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All right, great scene guys, great hymn selection. Please take your Bibles once again and go to Genesis chapter 18. Genesis chapter 18 and verse number 19, Genesis 18 verse 19, the Bible says, "'For I know him, that he will command his children "'and his household after him, "'and they shall keep the way of the Lord.'" The title for the sermon this morning is The Way of the Lord. We'll have a look soon as we go through this, what is the way of the Lord? Now Jesus of course said, I am the truth, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father except by me. So we know that Jesus Christ is the way of salvation. But there's also, once you are saved as a Christian, there is a way in which we are to live our lives, okay? And God not only speaks of Abraham as one who kept the way of salvation, but as one that would keep the way of his spiritual walk, one that would instruct his household, those that were subject unto him, the ways of the Lord. And we see the greatness of Abraham here. If only we could know what God would say about each one of us, okay? To see how God spoke such great things of Abraham, I hope he would say the same of me. I hope he would say the same of you. But let's pick it up there in verse number one, Genesis 18, verse one. And the Lord appeared unto him, that being Abraham, in the plains of Mamre, and he sat down, sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. So this is what is known as a Christophany. This is an Old Testament appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a physical appearance. Not just one of a vision or of a dream or something like this. No, this is a physical appearance. He even sits down here, right? You see that he sat down in the heat of the day. And verse number two, oh, this is speaking of Abraham, sorry, but then it says, then he lift up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground. So the fact that Abraham sees these three men, okay, he sees these three men there, he recognizes that one of these, at least, is the Lord God Almighty. The fact that he bows himself to the ground in a position of worship, he recognizes this is the Lord God who he's been dealing with over the years, over the decades that have been going by. And I've heard some people take the position here that, well, these three that have come to his door represents the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And I remember, I think probably one of the first times that I read through the book of Genesis, I had that impression as well. Could these three represent the Lord God Almighty? But no, that's not actually the case. In fact, the Bible tells us that the Father has no form. Okay, and of course, the Holy Spirit is a spirit. It also has a form, but he does not have a physical form of himself. But one that we know within the Trinity that has a physical form that can be seen is of course the Lord Jesus Christ. And what you'll notice about this story, if you compare it as well with the next chapter, is that one of these men was the Lord Jesus Christ, and the other two that were with him were angels, were heavenly angels with him. But look, drop down to verse 22 very quickly. Genesis 18 verse 22, this kind of clarifies it for us. It says here, And the men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before the Lord. So in verse 22, we see that the men go towards Sodom, but yet Abraham stands with the Lord. Meaning that Abraham stayed with one of these men, and the other two men have gone towards Sodom, right? Now look at Genesis chapter 19 verse one, just the first verse of the next chapter. Genesis chapter 19 verse one, it says, And there came two angels to Sodom at even. So you see, it was two angels that went to Sodom, and it was these two same angels that were with the Lord that went towards Sodom after they had spent some time with Abraham. So I hope that clarifies for you if you had any thoughts about that. One of those was of course the Lord Jesus Christ, and the other two that were with him were two angels, the same angels that would go into Sodom and deliver a lot out of that city before it was destroyed. But let's go to verse number three now, Genesis chapter 18 verse number three, Genesis 18 verse number three, and said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee from thy servant. So Abraham here is petitioning the Lord, verse number four, Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will fetch a morsel of bread and comfort ye your hearts. After that ye shall pass on, for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, so do, as thou has said. One thing I want you to notice about Abraham. Okay, Abraham's a great example for us. We see his hospitality, okay, toward the Lord God and to his angels. He sees these strangers come toward his house, and he says, look, come and stay with me a little while. Let me get a little feet. Let me get a servant there to wash your feet. Let me get you a little bread, a little meal, something for you to eat before you go on in your way. We see this great example of a man who loves hospitality, a lover of good men. And as we look at Abraham, this should cause us to think about how much do we serve our brethren? How much do we serve the Lord? We see that his heart's in the right place. He wants to be a servant. Remember, Abraham's a rich man. Remember, Abraham's a powerful man. Abraham's a man who's one wall, has won a war. He's a strong man, a powerful man. You'd think a man of his position would be the one seeking to be served, but no, he sees an opportunity to serve strangers. He sees an opportunity to serve the Lord God, and you see where his heart is. He's got a tender, compassionate heart, a heart of humility. He doesn't allow his position, his authority, his riches to go to his head. And he sets a really great example for us as how he served the Lord. Now, keep your finger there. Go to Matthew 25, please. Keep your finger there and go to Matthew 25 because it's very unlikely for you, all right? Now, I'm trying to tell you, be a little bit more like Abraham, all right? Be a little bit more serving to others, but you might say, but what's the likelihood that God will show up at my doorstep? What's the likelihood that he'll ring my doorbell and I get the opportunity to wash his feet? It's probably very unlikely, right? At least on this side of eternity. I'm not, maybe on the other side of eternity, when we're the Lord God forever, we will have the opportunity to serve the Lord God directly. But look at Matthew 25, verse 34. And this is just a small portion of the parable of the sheep and the goats. And here in Matthew 25, verse 34, the words of Jesus speaking about the judgment to come in the future and how he separates his believers from the non-believers. But I just want you to notice this one part here in verse number 34. It says, then shall the king say unto them on the right hand and that king represents in Jesus Christ, come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Then he says this to his sheep. He says this to his believers. For I was hungered and ye gave me meat. I was thirsty and ye gave me drink. I was a stranger and ye took me in. You say, well, hold on, I've never done that to Jesus Christ. I've never had him come to my doorway and take him in as my stranger. I've never had Christ come to me and I was able to give him food. But look at verse number 36. Naked and ye clothed me, I was sick and ye visited me. Say, when was Jesus Christ sick? When did he need visitation? When was he in a hospital? When did he need to know that his brethren loved him? He goes, I was in prison and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee and hungered and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick or in prison and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And to the least of the brethren. This is how we serve Jesus Christ. This is how we can be hospitable toward the Lord God today is by serving the brethren, by loving the brethren, even the least of the brethren. You say, who's the least? The little ones, the little children, the little babies, or maybe the visitors that come in, the carnal Christians that don't know much about the Bible. Hey, if you set your heart to serve them, to love them, if you have brethren that you know that are in prison or brethren that are in hospital, brethren that are suffering from illnesses and sicknesses, and you say, what, I'm gonna be a blessing to them, and I'm going to encourage them, I'm going to edify them, and I'm going to feed them, I'm going to clothe them, I'm gonna help them in their difficult state, then you've done it as unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Hey, we can serve Jesus the same way that Abraham was able to serve Jesus directly. And please don't forget about that, okay? I mean, the issue is we're fallen human beings, right? You know, we get on each other's nerves sometimes, right? We can annoy each other. Hey, but how much more then, you know, if you're able to serve the brethren, how much more valuable can that be if you can do it to a fallen person or someone that's the least? Jesus says, look, you've done it unto me, okay? So please have that in your mind if you're someone that's not hospitable, if you're someone that, you know, that doesn't have a heart to serve the brethren, but I know you love the Lord God. If you love the Lord God, then you ought to love the brethren. You know, if you can't love the brethren, how could you possibly love the Lord God? At least the brethren, you have the opportunity to fellowship with them, to love them, to serve them. And I go back to Genesis 18 now, please. Genesis chapter 18. Actually, sorry, no, go to Hebrews chapter 13, please. I don't wanna move away from this point just yet. Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. And while you're turning there, I'm just going to read to you from Matthew 10.40. Jesus also said these words, he that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. Man, how cool is that? If you receive a brother in the Lord, you receive Christ. And if you receive Christ, you receive the one that sent Jesus Christ, that being God the Father. You can serve God the Father as well, all right? By serving the brethren, which serves Christ, which serves the heavenly Father. Hebrews chapter 13, please, verse number one. Hebrews 13, verse one. The Bible says, let brotherly love continue, okay? Now, as a church, we can start with brotherly love. You know, when a church starts or you're new to church, you might be very excited. You might be, you know, looking forward to the fellowships and the conversations, but you know what? That love can dwindle. That love can be diminished, okay? And the Bible gives us the instruction, let it continue. Let your brotherly love continue. Look, and when the Bible says these things, when the Bible commands us certain things, let the love continue, the reason it's in the Bible, the reason it's commanded, is because the natural state of things is that the brother in love will diminish. Let the brother in love will be done away with, in a sense. This is why God gives us these commands, because he knows the nature of our hearts. He knows the nature of our sinful flesh. He knows that we can get excited about certain things, and then once it sort of wears out, we can go back to our old ways, our old paths. You know, if you find that your love for the brethren has kind of decreased, then let me encourage you, go back to the command that we have here in Hebrews 13. Let your brotherly love continue to the brethren, and as a reminder, remind yourself that by loving my brethren, I'm loving Jesus Christ. Look at verse number two. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Now look, I don't know if we have ever entertained angels, you know, as in heavenly angels. I guess it's possible. I guess it's possible we've come across human beings that we've been kind toward, or maybe not so kind toward, and they could have been angels that the Lord had, you know, sense in our path to test us, you know, if we asked people that would entertain strangers. But I think one thing directly we can take out of this, you know, is the story of Abraham. You know, he was this person. He was someone that had brotherly love. He was someone that entertained strangers, and by doing so, he also entertained Jesus Christ and these angels. And the other person that gets the opportunity to do this that we have clear in the Bible is in the next chapter, and that being his nephew Lotz, okay? But we'll get into that next week. And then verse number three, it says, remember them that are in bonds. Remember when Jesus Christ said you visited me when I was in prison? One thing I want you to be aware of, brethren, now I'm not in prison, no one here is in prison, but you know, what tends to happen, you see this even in the book of Paul the Apostle. And Paul the Apostle was a great Christian, okay? The best Christian you have in the Bible. I mean, God used him to write so much of the New Testament. You know, God used him in a powerful way, but where was he quite often? Where would he write some of his epistles from? From prison, okay? And when you look at the story of Paul in prison, guess what happened? The church just turned their backs on him. You know, the Brevin no longer fellowshiped with him. They saw him as a bad egg. Why are you in prison? You know, you wouldn't be in prison if you were just serving the Lord Jesus. No, God used him in prison. You know, God used him in a powerful way to get the Bible, you know, written, the New Testament written for our benefit. And what this tells me is that when we see believers being arrested or in prison, we can have the wrong heart. You know, we can say, well, you know, you just deserve to be there. Look, maybe there's a sense of that. Hey, but if they're doing it to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, if they're in prison because they've just tried to stand on the word of God, then we should be people that would visit our brethren in prison. We should be people that pray for our brethren that are in prison. Now, here's the thing. I don't really know anybody, any brethren right now that's in prison. But if I knew, I'd tell you where I'd be. I'd be ringing them. You know, I'd be trying to visit them if I can. I'd be there trying to encourage them because that's the worst place to be for a Christian. In prison, locked up. You know, unable maybe to serve the Lord at a full capacity. Hopefully, if there's a strong believer in prison, hopefully they can use that environment to be able to get the gospel out and see prisoners saved and do a great work in that environment. But you know, prison is designed to destroy the soul. Prison is designed to destroy people, people's lives. It's not rehabilitation. No, it takes them away from society. They don't know how to live. They don't get any new skills. When they come out of prison, they don't know how to live. They don't know how to function in the real world. We should be mindful for brethren. If you know brethren that are in prison, honestly, we should really think about this. This is taught to us from the word of God. Remember them. Verse number three, remember them. They're in bonds and bound with them. You know, have the empathy where by them being in prison, by them being arrested, you feel as though you are also in that sense, in that same way. And then we suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body. So be considerate for brethren that are suffering for the cause of Christ. Please go back to Genesis 18, please. Genesis 18, verse six. Genesis 18, verse six. So he wants to entertain these strangers. He wants to entertain the Lord God and these angels. In verse number six, and Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah and said, make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it and make cakes upon the hearth. So it kind of sounds like pancakes or something, right? He goes and he knows where to find his wife. Hey, his wife's not working a job. His wife's at home. His wife's in the tent. His wife's in the kitchen. And he says, hey, Sarah, can you please make some pancakes for these visitors? Okay? Can you go and cook this meal? And look at his hospitality. He doesn't take last night's leftovers, okay? He says, look, I'm gonna entertain the brethren. I'm gonna get the quality out. I'm gonna give him the best freshly cooked food. I'm gonna get him the best things that we can possibly do for the Lord God and his angels, right? He doesn't just cook up, hey, what's in the fridge? Okay, let's do something fresh for these guys, you know? But he knows exactly where his wife Sarah was, you know? And she was at home. She was in the tent ready to prepare a meal for strangers. Verse number seven. And Abraham, now look, Abraham had servants. You know, he had possessions. He doesn't put it all on his wife's shoulders, okay? Look what he does. Verse number seven. And Abraham ran unto the herd and fetched a calf tender and good and gave it unto a young man and he hasted to dress it. So he got the best calf that he could find, you know, freshly slaughtered, you know, and butchered and cooked. And one thing that I liked about South America or Chile where we were is, now I'm not talking about the meat in the supermarkets but in the three months that we're there, we stayed most of the time in a country town, okay? And they had smaller supermarkets. But one thing about those supermarkets, or they're not really supermarkets. I wouldn't call them supermarkets. They're just markets, right? But one thing is when you go to buy meat, it was literally fresh meat, like animals that were literally just killed, right? And the meat was tender. It was amazing. It was delicious, okay? And one thing that I kind of wish that we could have a little bit more of here, I don't know how really, I guess you'd have to go straight to a butcher and maybe get, you know, freshly cut pieces. But man, freshly cut beef is amazing. It's super delicious. And look, Abraham, you know, spends no expense. He gets the best calf, right? He gets the best one. So look, let's eat some fresh meat here. You see, he wants to go above and beyond and be super hospitable to the strangers. Verse number eight, and he took butter and milk and the calf which he had dressed and set it before them and stood by them under the tree and they did eat. So look, he's serving. He's kind of like a waiter, you know? He's getting the food ready and he comes, Abraham comes and he serves the food himself to the Lord and to these angels. And they did eat. So you see, these were physical. This is not a vision. It's not some spiritual thing that's going on. Well, it is a spiritual thing, I guess. But it's a physical appearance of them where they were actually able to consume the food that Abraham had prepared. Verse number nine, and they said unto him, where is Sarah, thy wife? And he said, behold, in the tent. Not behold, she's in the workplace. You know, not behold, she's, you know, you know, making money so I can be a housewife, you know? No, no, behold, she's at home. She's in the tent. And I love this about the Lord because we've seen this before. We've seen how the Lord cares for Hagar. Remember the bond servant who had a child, Ishmael, with Abraham, how she had fled away and the Lord cared about her. You know, the Lord here is speaking to Abraham. Yes, he's the authority within his home. He's the head of his home. But the Lord also cares about Sarah. Where is Sarah? Because this promise that he had given to Abraham about having the seed, you know, Isaac, you know, also would fall upon Sarah. She would be the one that would have to carry Isaac with this promise. So the Lord cares for, you know, Sarah. You know, he asks about Sarah, you know? And he said, behold, in the tent, verse number 10. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life. And lo Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age. And it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So if you remember from the previous chapter, Abraham was 99 years old. You know, approaching 100 years, Sarah's 90 years old. And it says here that it ceased, in verse number 11, that it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women, meaning that she is no longer able to have children. You know, she's definitely gone past menopause, you know, already in her life. And I was kind of scratching my head, what does it mean in verse number 10, where it says, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life. And I think within context of what this is about is that God's gonna perform a miracle, okay? That is going to give Sarah the ability to give birth to life once again, okay? That she's going to be able to, you know, she's going to be able to fool pregnant. She's going to be able to carry that child. And that, you know, with these two, and you just look at this later in the chapter, these two being well in age, they would have the passion, you know, the strength to have that intimate relationship in order to have a child. So that's what I believe God is saying to them that He's going to empower them, He's going to give them the strength to be able to have life, that being the promised child of Isaac. Verse number 12. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself saying, after I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure? My Lord being old also. So it seems like, you know, they've not been having that physical relationship and she's trying to like laughing within herself. Is that, how's that going to happen? We're old now, you know. Verse number 13. And the Lord said unto Abraham, wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, shall I of a surety bear a child which am old? So it's interesting again, Sarah laughs within herself. She's not laughing out loud. She's in the tent, she's just laughing within herself. This is, you know, a laughter of disbelief. And I'm not thinking this is going to happen again. And the Lord recognizes this about Sarah. And verse number 14. And I love these words. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Listen, if you've gone past the age of childbearing, wouldn't you naturally think there's no way for me to have children? Look, Sarah's concerned about something legitimate. It's not that Sarah's been, you know, what's the word I'm looking for? It's not that she's been unreasonable, I guess. It's reasonable for her to conclude, I'm not going to have children. It's too late for us. And here's the thing, guys. You're going to find yourself in situations in life, in difficulties, in trials, and you're going to say to yourself, it's reasonable to think that I can't get out of this situation. It's reasonable to think that we've messed up and we can't fix it now. But the Lord asks the question, is anything too hard for the Lord? Hey, even if you think something is impossible to be fixed, even if you think it's too hard now, we've messed up, it's too late. No, the Lord says, is it too hard for me? He says, look, bring it toward me. Trust me, have your faith upon me. I can come and answer those prayers. I mean, haven't there been prayers in your life where you pray to the Lord, but just inwardly you had doubts? You know you should pray to the Lord. You know you should go and ask the Lord for these things, but you just think, well, I'm praying this, but I know it's not going to happen. I'm praying this, but I doubt it's going to happen. I'm sure we've all been in that situation. But then the Lord comes through. The Lord comes through. And sometimes our thoughts are, this must be a coincidence. No, it's the Lord has moved, you know, has moved in a powerful way and has answered your prayers, okay? He has heard your prayers. It wasn't too hard for the Lord. He stepped in and changed the natural, nature of things, you know, in order for your prayer to be answered. You know, I hope you've experienced answered prayer, especially when you thought it was impossible. You know, it's an amazing blessing. And if you say, well, I haven't seen that. Well, maybe you need to go to the Lord in prayer more often, okay? As we've gone through these chapters, we've seen how God is continually interacting with Abraham. We've seen prior to that, that he continues going and, you know, calls upon the name of the Lord on a regular basis, doesn't he? You know, he's constantly in communication with the Lord God. Sometimes you just need to go back. If you feel there's a prayer, a need that hasn't been answered, you know, that you're not seeing, you know, the response of God, you need to go back to him. Go back to him in prayer, you know, and come with the faith knowing that nothing is too hard for the Lord. Verse number 14. At that time appointed, I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not, for she was afraid. And he said, nay, but thou didst laugh. We can't lie to God, all right? We can't lie to God. Hey, we can fool one another. We can deceive one another. And here we see Sarah trying to deny the fact that she laughed within herself, and God says, no, you did laugh. Like, you did have a period of disbelief there, okay? Verse number 16. And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom, and Abram went with them, to bring them on the way. So, sorry, I just wanna make sure I haven't missed a bit there. So let me just read verse number 16 again. And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. So these men were headed toward Sodom. Of course, we know the reason why. The next chapter, the Lord God destroys that wicked city, and Gomorrah, those wicked cities, okay? But look at verse number 12. Sorry, if you guys know, keep your finger there. Go to 1 Peter, chapter three. 1 Peter, chapter three. 1 Peter, chapter three. All right, it's 1 Peter, chapter three. Sorry, there was one point that I missed that I wanted to cover. I'm gonna read verse 12 again from Genesis 18, verse 12. This is when Sarah laughs. Remember, these are the words she said. Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying, after I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also? You see what she calls Abraham? She calls Abraham her Lord, her Lord. Now, wives, how many times have you called your husband Lord? Christina, I don't think you've ever mentioned it to me once, all right? All right, look, I don't think any, I mean, I'm not gonna ask you to show of hands, okay? But I don't think it's happened very often, okay? Now, here's the thing. Of course, there's a cultural thing to this as well, okay? Calling him Lord. But the fact that I wanna bring to your attention here is that she recognizes that Abraham is her Lord, that she recognizes that Abraham is her head, that Abraham is her authority, and that she is subject unto her Lord, okay? And the fact that she calls him Lord, the fact that she calls him Lord shows us, it is something that God acknowledges in First Peter chapter three. Look at First Peter chapter three, verse one. First Peter chapter three, verse one. It says here, likewise ye wives, now this is important, wise, if you're a wife, or you're a soon to be wife, pay attention to this please. Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives. Now, this is a situation where a wife is married to a non-believer, or maybe a believer, but a very carnal Christian, someone that's not really walking with the Lord. But look, even if you're married to a poor Christian, even if you're married to a poor example of a husband, even if you're married to an unbeliever, the command here is to be in subjection to your husbands. One thing that I'm going to keep preaching at you guys, if you don't like it, you're gonna have to put up with it, is the authority structures, the God created institutions that God has given us in this world. And one of the most important ones, one of the ones that we're all part of, is the family units. Husbands, dads, you're the head of your home, you're in authority, okay? And children and wives, you're under the authority of that man, even if he's a non-believer, all right? What did it say there in verse number one? That if any obey not the word, even if your husband's not in obedience to the word of God, you're still meant to be under subjection to him. Then it said in verse number one, they also may without the word be won by the conversation, that being the behavior, the lifestyle of the wives. Wives, if your husband's not a spiritual leader, if he's failing in his role as a husband, God says, look, you can win them over, maybe not by the word of God, maybe they're struggling in that area, but by your behavior, by your lifestyle, by you being subject unto him, you can convince him to be that leader. You can show him, wow, my wife loves me, I'm failing as a husband, but she still loves me, she's still subject unto me, and that'll drive him to be a better leader. I'm not saying that's an excuse. He should be a leader, whether or not you're a good wife. But I'm saying by your behavior, by your lifestyle, you could encourage him to be that spiritual leader, or even get him saved. This is lifestyle evangelism, all right? Now, I'm not all for lifestyle evangelism, I'm for going out and preaching the gospel, and open your mouth boldly, opening the word of God, and showing people their last state and the need for Jesus Christ. But when it comes to your loved ones, sometimes you need to go not just with the word of God, but your lifestyle can actually make people see, wow, look at my wife, she's godly, she's righteous, I want a little bit of that. I wanna be able to guide her and lead her in the ways of the Lord. You can encourage him in that sense. Verse number two, it says there, while they behold your chaste conversation, that being your good behavior, coupled with fear. Coupled with fear. So it's not just being of good behavior, but it being coupled or being put together with fear, okay? Now, fear, of course, you can talk about fear like being in reverence or honoring your husband, okay? You should, if you're under the authority of anybody, you should have a healthy fear toward that authority, okay? And that being you giving them reverence, you giving them that honor, okay? You don't wanna let down the one who's above me, in a sense. That's what it's talking about, okay? Now, you should have a fear for your husband. You should have reverence toward your husband, okay, wives. But if you say, well, I'm struggling in that area as well, well then, look, the passage here is kind of left quite open with fear. Well, I hope you have a fear for the Lord, you should have a fear for the Lord. And if you have a fear for the Lord, and you know the Lord wants you to be subject unto that man, then I hope the fear of the Lord drives you to be subject to your husband, all right? Verse number three, who's adorning, speaking to the women here, who's adorning, let it not be the outward adorning of plating of the hair and the wearing of gold or putting on of apparel. Now, there's nothing wrong with putting on apparel, all right? What this is saying, like, you take this to an extent where you can't braid your hair, you can't, you know, put on gold, okay? But then if you take it to that logical conclusion, it says, or to put it on apparel, well, is God saying women don't put on clothes? Of course, what this is saying is that it's fine to do these things, but don't let that be what you're all about. You know, women, don't let it be just your physical appearance that makes you, you know, feel important, or that's what you feel you need to show in the world. Verse number four, but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible. Hey, what is not corruptible in you? The new man, the spiritual man, the saved one, okay? Let it be the hidden man of the heart, you know, even the adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. Man, women, if you just walk in the spirit, you just put on that new man, you put away the flesh, the Bible says here that God looks upon you as one of great price, of great value. That should be what's important. That should be what comes out in your life when you're dealing with your family, your husband, your children, your neighbors, your church members, let it be the inward man that's on display, that meek and quiet spirit. It's not saying, you know, don't worry about the outlook. You know, all ladies care to some extent about their physical appearance. There's nothing wrong with that, okay? You should take care of yourself, okay? You should do that. But more important than that, more important than that is making sure that you're walking in the spirit, okay? Verse number four, oh, I read verse number four, sorry. I read verse number five. For after this manner, look at this. So we say, why are we doing this? Why? Well, because now we go back to Genesis 18 here in verse number five. For after this manner in the old time, the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves being in subjection unto their own husbands. How did they adorn themselves? By walking in the spirit, by walking in the new man, right? But look at verse number six. Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters ye are as long as ye do well and are not afraid with any amazement, okay? So the Bible here uses the example of Sarah calling Abraham Lord. That's not saying here that you need to go around calling your husbands Lord, okay? That's not what it's saying. This is just giving an example of how women ought to be subject unto their husbands, okay? Even as, here's the example in the Old Testament, how Sarah was obedient. She cooked the meal. She cooked those pancakes or whatever and she was under the authority. She called him Lord. She recognized Abraham as her master, as the head of the home. And then it says he whose daughters ye are. And of course, if you're saved ladies, you are in a sense that spiritual descendant, spiritually of Sarah, but it's not just the salvation. It says here, as long as you do well. So when you walk in the spirit, when you're doing well as a spiritual person, the Bible says, hey, you're like a daughter of Sarah. You're following after the example of Sarah. And then it says, and are not afraid with any amazement. Now, if you guys have an idea of what that means, I'll give you my thoughts just quickly. I was kind of, this part in the chapter took me the longest. I kept reading it and I'm not afraid of any amazement. What's that about? What I think this is saying here is, ladies, one other thing that is probably common to many of you are your insecurities. And this might prevent you from being hospitable to other people. This might prevent you from serving other people because you may feel, well, I come short of that. I have insecurities, I have issues. I might not put on a good show. What are they gonna say? If there's a bit of dirt in the corner of my house here, what are people gonna say? And you get all overwhelmed with those things. You have those fears. And that's why I believe it says here, and I'm not afraid with any amazement. I think what it's saying here is that don't allow your insecurities to prevent you from servitude. Don't let your lack of confidence, your fear of yourselves stop you from serving the brethren. God has actually made you in a special way to recognize needs of other people. Men, we don't really think like that very much. We're not very good at recognizing needs in other people, but women, ladies, you have that knack. God has given that within you and the ability to be of service, to be a help to other people. Verse number seven, let's not forget about the men now. I'll talk about the women. Verse number seven. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge. Hey, live with your wives but with knowledge. Get to know your wives. Spend time with your wives. Know how you ought to treat your wives. Know what God says about you being that spiritual leader, that head with knowledge. Don't be stupid. We have the Simpsons, Homer Simpson, whatever. All these shows show men to be utterly idiots, stupidity, stupid people. But this is what the world wants. The world wants you to think that men are stupid. They want you to think that men don't know anything. And look, there's a sense in that you can be that way. That's why God says, look, dwell with your wives with knowledge. Be smart about how you conduct yourself. Be the leader in your home. It says given honor. It's not just wives giving honor to their husbands, but it says husbands giving honor unto the wife. How do we give honor unto our wives? When you recognize here as unto the weaker vessel. When you recognize that your wife is weaker in many ways. She is naturally weaker physically. She can be weaker spiritually. She can be weaker emotionally. And if you're attacking your wives because she's weak in these areas, you're not dwelling with her with knowledge. This is where you need to step in and be that comfort. You need to step in and be that rock to that weaker vessel. Encourage your wife, strengthen your wife. And as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered. You see, bad marriages will hinder prayer, okay? What do we see with Abraham and Sarah? We see a strong marriage. We see they're constantly in prayer. We see the Lord is constantly speaking to them. Not just to Abraham, remember God says, where's Sarah, where is she? The Lord cares and wants to know where Sarah is and the Lord is there giving Sarah this special promise that we saw there in Genesis 18. And guys, I'm gonna keep preaching about the authority structure. I'm gonna keep it. We live in a world where people do not wanna take responsibility, accountability anymore. Men that are soft. They don't wanna be leaders anymore, okay? And when people don't wanna take leadership, they're not taking on accountability, okay? And they just let things go, all right? My wife just wants to do it that way. My kids just wanna do it that way. My boss didn't give me what I needed to do in my work. Everyone today, what frustrates me is seeing people not taking accountability for themselves. Not taking things and just owning it. Hey, this is my job. This is my responsibility, this is my role. I'm gonna own it, all right? And when we do well, I'm going to be encouraged. When we do badly, I'm just gonna take it, say, well, I'm gonna do better next time, okay? I'm sorry I messed up this time. I'm gonna do better next time. And I've seen this with the new generation, guys. I used to be an employer. I used to hire heaps of people. It was so hard to find just good workers in this new generation. You know, they're lazy. They don't wanna come to work on time. They don't wanna sit there and do their work. They'd rather check Facebook and take photographs, all right? And when you push them a little bit, hey, get back to work, they get offended. What are you saying, I'm a poor worker? What are you saying? You know, you're making me feel uncomfortable, you know? You're not giving me my, what is it, safe space? Whatever. I mean, man, I don't know what's going on. You know, people don't wanna just be hard workers. Look, there's authority structures within a family. There's authority structure within the church, within the workplace, all right? Within the home. And why is this important? It's because this is the nature of God, the Trinity. There is an authority structure within the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son is subject unto the Father. God the Holy Ghost is subject unto them, all right? There is an authority structure within the nature of God. Someone calls the shots, and someone carries out the work. This is why God has created institutions on this earth, because that's a perfect representation of how it should be. That's how life is going to work. That's how we're gonna be successful. That's how we're going to progress in life and do great things. When we recognize the head, and the head takes accountability, the head takes ownership, and we recognize those that are subject unto the head, and they do the work in obedience to that one in authority. And of course, God, Jesus Christ, is above every authority over every leader. Look, this is the hill that I'm gonna die on, okay? This is the doctrine I'm gonna keep preaching, because not only do I see a lack of leadership within churches, I'm seeing it just across the world in general, okay? Even believers are no longer wanting to take responsibility for their actions. Even believers would rather blame the pastor for something they've messed up in their life, rather than just the heads of the home taking responsibility for themselves, all right? Back to Genesis 18, please. Genesis 18, verse 17. Genesis 18, verse 17. And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? So what's he going to do? He's going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, okay? Well, basically he's saying, look, should I reveal this to Abraham? Should I let him know, okay? Why? Verse number 18, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. And this is verse number 19. I'm not going to expand too much on it. I've already preached on a Father's Day message in the past, just on this verse alone, and I've turned to it a few times in this series in Genesis. But this is what he says about Abraham, and I love how he says this, right? For I know him. Hey, Abraham and God's having a close fellowship. They're walking together. He goes, I know Abraham, right? That he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord. I want you to remember that. This is the title of the sermon. They will keep the way of the Lord and do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which have spoken of him. And the Lord said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because the sin is very grievous. See what God's saying here? Yes, Abraham has been serving me. You know, he's been keeping the ways of my ways. He's been keeping the ways of the Lord. He's been instructing his family. But prior to that, he says, should I reveal to him what I'm going to do? That being, he's going to bring justice and judgment upon these wicked cities. And why did he destroy those cities? What was their grievous sin that we see in the next chapter? Sodomy, homosexuality, okay? These cities were filled with faggots, okay? These cities were filled with the filth, with the scum of the earth. And God says, I'm going to reveal this to Abraham, because I know he's going to teach his children. Think about this for a minute. Pastors get in trouble today when they preach against homosexuality, when they preach against sodomy. And God says, I want to reveal this to Abraham, because I know he's going to teach this to his family. That means, parents, we need to teach our kids about the wickedness in this world. Not just the wickedness, but the wickedness of homosexuality, the wickedness of sodomy, all right? We need to tell them, hey, this is wicked. God even brought judgment. He destroyed entire cities of people that are like this. He rained fire and brimstone. God couldn't even wait to cast them into hell. He just brought hell upon them immediately, okay? It's a wicked sin, and we're seeing this increase in our society today, okay? Parents, it's not time to be quiet about this. It's time for us to follow and do things in accordance to God's way, right? That's what God says about Abraham. He's going to teach his household about the sodomites. He's going to teach his household to hate them and the wickedness. He's going to teach them that they're just deserving of hell fire. This is what I'm going to reveal to Abraham. That's what's going on here. Keep it within the context. That's exactly what's going on here, okay? And then verse number 20, God says that the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous. What I want you to do is go to Ezekiel 16. Ezekiel 16. And I'm going to read to you from 2 Peter 2, verse six while you're going there. You go to Ezekiel 16, please. Ezekiel 16. And I'll quickly read to you from 2 Peter 2, verse six. The Bible says, And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, look at this, making them and sample unto those that after should live ungodly. You see, the lesson of Sodom and Gomorrah that we're going to look at next week is a lesson for today, to those that live ungodly today. This means this message needs to be preached today because Australia is becoming a Sodom and Gomorrah, all right? I don't know how long God's going to hold back his wrath, but of course, we know in the book of Revelation, when he lets it go, man, it's going to be severe, all right? And in sample, we need to teach our children, okay? We need to teach our children to be homophobic, all right? To be afraid of these wicked people, okay? To protect themselves when they grow up, to protect their children from the wickedness of these people. Hey, they're not just doing their sin in secret, okay? They want the world to know, they want acceptance by this world, and they want to recruit your children into their lifestyle, okay? They want to take advantage and abuse the innocent, all right? You guys are in Ezekiel 16, I should have read verse 21. I'll just quickly read to you, Genesis 18, 21. I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me, and if not, I will know. Not only was the city extremely wicked, but there were cries from that city, okay? Because they were destroying themselves, okay? And people were yelling and crying out because of the grievous sins this city had done. And of course, you remember the story, Lot, righteous Lot, the nephew of Abraham, is hanging out with these people, okay? But you guys are in Ezekiel 16, look at verse 49. Ezekiel 16, verse 49. The Bible gives us a little bit more information about their sins. Of course, the book of Genesis highlights the fact that they were homosexuals. But Ezekiel 16, verse 49 says, Behold, now, this is speaking about Jerusalem, okay? And then it compares Jerusalem to the Sodom and Gomorrah of the past. But it says in Ezekiel 16, 49, Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Imagine Jerusalem being called the sister of Sodom. They must have gone into a really bad place. But look at this, pride. The first word, pride. What do the Sodomites like to say about themselves? They like to talk about how prideful they are. Gay pride, they talk about. But look, this is Sodom and Gomorrah. We're right here, guys. Pride is never good in the Bible. It's always a sin, okay? It's always a sin, pride. They lift themselves up against the natural order of things that God has put in place. Pride, right? Fullness of bread and abundance of idleness. Now, when you're full of bread, we should ask the Lord for our daily bread. We should recognize that it's God that provides our every need. These guys had more. These guys were rich. They were abundant. They didn't need the Lord. You know, they saw themselves as self-made people and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy and they were haughty. That's another way of saying prideful. They were haughty and committed abomination before me. Therefore, I took them away as I saw good, okay? When God rained fire and brimstone and destroyed those cities, God says, I did good. I saw good. It was righteous, all right? When we see these wicked destroyed by the hands of God, we ought to say, this is good, okay? This is good. But notice, they're full of pride. The other thing I want you to notice, it said abundance of idleness. They had a lot of time. They weren't working hard, okay? They were lazy people with nothing else to do getting into sin. Let me encourage you, especially parents of your children, don't let your children become idle, okay? Give them work to do. Don't let them become a sister to Sodom because it's in their idleness that they're gonna find to do wicked things, sinful things, vain things. Make sure they're productive. They learn how to work hard so they don't take on this spirit that we see which became of Sodom and later on, Jerusalem itself. Verse number 50, it said, they were haughty and committed abomination. We know what that abomination is. We see that in Genesis, okay? The sins of homosexuality that had gone down a bad path, that had become reprobate in God's eyes. Back to Genesis 18 now. Genesis 18, verse 22. Genesis 18, verse 22. And the men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom. Remember that being the two angels. They've gone towards Sodom now. And Abraham stood yet before the Lord. Abraham's alone with God here. Verse 23. Now look, the rest of it is quite clear when you understand Abraham, we've seen this before, that he loves his nephew a lot. He loves him, yeah? He brought him up. He taught him also the ways of the Lord. Definitely a lot we know he's a saved man and this is why he has this conversation with God. He's obviously aware that Sodom and Gomorrah is going to be destroyed. He's aware that they're doing wickedly. He's aware that what God is doing is good but he's concerned about his nephew a lot. His nephew a lot is going to get caught up in this destruction. He's concerned there. And then verse number 23. And Abraham drew near that being to God and said, will thou also destroy the righteous or the wicked? Who's he thinking about? Lot, okay? Lot's righteous. He's saved. He's got the imputed righteousness of Christ upon him. So what about Lot, God? You know, he doesn't mention Lot but that's who he's thinking about. Okay, the righteous. Maybe Lot's family as well. We don't really know if, you know, others in his family were saved or not. We're not really aware of that. And then we have this interesting conversation here. Verse number 24. Let's read it. Peradventure, there be 50 righteous within the city. Will thou also destroy and not spare the place for the 50 righteous that are therein? Because God, are you going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah even if there are 50 righteous people there? Even if there's 50 believers, are you going to destroy it? Verse number 25. And that be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? And the Lord said, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. Wow. See, does God care for the righteous? Absolutely. Just look, yeah, okay. If I find 50 in this entire city, yeah, I'll spare the city for the righteous sake, okay. Now, should the righteous be in that city? Probably not, okay. But again, we see the mercy of God, the love of God. He loves his righteous. He loves his children, of course. He doesn't want to destroy his children. This is why we saw in the parable that God divides the sheep from the goats. He brings the sheep into his kingdom, but the goats are destroyed. This is why we believe in a post-trib, pre-wrath rapture is because before God pulls out his wrath on the wicked, he pulls away his righteous. He doesn't allow his righteous to be affected by the wrath that he would pour upon the wicked there. Verse number 26, sorry, verse number 27. And Abraham answered and said, behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes. So he's got the right spirit here. He's gonna ask God another question. He says, look, I'm just ashes, you know, trying to be humble here. Verse number 28. Peradventure, there shall lack five of the 50 righteous. Will thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, if I find there 40 and five, I will not destroy it, okay. So he starts with 50 goes, but what about 45 Lord? Would you destroy for 45? And you'll see he keeps going down and lower and lower. And let me explain to you why, okay. Lot was not a good Christian. Now, if Lot, look, we've seen Sodom and Gomorrah before in previous chapters. And we saw that at this point in time, they were still kind of okay people. You know, they were still able to repent from their wickedness. They hadn't gone to a place, you know, of reprobation in the sight of God. But Abraham knows that, well, Lot's been there for a while now. Lot's been there for over 10 years, hanging around that place. Surely, I hope Lot has been doing some soul winning. I hope Lot's been going out there and telling them to play, for them to place their faith in the Lord God. Hopefully, by now there's 50 saved in that city. But then he considers and goes, well, I know Lot's not a great example here. Maybe he's got 45 saved, right? Maybe he's gotten not to 50 saved, but maybe to 45, you know? And let's keep going there. Verse number 30, and he said unto him, oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Peradventure there shall be 30 found there. And he said, I will not do it if I find 30 there, all right? And he said, behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord. Peradventure there shall be 20 found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for 20's sake. As you see, it keeps going lower and lower from 30 to 20. Verse number 32, and he said, oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once. Just one more time, Lord, let me ask you a question. Peradventure then, Peradventure 10 shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for 10's sake. And the Lord went his way as soon as he had left communion with Abraham, and Abraham returned unto his place. So Abraham gets to a point where he's like, I hope Lot has given the gospel to at least 10 people there. I hope there's at least 10 safe people in that city. Lot, have you been doing your job, Lot? Please, you've had 10 years, you've had a solid period of time. I hope you've found at least 10 other righteous people in that place. Maybe just your family, your wife, your daughters, your sons-in-law, your grandchildren, if they had grandchildren at that point. I hope there's enough within the family for the Lord not to destroy that place for the sake of Lot. God destroys it, the next chapter. What does that tell you? That there weren't even 10 righteous people in that city. There weren't even 10. Lot had failed in his job as a soul winner. Lot had failed in his role as a Christian, as a believer. He acts like he's friendly to these people in Sodom. Hey, he's friendly with them, he's fellowshiping with them, but he's never taken the time to care about their souls. And they got into a place now where they reprobate. Now God's just going to destroy that city entirely. And of course, he pulls out Lot and his family from before he destroys that place. But I'll end on this, guys, and you know, the Sunshine Coast is not Sodom and Gomorrah yet. But it's getting there, all right? I thought when I left Sydney that I was going to get away from seeing these homos walking the street, honestly. Because I've heard Queensland's a little bit more conservative, you know, Queensland's, there's a little few more churches, people are generally, you know, I'm not saying they're believers, but generally, you know, Christian, a little bit more than the guys down in New South Wales. When I got up here, I was shocked, shocked to see the lesbians, to see the homosexuals, to see these kinds of things going on on the Sunshine Coast, you know? What are we going to do about it though? You know, are we just going to let this place become Sodom? Are we just going to let the Sunshine Coast be a sister of Sodom? Are we going to at least see 10 people saved, each one of us in this place? I hope you set that goal for yourself. You know what? If I can just get 10 people saved on the Sunshine Coast, each one of us, you know, that's my goal. I don't want this place to be like Sodom and Gomorrah. I hope you set that as your target and then start building it up the same way that Abraham counted down. Once you see 10 people saved, let's get 20. Let's get 30, 45, 50, continue. You know, righteousness exalts a nation. Hey, we can see this place. God has put us here for a purpose, okay? It's great to come together and have church. It's great to worship the Lord in song, all right? But the mission we're here for, guys, is to get that gospel out to our community. And I'll just say this, we can be doing more as a church. We can be doing more, so will we, okay? Definitely, okay? We can be doing more. And we need to figure out as a church, and I want your feedback, how can we do more? How can we make sure that each one of us gets the chance to get out there, even as a silent partner, just get out there and be supportive to the preachers. Let's get 10 people saved, you know? Now, we've got more than that saved as a church, but I'm saying each one of us, let's try to set that as a target for the Sunshine Coast. I don't want you to be like Lotz. I don't want you to be a bad example like Lotz, all right? I want you to say, no, you know what? I don't care how wicked this place is, I don't care how unreceptive this place is, how ungodly this place is, I wanna make sure I get out there preaching the gospel. Let me tell you, if you set a target to get out there every week, you will see 10 saved. You will see 10 saved. I'm not, this number is not an impossibility, okay? If you've never seen anyone get saved, you're probably thinking, I hope in my lifetime I get one person saved. Hey, that's a good aim to have, get one person saved. Start with one, then go to two. Before you know it, you'll get to 10. I promise you that. Let's leave it there and let's pray.