thy way.
And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him.
And they sent him away and his wife and all that he had.
And this is a concept that we find throughout the Bible.
One other story that comes to mind is the story of Jonah.
When Jonah gets on the ship, he has disobeyed the Lord.
The Lord told him to go to Nineveh, that great city,
and cry against it because their wickedness had come up
before him.
He goes the opposite way.
He gets in a ship going to Tarshish
to flee from the presence of the Lord.
God sends that great storm in the sea
as Jonah is fleeing in the ship.
And as a result of that storm, the Bible
says that the men who are on the ship, the merchants,
they not only are stuck out in the sea
and going through this great traumatic ordeal,
but they have to throw overboard the wares that
are in the ship.
I mean, their whole business is to carry these wares,
to carry the merchandise.
And they end up having to throw it all overboard
and just wasting all their money, wasting all their time,
losing everything that they have,
and being put in a very dangerous situation.
And it was all because of Jonah's disobedience.
And he admits it unto them.
He says, this is happening because of me.
Take me forth and take me up and cast me forth into the sea.
And it will be common to you.
And of course, the men don't want to do it.
They keep rolling hard and they try
to do everything they can to save the ship.
And they realize they're going to perish.
So finally, as a last resort, they pick up Jonah
and they throw him into the sea.
And the moment he hits the water, the storm is over.
And they were amazed by that.
And it showed them a great miracle.
So they worshiped the Lord and feared the Lord
from that time on because they saw that great miracle.
But still, they had to suffer.
They had to lose much that they had
because of the sin of Jonah.
And it's a concept that we see all throughout the Bible
where when we commit sin, we're not just harming ourselves,
we're harming the people around us.
Often you see people in the Bible
that sin and their whole family suffers.
You think of Achan, the son of Carmi,
who coveted the Babylonish garment.
And he stole it and hid it under his tent.
And what happened?
His wife and children were also stoned with him.
They were all killed.
So as a result of Achan's sin, his wife suffered.
His children suffered.
All throughout the Bible, we see this over and over again.
When a man like Haman goes out and commits sin,
and then what happens?
10 sons are hanged upon a gallows.
Now in the biblical law of Moses,
the sons are not supposed to be punished
for the sins of the fathers or vice versa.
Every man is supposed to be punished for his own sins.
But in practice, the way the world works
is that we do suffer when our parents commit sins.
And we do suffer if our spouse sins.
And we do suffer when the people around us
or our fellow church members commit sin.
We get caught in the crossfire.
And whenever you sin, just realize
you're not just hurting yourself,
but you're hurting the people around you.
You could be bringing great plagues upon the people
around you and great suffering on those who know you.
Abraham here doesn't even seem to suffer for his sin,
but he causes great suffering amongst those that he's with.
And this is something that we see over and over again
in the Bible.
The man who lied about Daniel and wanted
to get Daniel arrested and thrown into the lion's den,
they get thrown in the lion's den and their families.
Now again, not saying that that was a just thing
for those authorities to do, but it is the world
that we live in.
And let me tell you something, if you're a drunk,
your kids are going to suffer.
They're going to have to pay the price for that.
If you commit adultery, your wife's going to suffer.
Your children are going to suffer.
Whatever sins that you commit, no man
liveth unto himself or dieth unto himself.
We need to stop and think really hard
about the consequence of our actions.
Because when we sin, it's not just us who is going to be
harmed, but we're also going to harm the people around us.
And here we see Abraham's lack of faith, his lying.
And when I say lack of faith, God
has told him that he's going to be with him,
he's going to prosper him, he's going to bless him,
but yet he feels the need to lie instead of just trusting God
to protect him and to protect his wife.
Perhaps the reason why he didn't trust God
to protect him and his wife is because he's out
of the will of God, because he's in a place
that he wasn't told to go to.
But either way, if he would have trusted the promises
of the Lord that said, I'm going to make you a great nation,
he would have known that he's not
going to be killed in Egypt.
Because how can he become a great nation
if he's going to be killed in Egypt?
It wouldn't work.
It's just like when Jesus told the disciples,
we're going to get in the ship and we're going to pass over
to the other side.
And then the great storm arises as they're
crossing the Sea of Galilee.
And Jesus is asleep in the bottom of the ship.
He already told them that they were going to make it
to the other side.
And they wake him up and said, Lord, carest thou not
that we perish?
And he says unto them, why are you fearful,
oh ye of little faith?
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
They should have had faith in the word
that Jesus had spoken when he said, get in the ship.
We're going to the other side.
We're going to pass over to the other side of this.
We need to have faith in God to protect us.
And a lot of people think it's OK to sin or to lie,
just in order to protect themselves.
But honestly, this was a ridiculous thing
for Abram to do.
And then he does it again later.
And then his son does it.
And it really makes absolutely no sense.
And it always ends badly.
And so he should have just relied upon the Lord.
So what we see here in Genesis chapter 12
is Abram's human weakness.
We're all human.
And we're all going to go through times
where we get out of God's will and where we get back
and where we have lapses in faith
and make foolish decisions.
And every person in this room has done stupid things
and made foolish decisions.
And you go through spiritual low points in your life,
just like Abram did.
Even a great man like Abram, it's
almost comforting sometimes when you
read stories about these men's failures,
because it makes you realize, hey, we're all human.
And it doesn't mean that this is the end of the story for Abram.
It's not just, well, at the end of chapter 12,
God just goes and finds somebody else.
It's going to make you a great nation,
but you're down in Egypt.
You're telling people that your wife is really your sister.
She's being taken into other people's homes
and on the verge of being given to them in marriage.
I have to send a bunch of plagues
to stop anything from happening.
And now I'm just going to pick somebody else.
No, God wasn't through with them.
But look what the Bible says in Genesis 13,
because this is where Abraham comes back
to being in the promised land, comes back to a place
where he's right with the Lord.
It says in verse number 1, and Abram went out of Egypt,
he and his wife and all that he had,
and lot with him into the south.
And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver,
and in gold.
And he went on his journeys.
And by the way, it doesn't seem like he
had much to worry about in this famine,
if he's that rich and has that much cattle, silver, and gold.
But it says in verse 3, and he went down
and 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 Haai, unto the place of the altar which
he had made there at the first.
And there Abram called on the name of the Lord.
So Abram here returns to the altar
where he had previously called on the name of the Lord.
He goes back to the beginning here.
He goes back to the place where his tent had
been at the beginning, the Bible says.
And we see kind of a spiritual reset button taking place here
in Abram's life.
And when we look at this story, we
can understand what we should do when we find ourselves down
in Egypt for a while, or we find ourselves spiritually
backslidden or lapsing in faith.
We need to go back to the beginning.
We need to go back to Bethel.
Now, what does Bethel mean?
Flip over, if you would, to Genesis chapter 28,
because the Bible kind of has its own little built-in
dictionary on a lot of these words.
A lot of the words in the Old Testament, of course,
are Hebrew words.
A lot of the foreign words that are in the New Testament
are Aramaic words.
And the Bible defines these words for us
to help us understand.
We don't even really have to go for a dictionary
to understand what the word Bethel means,
because the Bible has a story to explain
to us what that word means.
Look, if you would, at Genesis 28, verse 10.
It says, and Jacob went out from Beersheba
and went toward Haran.
And he lighted upon a certain place
and tarried there all night, because the sun was set.
And he took of the stones of that place
and put them for his pillows.
And that sounds like a great pillow.
And lay down in that place to sleep.
And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth.
And the top of it reached to heaven.
And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
And behold, the Lord stood above it and said,
I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac.
The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it,
and to thy seed.
And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth.
And thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east,
and to the north, and to the south.
And in thee and in thy seed shall all families of the earth
be blessed.
Now again, we have some of the same statements
that were made to Abraham.
And you say, well, Pastor Anderson, Jacob
is the grandchild of Abraham.
So if these promises are being made to Jacob,
that proves it's the physical descendants.
No, wrong.
Go to Romans 9.
Sorry, I just have to take these little commercial breaks.
Go to Romans chapter 9.
I just want to lay this doctrine clearly,
because it's just really lay it to rest,
because the Bible is so clear on this.
What's Jacob's other name that he's given later?
Jacob's name is changed to Israel,
because he's a prince with God.
Look at Romans chapter 9 and see a statement again
that tells us who these promises apply to.
It says in verse 6, not as though the word of God
had taken none effect, for they are not all Israel
which are of Israel.
What does that mean?
It means that every person that descends from Israel
isn't considered Israel in the eyes of God.
They're not all Israel which are of Israel.
Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham,
are they all children.
But in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
That is, they which are the children of the flesh,
these are not the children of God,
but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
So the same thing we saw in Galatians 3, isn't it?
Whether we're talking about Abraham,
or whether we're talking about his grandson Israel,
it's not the children of the flesh
that are counted for the seed.
And when God says to Abraham, I'm
going to bless you and your seed,
and when he then turns around and says to Israel,
I'm going to bless you and your seed,
that is not the physical seed of those men.
Because otherwise it would be all the wrong people
that would be blessed today.
It would be a bunch of godless unbelievers
that would be blessed, instead of the true spiritual
descendants of Abraham.
Look, nobody on this planet has a genealogy
that goes back to Israel, where they could show,
hey, Abraham begat Isaac.
Isaac begat Jacob.
Jacob begat, begat, begat, begat, you know,
begat Stephen Anderson.
Nobody has that.
Just isn't there.
And so what matters today is if we're in Christ.
Let me give you my genealogy today, OK?
Abraham begat Christ.
Christ begat Stephen Anderson.
That's my genealogy.
It's very short, but that's the only genealogy I need.
And that puts me in the right family,
in the right bloodline, to get all the promises of God,
and to be a first class citizen of the kingdom of God.
Not second class to those that are Jews,
or there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
So back to Genesis chapter 28, I just want to point that out.
When he said, in thy seed shall all families of the earth
be blessed, that's Christ.
That's because Jesus Christ is going
to come from the seed of Abraham and from the seed of Israel.
That's where the blessing is going to come from.
It says, and behold, I am with thee, verse 15,
and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest,
and will bring thee again into this land.
For I will not leave thee until I have done
that which I have spoken to thee of.
And Jacob awaked out of his sleep,
and he said, surely the Lord is in this place.
And I knew it not.
And he was afraid and said, how dreadful is this place?
This is none other but the house of God,
and this is the gate of heaven.
And Jacob rose up early in the morning
and took the stone that he had put for his pillows
and set it up for a pillar and poured oil upon the top of it.
And he called the name of that place Bethel,
but the name of the city was called Luz at the first.
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, if God will be with me
and will keep me in this way that I go
and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on,
so that I come again to my Father's house in peace,
then shall the Lord be my God.
And this stone which I have set for a pillar
shall be God's house.
And of all that thou shalt give me,
I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
So when Israel or Jacob sets up this stone and this pillar,
he calls the name of the place Bethel
because he says in verse number 22,
this stone which I have set for a pillar
shall be God's house.
And that's what Bethel means.
It means the house of God, God's house.
It's interesting that the New Testament says
that the house of God is the pillar and ground of the truth.
And what do we see him setting up here?
A pillar and a stone, a rock that is the foundation.
And so God is showing us here that Bethel symbolically
represents the house of God in the Old Testament.
Now, in the Old Testament, eventually the tabernacle
would be the house of God.
And then later, the temple would be the house of God.
But in the New Testament, the Bible
says that you might know how thou
oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which
is the church of the living God, the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth.
So one of the basic truths that we can learn from this story
about what to do when you're lapsing in faith,
backslidden, when you get away from the Lord,
one of the most important things to do
is to get back into church, get back into church,
go back to Bethel, go back and get in the Lord's house.
Honestly, people get backslidden,
and they get out of church.
And when they get out of church, they get out
of the habit of being in church.
And then they're kind of just not used to going to church.
And it's a big step for them sometimes
to come back to church.
Another thing that can happen is they
might feel embarrassed about coming back to church,
because they've left, and they feel like, well, you know,
if I go back, people are going to walk up to me and say,
you know, where have you been for the last three months?
And by the way, if somebody comes back to church,
don't walk up to them and ask them that.
You know, somebody's faithfully coming to church,
and on and on.
And then they're gone for a while.
Don't come up to them and say, where have you been?
What liberal church were you going?
No, I'm just kidding.
You know, where have you been?
Oh, well, you know, I just haven't been going anywhere.
I mean, you're just embarrassing people.
There's no point.
If somebody comes back to church,
you should just greet them and just be glad to see them
and let them know that you're glad that they're there
and be friendly to them and not make a big deal out
of the fact that they've been gone.
You know, when people show up and they've been gone,
I just act like they weren't even gone.
I just act like they've always been, you know, welcome home,
and not make people feel uncomfortable.
And I want you to know that if you're ever in this situation,
and this sermon might not apply to you right now,
because at this point, you might be just living for the Lord,
and everything's going great, and you're fired up and excited.
But everybody's going to go through a low point.
Hopefully, it doesn't take you all the way out of church.
But honestly, a lot of people that
are under the sound of my voice right now
will eventually, at some point, get out of church for a while.
Not saying everybody will, God forbid.
But some people in here will get backslidden.
And a lot of times, what happens is people will start committing
sin, and then they feel guilty about it.
And then they think, you know what, what's the use?
Why even go to church?
You know, why even try?
And they just kind of give up on it.
They fall away.
And it gets harder and harder to come back the longer
that they've been gone.
But honestly, if you want to get right with God,
one of the biggest steps to getting right with God
is to come back to Bethel.
You know, come back to the house of God.
Church will do a lot for you spiritually.
I don't know about you, but church
does a lot for me spiritually on a weekly basis.
You know, I wouldn't be able to succeed without church.
I need church.
And I think you probably need church too.
Because when you get out of church for a while,
you get discouraged, you get down.
And it's so refreshing to come to church.
I just like to come to church.
Go, if you would, to John 21.
I just like to come to church and sing the hymns.
And it gives me joy.
And it helps me to get things in perspective spiritually
and to listen to the preaching of God's word
and just to get around God's people
and just to talk to people that are refreshing to talk to
because they believe the same things that you believe
and to have fellowship with them.
And what does the word fellowship mean?
Fellowship means that we have something in common.
You know, if you take the word fellowship
and think about the ending on their ship,
this isn't like something that sails in the sea, OK?
Ship on the end of word, think about these words.
Friendship, companionship, relationship, workmanship.
Those are all taking a type of person.
And then when you put ship on the end of it,
it explains to you what those people have.
So for example, friends have friendship.
OK, that's their status of being friends, right?
And then we talk about companions have companionship.
That's what they are.
They're companions, right?
Well, if you think about it, fellowship
would have to do with fellows.
And what are fellows?
If I stood up and said, you know, my fellow Americans,
what am I saying?
I'm saying I'm an American, and you're an American.
If I got up and said, I'm speaking to you,
my fellow Christians, what am I saying?
We're both Christians.
We have something in common.
And so if we have fellowship, it means that we are fellow.
Fellow what?
Fellow believers, fellow Christians,
fellow children of God.
It means that we have something in common together.
That's why the Bible says light has no fellowship with darkness.
Because does light have anything in common with darkness?
No way.
They don't have fellowship together.
So what it means when we talk about coming to church,
and we use this as a verb too in 2014,
this word has evolved into a verb where
we talk about fellowshipping.
We kind of turned that grammatically on its head.
But it is a great word to say, hey,
we're going to stay after church and fellowship a little bit.
We're fellowshipping.
What does that mean?
It means that we're spending time with people that we
have something in common with.
And that's what's so important about getting in a Bible
believing church where everybody loves the Lord
and where people are serious about serving God
and where people love soul winning and are King James
and all that because of the fact that you have
a lot in common with them.
And you can fellowship with them.
And it's refreshing to get around
people that believe in the same gospel you believe in.
And they have the same vision for soul winning that you have.
And they want to live a similar lifestyle
to what you want to live, clean, godly,
and raise their children the way that you
want to raise their children.
That's what it means to have fellowship.
Otherwise, if we're all going to assemble together
and we all believe different things
and we're all living totally different lifestyles,
we don't really have fellowship.
That's why we should have unity.
Then we're going to have great fellowship with one another.
And that's what it means when we talk about fellowshipping
or having fellowship one with another.
It means that we have something in common.
Come to church to hear the preaching.
Come to church to sing the songs.
Come to church for the fellowship.
And that's why staying home and downloading the sermon
is not a substitute for church because you
can't download the fellowship.
You can't download the being here and just the camaraderie
and the singing and the atmosphere.
You can't download the whole package.
You can only just get the preaching.
And the preaching is only a part of it.
You need to physically go to Bethel,
physically get back in God's house.
And that will do great things for you spiritually.
I'll bet if you're at a spiritual low point
and you don't even feel like going to church
and you just drag yourself to church,
I think that'll help you spiritually alone.
Just that alone will help you.
Just to show up and walk through the door.
I mean, I'm sure if I had a raise of hands of who
could testify of just people who just feel lousy,
upset about something in their life, and come to church
and just walk out feeling a lot better and just rejoicing
and refresh.
Because it puts things in perspective for you.
It reminds me of Psalm 73, where Asaph talks about the fact
that he's discouraged.
He starts envying the wicked and asking himself
why he's even serving God.
He's looking over at the other side of the fence
of living the way the world lives
and seeing that the grass is greener over there
from where he's standing.
But then he says, but then I entered
into the house of the Lord.
And he says, then I understood therein.
And he says, God has set them in slippery place.
And then once he's done at God's house,
Asaph says in Psalm 73, I've been a fool.
What a fool.
Why was I thinking along those stupid lines?
But you know what?
We need the same thing.
Sometimes we start thinking a bunch of stupid things
and getting backslidden and losing faith.
And when we come to church, it all
comes back into perspective, the priorities, what's important,
what our life is about.
And our love for the Lord comes back anew.
And we are spiritually recharged.
Go back to Bethel is what we learn
from that story in Genesis 13.
Now in John 21, we read another famous story
about a guy who gets backslidden, and that's Peter.
And Peter, the reason that he falls away
is because of the fact that he has committed a grievous sin.
And this is why a lot of people get out of church.
I can think of a lot of examples of people
who are going to church, everything's great,
and they get out of church.
And you wonder why.
And it turns out they've committed a grievous sin.
And therefore, they're ashamed of themselves.
And therefore, they get this defeated attitude.
What's the use?
You know, I'm a failure.
I can't serve God.
I'm just going to go back to whatever.
But look what it says in John 21.
It says in verse 1, after these things,
Jesus showed himself again to the disciples
at the Sea of Tiberias.
And on this wise, he showed himself.
There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus,
and Nathaniel of Cana and Galilee,
and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.
Simon Peter saith unto him, I go with fishing.
They say unto him, we also go with thee.
They went forth and entered into a ship immediately.
And that night, they caught nothing.
Now, Peter had been told previously
that he's done fishing.
He said, from henceforth, Peter, thou shalt catch men.
And Peter forsook the net.
He forsook the ship.
He gave that up to become a fisher of men
with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And here we see, after Peter has denied the Lord Jesus
Christ a few chapters earlier, he's discouraged.
And so he goes back to the old way of life.
He's gone fishing.
He's not going to be a fisher of men.
He's just going physically fishing.
And of course, when he goes, he takes a bunch of people
with him.
And by the way, when you quit church,
when you get out of the will of God,
you're going to take other people with you, people that
are looking to you, friends of yours.
There are a lot of people in this church that
are friends with each other.
If one falls away, it's more than likely
that the other could go with them.
And you've got to think about that, too.
Just like we talked about earlier,
other people being plagued because of your sins.
And now we talk about other people
being led astray by your bad example
if you quit on God and get out of church.
So they all just go out fishing.
And it says, they entered into a ship immediately.
And that night, they caught nothing.
And you know what that tells me?
When you go back to the old lifestyle,
it's not the same as it used to be.
It's not what it's cracked up to be, as it were.
Because you remember the glory days of, you know what?
Things were going better for me before I got in church.
I think I just need to go.
Obviously, you're still saved, still believe in Jesus.
But you're just thinking to yourself,
I'm just going to go back to the way of life that I had before.
Things were going better for me then.
But you get there, and it's not what it's cracked up to be.
I don't think that these guys were really just excited.
Hey, guys, let's go out fishing, and let's just catch nothing.
Let's just fish all night and catch nothing.
It's going to be great.
You guys want to go?
Obviously, they're expecting to have success.
But what's interesting is that when we read this, it says,
but when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore.
But the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
Then Jesus saith unto them, children,
have ye any meat?
They answered him, no.
And he said unto them, cast the net on the right side
of the ship, and ye shall find.
They cast therefore, and now they
were not able to draw it in for the multitude of fishes.
Therefore, what does therefore mean?
Because of what we just read.
Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved
saith unto Peter, it is the Lord.
Why did he say it was the Lord?
Because they cast the net on the other side of the ship,
caught a great multitude of fishes.
Here is why I'm turning to this story.
You say, what does this have to do with Abraham?
What does this have to do with going back to Bethel?
Because the Bible says that Abraham went back
to where he was at the beginning, back to Bethel.
And if you think about it, Jesus is taking Peter here
to back where he was at the beginning.
Because remember the story where Jesus came and called Peter
was a story just like this story.
Because if we go back in time, we
can read about it in Luke chapter 5, for example.
And if we go back in time to Luke chapter 5,
Peter toiled all night and caught nothing.
Jesus showed up and preached out of his boat,
told him to cast the net on the other side,
and he found the great multitude of fishes.
So Jesus is taking Peter back to the beginning here
and reminding him of how it all started
and reminding him of the original miracle
that he saw of the great multitude of fishes
when he first forsook the net and followed Jesus
and was told, from henceforth, thou shalt catch men.
So in this story, we see Peter going back to Bethel
in a sense, back to where he was at the beginning.
And this also reminds me of Revelation chapter 2
when he talks about the church at Ephesus
had lost their first love.
He said, repent and do the first works.
Go back and do the first works so that you
will regain the first love.
We need to sometimes go back in our mind
and push a reset button and go back
to where we were at the beginning.
And remember what it was that first got us
in church in the first place, what
it was that made us want to go soul winning
in the first place.
And remember when we first started soul winning.
And get back to that place of just the simplicity
and the basic beginning of our walk with God.
And understand that the same way that we got with God
in the first place is the same way
that we're going to get back right with God,
just through basics, just through reading the Bible,
getting in church, praying.
And you know what, it's never too late to start over
and to forget those things which are behind
and reach forth unto those things which are before.
And maybe even you tonight that are sitting in church right
now, you may be sitting here physically,
but maybe spiritually you're not where you need to be.
And you realize that, wait a minute,
I have drifted away from God.
I need to get back where I was at the beginning.
There was a time in my past when I
was reading the Bible a lot more than I'm reading it right now.
There was a time in my past when I
was a lot more excited about soul winning and serving
God than I am right now.
And there was a time when I was living a purer and cleaner
and more holy life than I'm living right now.
But at this time, I've drifted.
And you might be in that position tonight.
And you need to realize that it's never
too late to push that reset button, go back to Bethel,
and say, you know what, I'm going to start over.
I'm going to start over.
Here I am.
I'm in church.
I'm going to start over.
I'm at the house of God where I was at the beginning,
all the way back when I called upon the name of the Lord,
or all the way back when I first became a fisher of men,
or all the way back when I first got into Faithful War Baptist
Church, or whatever the church where you got in church
and started getting serious about serving God.
You've got to go back to that point
and realize that tomorrow morning is a brand new day.
And you can start out tomorrow morning,
and you can read your Bible, and you can pray,
and you can live a life that would be pleasing and honoring
to God and not give up.
And honestly, every single one of us
has had a lot of failures in our life, every single one of us.
I mean, I just think of, for example, memorizing the Bible.
I've had so many goals about memorizing the whole New
Testament, memorizing the Bible, and goals memorized.
And I can tell you how many times I've said, you know what?
I'm starting over on Bible memory.
And I'm going to pick up this thing,
because I've just dropped it for months and months.
And I've forgotten all kinds of chapters.
And I'm like, OK, I need to assess where I'm at here.
I need to figure out which chapters I still remember.
I need to figure out which ones I've forgotten.
And I need to just start over and do it again.
Start over and do it again.
Listen, my journey of memorizing the Bible
has not been just a continuous unbroken, always upward.
I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights
I'm gaining every day.
You know, I love that song.
But honestly, it's not always going
to be like new heights I'm gaining every day.
Life isn't like that.
Your spiritual life isn't like that,
where it's just getting better every day, every day.
You know, upon the path that's winding always upward.
You know, it's not always upward, my friend.
Sometimes you go down into Egypt.
You make mistakes.
And you fail.
And honestly, before I read the Bible cover
to cover for the first time, I failed a few times.
I said, I'm going to read the Bible cover to cover, failed,
quit.
But the difference is that I started up again another time
and said, I'm going to pick up where I left off.
And by the way, if you've tried to read the Bible in the past
and didn't finish it, don't go back
and start at Genesis 1 again, please.
Pick up where you left off, for crying out loud.
You know, Genesis 1, the most read chapter in the Bible.
Matthew chapter, I mean, they've been read by more people
than any chapter.
You know what I mean?
People have just read.
Everybody's read Genesis 1 many times, you know,
January 1st.
Let's do it.
Genesis 1 through 3, Matthew chapter 1.
Let's do it every year.
But honestly, I have failed multiple times
trying to read the Bible cover to cover before I finished it
and completed it and achieved that goal.
I've constantly failed at Bible memory,
where I'll be going great, going great, going great,
and then just drop the ball.
And then months later, have to try to pick up the pieces
and figure out where I'm at.
But it seems like every time I do that,
I get a little further, you know,
and I'm able to add a little bit more to what I know.
And I can keep picking it up and adding it and keep going.
You know, everybody makes mistakes and fails and messes
up, and you know, even a great man like Abram, even
a great man like Peter.
And Peter did something pretty bad
when he denied that he even knew the Lord Jesus Christ.
I mean, that's pretty embarrassing
if you think about it.
I mean, can you imagine yourself in a situation
where somebody asks you, are you a Christian?
And you say, no.
Wouldn't you feel pretty ashamed of yourself?
You'd feel pretty rotten.
You'd feel like a loser.
And I bet a lot of people would even question their own
salvation if they did that.
They'd probably wonder, am I even saved,
you know, if I did such a thing?
And of course, it doesn't mean that you're not saved,
because you know, Peter was obviously saved, and he did it.
But the bottom line is that we're
going to make mistakes in life.
Hopefully, you don't make huge mistakes in life.
Hopefully, you don't commit a huge sin
like David committed, where he's committing adultery
with Bathsheba and having Uriah killed.
Hopefully, you don't do anything of that magnitude.
But I think that God even puts stories like that in the Bible
just to show you that if you're a child of God,
if you're saved, no matter what the magnitude of your sin,
you can still go back to Bethel, you know,
and you can still get it right.
Even the guy in 1 Corinthians 5, who
was guilty of such a grievous sin of committing
fornication with his father's wife, right,
with his stepmother, OK, he committed that wicked sin.
Of course, that was not his blood relative,
but it was still adultery, fornication.
It was a wicked sin.
Even he was restored.
Even he dusted it off and got back.
And look, of course, there are going to be consequences
for our actions that we're going to have to live with.
I'm not saying, oh yeah, you just dust it off
and come back to Bethel, and then everything's
perfect from that.
No, a lot of times the scars will always
remain from the time that you spend backslidden, the time
that you spend in Egypt.
You pick things up down in Egypt that stay with you,
like maybe a handmaid named Hagar.
You know, you pick up things when you're out in the world,
and it's temptation, and it's bad memories,
and it's all kinds of just earthly consequences of the time
that you spend away from the Lord.
But you know what, it's never too late
to get back in the fight and to get back to Bethel,
to go back to the very beginning,
to go back to just the basics of the Christian life,
start over, get back to Bethel, get yourself in church,
and get right with God.
Think of Samson.
Doesn't it seem like it was over for Samson?
I mean, when they've punched out your eyes,
your eyes aren't coming back.
He's permanently blinded.
When somebody puts a poker in your eye,
and your eyes are gone, that's it.
You're done.
You're not going to be a great warrior again.
And when you see him bound up, enslaved by the Philistines,
he has no more of his great strength
that had brought him so far.
He doesn't even have his eyesight.
He doesn't have any freedom.
He has no prospect of a good life ahead of him,
humanly speaking.
He's enslaved.
He's grinding at a mill like an animal,
like a beast of burden would be used to turn a millstone.
He's only brought out of that wretched condition
just to be made sport of, just to be mocked by his enemies.
I mean, he's pretty much just a loser any way you look at it.
But yet, the hair of his head began to grow again.
God still had something else for him to accomplish.
It wasn't over.
The story wasn't over.
And he was able to at least revenge his enemies
by slaying the Philistines, by bringing down the house,
by pushing on the two pillars.
And not only that, but he was able to basically free
the children of Israel from bondage,
because they'd been brought into subjection
under the Philistines.
And by Samson doing that, he delivered them
from the Philistines.
So he was able to do one more thing for God.
It's never too late.
And I just want you to remember, you're all here in church now.
Some people might be struggling spiritually
and need this sermon right now.
But others might need this down the road.
And so you need to just tuck this away in your mind
and remember, you know what?
If I go out and commit a big sin,
it's never too late to confess our sins and to get it right
and to get back to Bethel and to get in church
and to just pick it up and start again.
And the Bible says that a just man
falleth seven times and riseth up again.
It doesn't say the just man never falls.
It says he falls seven times, but he rises up again.
And the people who serve God for decades
are the ones who realize, hey, if I sin, if I make a mistake,
you know what?
I'm just going to move on.
I'm going to keep going.
I'm not going to let it take me out of the Bible.
I'm not going to add sin unto sin.
You know, committing sin is bad enough.
Why add the sin of getting out of church?
Why add the sin of failing to preach
the gospel unto the lost?
Why add the sin of failing to read your Bible?
And a lot of times you'll hear the saying also
that sin will keep us from this book,
or this book will keep us from sin.
And when we're living a life of sin,
a lot of times we don't desire to read the Bible.
And when we read the Bible, it'll keep us away from sin.
It'll guard us.
The Bible says, thy word, if I hid in my heart,
that I might not sin against thee.
And so it's never too late to go back to Bethel
like Abraham did, like Peter did.
That's the formula for getting right with God
when you're backslid.
You know, get to the house of God, get back to the basics,
back to the beginning, back to Bethel.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the teaching
that you have in your word.
First of all, just warning us about sin
and how sin is going to harm everybody around us.
And when we get backslidden,
we're going to take other people with us, Lord.
But help us to realize that when we do fall,
when we do lose faith and commit sin
and make stupid decisions, Lord,
help us to remember there's always a way back.
We can always just go back to Bethel.
It's still going to be there when we get back.
It's always going to be there for us, Lord.
Help us to always remember that it's never too late
to come home and to just start over
and go back to the beginning, Lord.
Help everybody here to remember this sermon, Lord.
I know it's easy to hear sermons and forget them, Lord,
but I just pray that somehow this sermon
would be ingrained in everyone's memory
so that six months from now, a year from now,
10 years from now, when someone is away from you, Lord,
that this sermon would stir their mind.
They say, you know what, I'm going back to church.
I'm going back to Faithful War Baptist Church.
I want to go back to Bethel.
In Jesus' name, we pray.