Abraham Intercedes for Sodom and Gomorrah

Introduction

Look with me if you would, at Genesis Chapter 18.  We are looking at a most remarkable passage of Scripture, you just heard it read, and it really is a passage that teaches us about faithful prevailing intercessory prayer.  One of the great ministries of the church, one of the great privileges of the church, that we can stand in the gap on behalf of those in our generation, and we can intercede as Abraham, our father in faith did.  You know, Scripture gives at least 190 exhortations or commands to prayer.  Isn’t that incredible?  One hundred ninety times God has said, “Draw near to me and ask.”  In James 5:16 it says, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”  Abraham gives us a display of that in Genesis 18.  Or, in 1 John 3 it says “whatever we ask we receive from him.”  What an incredible exhortation of prayer that is.  And how about this one?  John 15:7 says, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you.”  What a blank check from heaven, of course, tempered by the will of God, but why would we want anything that is not in the will of God.  And so, we stand, we intercede, we ask, and God has lavished to bless.

Matthew 21:22 says, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer,” and many other such exhortations.  Prayer is a proven active effectual reality in this world.  Now, it is a mystery, and we see that mystery somewhat in the encounter between Abraham and God.  God’s plan and Abraham’s initiative and his view of the thing as he stands on that ridge and looks down over those cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  But because it is proven and powerful and effective, and because there are so many commands and exhortations to prayer, the great men and women of God throughout time have taken up this prayer burden and have been faithful with it.  Athanasius, for example, prayed five hours every day.  Five hours every day.  Bernard of Clairvaux would not begin his daily activities unless he had spent at least three hours in prayer.  Augustine once set apart 18 months to do nothing but prayer.

Now, you can do that when you are a monk and you don’t have to hold down a regular job, but that’s all he did, 18 months focused on prayer.  Charles Simeon devoted the hours from 4 till 8 every morning to prayer.  John Wesley spent two hours daily in prayer beginning well before dawn.  John Fletcher frequently spent all night in prayer and would greet his friends saying, do I meet you in prayer?  In other words, I don’t want to interrupt your prayer time.  Martin Luther once commented very famously, “I have so much work to do that I have to give myself to an extra amount of prayer, perhaps three hours today.”  Oh, that speaks to our busy 21st century, doesn’t it?  What do we do to prayer when it gets really busy?  We pitch it.  We don’t have time for it.  But not Luther.  Now you say, “Well, I’m busy.”  Now, Luther, he was just running a reformation, the local church pastor, meeting with heads of state, writing letters and the commentaries, and all of that.

III. God’s Intimate Public Revelation to Abraham About Sodom

But I know you are busy and so prayer is a challenge for you, and that’s the very reason we’re looking at Genesis 18 today.  Francis Asbury rose each morning at 4 to spend time in prayer.  John Calvin, John Knox and Theodore Beza covenanted together that they would hold each other accountable to pray at least two hours every day.  And so, we see also in our text this morning, Abraham, our father in faith, in prevailing intercessory prayer, and that is what is in front of us.  Now, what is the context of this account?  Well, we began last week with Genesis 18, it is I think the context of intimacy with God, that is I think what holds the whole chapter together.  We saw last week, the intimate fellowship meal as the Lord was there, I believe, with two angels and Abraham set before them a meal.  And so, there is an intimate fellowship meal there, God with Abraham.  And then, also God’s intimate personal revelation to Abraham concerning Sarah, that this time next year he would return and Sarah would have a son, Isaac.

Angelic Mission to Sodom and Gomorrah

And so, there is an intimate personal revelation there, and so that is the context, and now thirdly, we see this intimate public revelation to Abraham, this time about Sodom.  Look at Verses 16-21, it says “When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.  Then the Lord said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I’m about to do?  Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.  For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.’”  Verse 20, “Then the Lord said, ‘The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.  If not, I will know.’”  And so, there is this angelic mission to Sodom and Gomorrah, the two men look down towards Sodom and they go on their way.

This is God initiating a personal investigation into the situation in Sodom and Gomorrah.  God says, “I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry, then I will know.”  This is what we call anthropomorphic language in which God kind of is speaking like we do.  I’m going to take a trip and find out and see.  We see this again and again in Genesis.  You remember in Genesis 3, how Adam and Eve heard the sound of God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, is what one translation says.  It’s this sense of the physicality of God or God kind of coming down to our level in a way we can understand.  See the same thing in Genesis 11 with the Tower of Babel, you remember?  You remember how God is looking down at this mighty tower that is rising up to the heavens, and God says, “Let’s go way down and see that tiny little tower that they’re making.”  And so, down they travel to see.  They had a long way to go to reach him.  But it is again, this anthropomorphic language, and we see the same thing here, we’ll go down and see if the outcry is as great, and if not, I will know.

So, there’s a sense of immediacy here, a sense of involvement, God is intimately involved in this judgment.  Now, it is not because God was near-sighted.  It wasn’t like he had to get closer to see.  Have you ever seen somebody near-sighted and they’re trying to read and they have to hold it just at the right length, or they have to get a little closer and squint?  Oh, that isn’t God.  God knew everything, He knew every inclination of the heart of Sodom, He knew the whole history, He knew all of their wicked deeds, He was intimately aware of every filthy excruciating detail.  Job says in Job 31:4, “Does he not see my ways and count my every step?”  And it says in Proverbs 5:21, “For a man’s ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all his paths.”  Why then does God speak like this?  Why this kind of language?  I will go down and see, and then, if not, I will know.  Well, I think the first purpose is to show God’s absolute commitment to justice to Abraham and to us.

What He is going to do to Sodom and Gomorrah is noteworthy, to say the least.  The cities are going to be erased by fire and brimstone, and immediately the sense of injustice may rise up, as it did with Abraham, and hence the intercession later on in this text.  And so, God wants to show above all things a commitment absolutely to justice.  God does nothing in wrath and judgment except what is deserved, and He is meticulously careful about preserving his reputation as a just judge.  And so, he’s going to investigate openly and clearly.  It says in Romans 3:4, “Let God be true, and every man a liar.  As it is written: ‘So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.’”  And it says later in that same Chapter, “. . . so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.”  And so, God uses this kind of language to show, “I have thoroughly and completely investigated this matter, and this is what the matter calls for.  I have looked into it, and I am not going by hearsay, I will know intimately the situation in Sodom and Gomorrah.”  That’s the first reason.

The second reason is, I think, to involve the angels.  He himself doesn’t go, but through the two angels he does the investigation.  Now realize that God doesn’t need to use the angels, but He chooses to, and why?  Because they are fellow servants with him.  They are involved in the redemptive history as it unfolds, God wanted them involved.  You know, interesting text in Revelation 19:10, John writing the Book of Revelation, after he had received this overwhelming vision from an angel.  God had sent the angel to show His servants that says what must soon take place.  John says “At this I fell at his feet to worship him.  But he said to me, ‘Do not do it!  I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus.  Worship God!’”  Did you hear what the angel called himself?  A fellow servant.  “I’m just doing a job; I’m serving just like you.”

The Outcry Against Wickedness:  How Long Must God Bear It

And so, God wanted to involve the angels and so he sends the two of them down, and we’ll see what happens to them in the next Chapter.  But for this reason, we see this language and the outcry against wickedness.  There’s an outcry coming up from Sodom and Gomorrah, a clamor of wickedness, the boisterous noise of parties, or screams of wounded brawlers who are too drunk to know what’s happened to them, or groans of sick drunkards or squeals of wild laughter, even worse, the outcry of blood from the ground of innocent victims.  That’s the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah, and God will investigate.  He will come and see if the outcry, if their deeds are as bad as the outcry, is it true?

God’s Deceptive Silence

And here ends very soon, God’s misunderstood silence.  You know, the wicked of the earth misunderstand God, don’t they?  When day after day is like the previous day, it seems as though God consents.  The Scripture says that “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God,’” and they assume that there is no God.  God says in another place, “you thought I was entirely like you because I didn’t do anything but remain silent in heaven.  And you thought I didn’t exist, or you thought I was like you, wicked.”  It is misunderstood silence.  Rather, God is patient and He is waiting.  His quiet encounter with Abraham is actually the calm before the storm of Genesis 19.  And there comes a day, a day in which all things are made right.

God’s Desire for Intimacy with His People

We see also in this text, God’s incredible desire for intimacy with his people.  God cannot hide from Abraham what He is about to do.  Look at Verse 17, “Then the Lord said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I’m about to do?’”  Now in Shakespeare’s plays and in other plays, you get these things called soliloquies, an actor or actress goes off to a part of the stage or perhaps is completely alone on a stage, and they just speak for a while to the audience.  It is the playwright’s way of letting you know into the mind of the actor to find out what they’re really thinking.  And so, you get these soliloquies, because we can’t read the mind of the actor or actress.  And so, Hamlet gives a soliloquy about whether he wants to go on living or not, or other actors or actresses in these plays, they give these soliloquies, and this way we can read the minds of the actors or actresses.  That’s exactly what’s going on here.

It’s interesting that not only can God not hide from Abraham what He is about to do, He couldn’t hide from us what He was thinking at the time.  And so, through the pen of Moses, He says, “I want you to know the deliberations that went on in my mind right before this prayer encounter.  I can’t hide from Abraham what I’m about to do.”  Realize that God is under no obligation to share a thing with us.  He doesn’t need to speak to us, He doesn’t need to tell us a thing.  He could have just erased Sodom and Gomorrah, He created it and everything in it.  He doesn’t owe us an explanation.  Nebuchadnezzar said this in Daniel 4:35, “All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing.  He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth.  No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’”  No one has the right to question God.  And do you sense that Abraham feels that too?  Again and again, he’s saying, “Oh Lord, don’t be angry with me,” or “I’m only dust and ashes.”

And so, there’s this sense, I don’t have the right to ask these questions.  But you see, God opens himself up, He reveals Himself to us.  It says in Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”  In other words, there are two categories of things in the mind of God, the things concealed, and the things revealed.  And he decided that this judgement on Sodom, he would reveal beforehand, ahead of time.  “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?”  It says in Amos 3:7, “Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.  That’s an incredible thing, God wants us to know.  He wants to open himself up, He wants intimacy with you.  And so, He has told you the most vital things you need to know about today and about the future in the Scripture.  He’s opened up his mind and his heart; He has told you what’s going to happen.

Jesus Christ is coming back someday.  The second coming of Christ, He is coming.  And on that day, there will be a great judgment, and just like Abraham called God here, the judge of all the earth, He is the judge of all the earth and you will stand before him.  More on that in a moment.  You see, God reveals his secrets to us through His servants, the prophets.  Now, what are the reasons for intimacy?  Well, we’ve talked about this and we discussed it last week, but it bears repeating and looking at in detail.  Look at Verses 18-19, it says, “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.”  Verse 19, “For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”  God has a generational or multi-generational view.  He’s looking down the road, and He has a purpose that He is unfolding here.

God’s Reasons for Intimacy:  from Generation to Generation

Now, what is the ultimate purpose?  What is the focus of the redemptive plan of God?  Is it not Jesus Christ?  Is Jesus not the focus of everything God is doing?  It says that he will become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through Abraham.  And so, Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, a descendant of Abraham, has come to bless the earth.  But God knows there is a long journey to travel from here to there, and so he describes how that redemptive plan is going to unfold.  It isn’t here yet.  The time for Jesus is still 2,000 years away.  And so, there’s a plan here, Abraham will become a great and powerful nation.  At this time next year, I will return and Isaac will be born.  And so, He has got a view down the road, and so, He has got to reveal Himself.  And what does he reveal?  Well, He says, first of all, “I have chosen Abraham so that he will direct his children and his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham, what He has promised him.”

There’s a chain here, like a chain link, one after the other.  First personal election, “I have chosen him.”  The end result, all nations on earth will be blessed.  But in the meantime, what?  Well, “I’ve chosen him so that he will direct his family after him, to keep the way of the Lord, so that the Lord may bring about what he has purposed.”  And so, we must be faithful just as Abraham was in training Isaac.  We must be faithful with our children.  I’ll say more to fathers at the end of the message, but this is such a direct word to us, isn’t it?  The need for fathers to be faithful, to entrust to their children a godly heritage.  And so, part of that is that God wants Abraham to know what he’s doing in Sodom and Gomorrah.  It wasn’t just an anomaly of Nature, it wasn’t just an accidental earthquake that just happened to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, no, this is direct judgment from God.  And it’s important for Abraham and his descendants after to know the heart of God in this matter.  It’s important so that they could be warned and protected from sin.

God’s Perfect Holiness and Wrath

It says in Ephesians 5:3-7, “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.  Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.  For of this you can be sure:  No immoral, impure or greedy person−such a man is an idolater−has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.  Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.”  Don’t you think He wants us to know that?

IV. God’s Intimate Intercession with Abraham

God Initiates Prayer

We are Abraham’s children by faith.  And so, it’s important that God draw near to us and warn us concerning the situation in Sodom and Gomorrah.  That is why he reveals himself intimately to Abraham.  He involves Abraham; He initiates prayer with Abraham.  I think it’s important as we look at this prayer encounter between Abraham and God, that God was both the Alpha and the Omega of this prayer encounter.  It was God who drew near.

And so, He opens up his heart and He says to Abraham, look at Verses 20-21, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin is so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.  And if not, I will know.”

And so, God reveals Himself, He shows himself to Abraham.  You know that God doesn’t need to use angels and He doesn’t need to use people.  He didn’t need to use Noah’s ark to save the animals, but He chose to do so.  He involved Noah and his hammer and his saws and his sons in His redemptive plan.  He didn’t need to do anything with Moses.  He could have rescued the people directly without Moses, but He chose to use Moses, his staff and his leadership; He chose to involve people.  And in the same way, God doesn’t need to send missionaries to the ends of the earth.  He doesn’t need to send missionaries to East Asia, He doesn’t need to send missionaries to Greece or to Africa, but He has chosen to involve us in His work.  And one of the number one ways we can be involved with God is, the same way Abraham was here, through intercessory prayer, that God initiates.  Realize that we would have no access, no prayer life, if God had not granted it.  It says in Verse 22, “The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.”

God looked at Abraham and saw properly what he was.  He was a sinner, saved by grace.  He was justified by faith in a Christ who would come later and realize that none of us has access into the very presence of the holy throne room of God, except that Jesus shed His blood.  He provided for us a new and living way into the throne of grace, and with it a command to come near, to draw near and let our consciences be sprinkled by the blood of Christ, to not stay distant.  And we know that that’s the problem in intercessory prayer.  We are sinners and He is holy.  It says in Isaiah 59, 1 and 2, “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.  But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”  Only in Christ is that taken away, that obstacle to intercessory prayer.  And so, Abraham stands before the Lord.  The Lord has initiated, and Abraham is ready, and he stands before the Lord, to intercede.

Abraham’s Three Great Concerns in Prayer

There are three great concerns on Abraham’s mind as he stands before them, and they are not equal.  One is greater than the next and the next is greater than the third.  Abraham’s first and greatest concern is for the honor and glory of God and for his reputation as a just judge.  That’s his first and greatest concern.  Abraham’s second concern is for the righteous in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah.  That’s his second concern.  Abraham’s third concern is for the city generally, as created by God, and a concern that the city be spared on behalf of the righteous, that the wicked might have more time to repent.  Those three are not equal in Abraham’s mind.  First and foremost, that God’s reputation might be established.  Look at Verse 25, this is Abraham speaking to God, “Far be it from you to do such a thing−to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike.  Far be it from you!”  And then he says, a fascinating thing, “Will not the judge of all the earth do right?”

I was in a class at MIT, it was a Bible class.  I have mentioned it before.  I took two Bible classes at MIT.  Just a word to those of you that are interested in pursuing theological education, MIT is not the place to go.  Okay.  If you’re interested in engineering or pure science, whatever, look at it.  It might be for you.  But theology, no.  And so, I took these two classes with some other Christian friends, and there are two different classes on the Bible, blasphemy and heresy 101, blasphemy and heresy 102, first semester, second semester.  And the professor, it seemed like his number one job was to separate us from any confidence that the Bible was actually the inspired word of God, and it seemed like every class, all it was, was just finding details and issues in which he was bringing up problems with the Bible.  And one of the things he brought up was Genesis 18:25, I’ll never forget it.  He said, “Now, it’s an interesting question as Abraham stands before God and he says, ‘Shall not the judge of all the Earth do right?’”  It’s almost like there is a standard of rightness above God, and that God needs to bow the neck to the standard of righteousness, that God has got to yield to it, He’s got to follow the rules, too.  Now, that’s an interesting thought, isn’t it?  Is there a standard of righteousness above God, that God has to follow, too?

Does He have to meet that standard or else He’s not righteous?  Well, let’s put it this way.  God is the standard of righteousness and God cannot behave contrary to His own nature.  That’s the issue, Abraham wants God to behave according to his own nature.  That’s all.  Now, where did Abraham himself get the sense of what’s right and wrong?  Is it not because he was created in the image of God?  And, therefore, is this not the moon reflecting rays back to the sun that gave it?  The moon has no light of its own, only a reflected light.  It came from the sun to begin with.  And so here is this created being, created in the image of God, speaking back to God concerning righteousness.  “Shall not the judge of all the Earth do right?”  God does right all the time, everything He does is right, just as everything God does is loving, because God is love.  Understand, God is not merely loving.  You and I can be loving.  We’re not always loving, but we can be loving; but we cannot be love.  That’s something only God can be.  And, we can behave righteously, but we cannot be righteousness.  That’s God.

“Shall not the judge of all the Earth do right?”  That is Abraham’s first concern, that the judge of all the earth’s reputation as a righteous judge would be established here.  Abraham’s second concern is the righteous in the city.  People misunderstand here.  They say that he’s interceding for lost people.  Indirectly, he is because there’s a concern for sparing the city.  Would you spare the city for the sake of the righteous?  You understand that.  And so, the city is in his mind, but his request is focused on whom?  Focused on the righteous.  Are you going to sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  Far be it from you, to do that.  And so, his concerns are first, God’s reputation as a just judge.  Secondly, the salvation of the righteous.  And who does he have in mind there?  Well, like they say, blood is thicker than water.  He’s concerned about his nephew, Lot.  Is Lot going to be swept away or is Lot going to be saved?  I think he’s counting Lot’s family among the righteous.  He’s got a wife, he’s got. . .  If you start to add them up, you could get up to 10 people.  I think he got to that point and said, “Okay, well, we’ve got Lot’s family.”

Well, apparently not, because the city got destroyed and God had promised He would not destroy it if there were 10 righteous people found in it.  But there was Lot.  And so, Abraham was concerned for the salvation of the righteous, and then thirdly, concerned with the city itself.  He is interceding that the city would be spared for the sake of the righteous.  God is concerned about that, too, because they are His created beings.  It says in Jonah 4:11, “But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well.  Should I not be concerned about that great city?”  Yeah, He’s concerned about the cattle because He made them, but He’s especially concerned about the 120,000 Ninevites who needed to repent.  And so, there is a concern in that order.

Now, as you look at this time of intercession, it’s really quite remarkable.  Someone said it’s like kind of a Middle Eastern bazaar, where there’s a kind of a dickering back and forth, there’s a bargaining.  I don’t think that’s what’s going on here, at all.  I think there’s a passion and a fear on Abraham’s part.  Do you see the fear?  How he’s afraid that he’s asking too much, he’s venturing forward timidly, kind of a step at a time?  I think that’s what’s going on here.  I don’t think it’s that he’s trying to bargain with God.  There is no such thing.

Abraham’s Character in Prayer

And as we look at Abraham’s revealed character in this prayer, we see a number of things.  First, I see faith.  It’s not directly mentioned, but what is faith but a response to the word of God.  Faith doesn’t generate anything.  Faith responds to God’s revealed Word.  And so, God unfolds his purpose concerning Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham responds in faith by praying about it.  Secondly, we do see intimacy, look at Verse 22, it says, “The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.”  There’s a sense of standing before God, an intimate relationship.  And then in Verse 23 it says, “Then Abraham approached him and said: ‘Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?’”  Do you see the intimacy in Verse 23?  Abraham drew near to God.  Oh, is this only perfected through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross?  Only by what He did on the cross, when He shed His blood and died, can there really be Immanuel.  God with us or near us or in us, and us close to Him as well.

It says in Hebrews 10:22, “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.”  Let us get close to God.  Let us lay aside everything that hinders intimacy with God.  So, we see intimacy.  We see also compassion.  He is concerned about what is going to happen to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.  There is a compassion there.  He feels their pain and their agony before it even happens.  That is what motivates his prayer.  And so, he is compassionate.  He is also bold, isn’t he?  Do you see boldness in this?  Boy, is he courageous.  He just keeps coming at it again and again, he even feels it.  Look at Verse 25, he says, “Far be it from you to do such a thing−to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike.  Far be it from you!  Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”  What a bold thing to say to God.  And then he feels it in Verse 27, “Then Abraham spoke up again: ‘Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes.’”  Do you see the boldness in prayer?  Do you see also the humility?  He calls himself dust and ashes.

Is that hyperbole?  Is that beyond what is really the case?  Don’t you remember what God said to Adam?  “Dust you are and to dust you will return.  I made you out of the dust of the earth.”  And Abraham accepted that, didn’t he?  He said, “I’m just dust, I’m just ashes.”  And so, there is a sense of humility and there is a sense of perseverance, isn’t there?  There is a relentlessness here−50 people, 45 people, 40 people, 30 people, 20 people, 10 people−six times he comes back to God with the same matter.  Oh, this convicts me in my prayer.  Are you this persistent in your prayer?  When you ask and don’t receive right away, do you keep on asking or do you give up quickly?  Abraham kept on going, kept pressing on, persevering in prayer.  And then finally, there’s that reverence, the sense that Abraham standing there, is standing before the judge of all the earth, and now he’s standing on behalf of some others.  He is interceding on behalf of some others, but someday, he will stand himself before the judge of all the earth and he will be judged.  And so, there is a reverence there, a sense of humility.

This is the character of Abraham in prayer, faith-filled, intimate, compassionate, bold, humble, persevering, reverent.  That’s the way we need to pray, isn’t it?  That’s the way we need to pray.

Abraham’s “Failure” in Prayer?

Now, I want to take up a matter concerning Abraham’s failure in prayer.  Abraham’s failure in prayer you might say, well, there is a godly man, E. M_. Bounds who wrote a lot of books on prayer, perhaps you have seen them, “Purpose in Prayer,” or “Prayer and Praying Men,” some of these things.  He was a godly man, lived in the 19th century, Christ-like in his demeanor, Methodist pastor in the 19th century in Tennessee and Alabama.  He woke every morning, 4 a.m., for prayer.  Once when he was visiting a friend and his family in Brooklyn, New York, the family was awakened by sounds in the middle of the night, it was 3 in the morning, and it was E. M. Bounds, crying out for the lost and for the needy in prayer.  This is the way he was.  Prayer just saturated his life.  But as you sometimes get with that kind of theological approach with the Methodist in particular, there was too much, I think, a man-centered focus in prayer.  And listen to what E. M. Bounds wrote about Abraham’s encounter with God here, in Genesis 18.  He said, “Sodom’s fate was for a while, stayed by Abraham’s praying, and was almost entirely relieved by the humility and insistence of the praying of this man who believed strongly in prayer and who knew how to pray.”

Listen to this, “Perhaps the failure to ultimately rescue Sodom from her doom of destruction was due to Abraham’s optimistic view of the spiritual condition of things in that city.  It might have been possible, who knows, that if Abraham had entreated God once more and asked Him to spare the city if even one righteous man was found there, for Lot’s sake, He might have heeded Abraham’s request.”  Now, what is the basic idea?  Abraham stopped too soon.  He should have kept praying because we know there was one righteous man there, 2 Peter tells us that Lot was righteous, and so the city would have been spared.  And so, there is almost a subtle blaming of Abraham for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Now E. M. Bounds would say, “Certainly not, because it was their own wickedness, but perhaps God might have extended the stay of righteous or of grace and mercy if he had only asked one more time.”

Abraham’s Success in Prayer

Well, I think there could be some confirmation of this in Abraham’s own heart the next morning.  Look over at Genesis 19, the very next chapter, 27 and 28, it says, “Early the next morning, Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord.”  So, the next morning he goes to the place where he prayed.  Verse 28, “He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.”  Have you ever felt like that was your prayer life?  You asked for something and you get exactly the opposite, it seems, of what you asked for.  And so, it seems as though perhaps he felt he had failed in prayer.  But did he really fail?  I think not.  There is a clear statement, the very next one in Verse 29 of Chapter 19, look what it says, “So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.”  He remembered Abraham.  I don’t think He just remembered that Abraham was related to him, I think directly, it’s connecting to the previous chapter.  He remembered his intercessory prayer; it was in response to the prayer that Lot was rescued, that he was delivered.

And also, did Abraham get what he was asking for?  Were all the righteous saved from Sodom and Gomorrah?  Seems that way.  He got the second thing he asked for, namely that all the righteous would be delivered.  They were.  And actually, some who were not righteous were delivered out, Lot’s daughters came out with him and his wife, although she didn’t make it the whole way.  We’ll get to that, next time.  But some that were not righteous made it out, too, so he got even more than he asked for.  And at the moment when Abraham was standing there on the ridge, looking at the smoke rising up from Sodom and Gomorrah, where was Lot at that moment but in Zoar, that little city, safe with his daughters.  God had answered his prayer even though he didn’t know it.  The whole problem I have with E. M. Bounds’ approach is that, he forgot who the alpha and the omega of prayer is.  Isn’t that the problem?  Who began this prayer encounter?  God did.  Yes.  And who ended it?  Well, let’s look and see, Verse 33.  It says, “When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.”

Who ended the prayer time?  God did.  He stopped at 10.  Right?  Now, when a servant is standing before a king, who gets to end the encounter?  Who gets to turn and walk away?  Is it not the king?  And what happens to the servant, if the servant turns and walks away, ending the encounter?  He might get in trouble, serious trouble.  And so, the servants stood before the king until the king was done, and the king was done at Verse 33, and He went back and ended the prayer encounter.  It was God’s purpose to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.  And so, he did not wait.  But one more thing.  Was not little Zoar spared in the exact way that Abraham had in mind?  Lot went out to Zoar, and there was one righteous person in the little city of Zoar, and it was spared.  All of it was spared because of Sodom.  Now what, because of Abraham.

V. Application

What application can we take from this?  Well, more than anything.  Prevailing, passionate, intercessory prayer.  How many of you would say you are satisfied with your prayer lives?  How many of you can read this through and say, “Now, that’s what I do on a regular basis?”

I have been deeply convicted by Genesis 18, and I have been convicted on behalf of our church.  Can I urge you to take part in our corporate prayer life with our church?  There is power in corporate prayer, there is power in coming together.  Be at the next quarterly corporate prayer meeting, Sunday evening, the end of the month, be there.  Pour out your heart to God in prayer for mission work and for lost people around you, and for the righteous people you know that they would stand firm in the day of temptation.  Be there and pray.  Be there with us on Sunday morning.  We pray every morning, 9 o’clock in the parlor.  I like to see that place so packed out, we have to come in here.  I guess you got music, things going, we will work it out.  Just pack it out, let’s come and pray.  We pray for half an hour, for the service and for mission work and for anything that we feel led to pray for.  Come and pray at 9 o’clock, pray on Wednesday evening, but then let’s fill out into other times.  Yes, you can pray on Tuesdays, with brothers and sisters in Christ, you can get together and pray.  Let’s intercede.  Let’s be bold and courageous.

Let me speak also, to fathers.  I have said this last week, I will say it again.  Fathers, take responsibility for the spiritual welfare of your homes, take responsibility.  Even if your kids are grown, still you have an influence over your grandkids.  Fathers, take the lead as Abraham, our father in faith did.  And mothers, you too.  Parents are entrusted with the responsibility of training their children in godliness, the Book of Proverbs is clear on this.  And so, have a multigenerational view.  Lead your children to walk in a way that is right, don’t leave it to the church ministry to do it.  We are not here for that.  We are here to exhort you to be faithful in your calling.  And finally, all of you, but especially those of you who sit here today and don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, think of what Abraham said in Verse 25, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”  This is the God before whom each one of us will stand on Judgment Day, and only by the blood of Christ, will we survive that scrutiny, only by the blood of Christ, will we not be condemned for every careless word we have spoken throughout life.

Jesus shed His blood, that we might be able to stand before the judge of all the earth, blameless and unafraid.  Trust in Him today.  And those of you who have already trusted in Christ, remember, there will come that day when you stand and give an account for your life, for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

Introduction:  The Mystery of Prevailing Prayer

Prayer is the channel of intimacy, fellowship and communication with the true and living God. It is the greatest source of power we have to accomplish God’s purposes in our lives and in the world. It is God’s gift to be enjoyed. Any believing man or woman can do anything God ordains when he or she learns to pray according to His will in the name of Christ.

Prayer is where the mortal, weak, sinful, finite human being meets the all wise, omnipotent and ever loving Creator. It is the meeting place where Divine and human desires are discussed.

Prayer has no substitute. At least 190 times in the Bible, God promises to answer our prayer when we follow His guidelines.

James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.”  1 John 3:21-22 (NKJV) 

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”   John 15:7 (NKJV) 

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21:22

Prayer is a proven, active and prevailing reality. It is not an empty formality of religious exercise. Prayer is a personal contact with God Himself. Again and again in Church History, God has moved mightily in direct answer to prayer.

The heroes of the faith through the ages have always been diligent, vigilant, and constant in prayer. They humbled themselves before God with prayers, petitions, and supplications always acknowledging their utter dependency upon His mercy and grace. Historical anecdotes abound. Athanasius, for instance, prayed five hours each day. Augustine once set aside eighteen months to do nothing but pray. Bernard of Clairveaux would not begin his daily activities until he had spent at least three hours in prayer. Charles Simeon devoted the hours from four till eight in the morning to God. John Wesley spent two hours daily in prayer–beginning well before dawn. John Fletcher regularly spent all night in prayer. His greeting to friends was always, “Do I meet you praying?”

Martin Luther often commented, “I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.” Francis Asbury rose each morning at four in order to spend two hours in prayer. Samuel Rutherford began praying at three. If ever Joseph Alleine heard other craftsmen plying their business before he was up, he would exclaim, “Oh how this shames me. Doth not my master deserve more than theirs?”

John Calvin, John Knox, and Theodore Beza vowed to one another to devote two hours daily to prayer. John Welch thought the day ill-spent if he did not spend eight or ten hours in prayer. The extraordinary thing is that such fervent praying was not considered to be particularly extraordinary.

In our text this morning, we see Abraham, our father in faith, standing before the eternal God in prevailing prayer

It is an amazing account of his deep thirst for intimacy with God

Context:  Genesis 18, a chapter of intimacy

I.  God’s Intimate Meal with Abraham

II.  God’s Intimate Personal Revelation to Abraham About Sarah

Now…

III.  God’s Intimate Public Revelation to Abraham About Sodom (vs. 16-21)

vs. 16-21   When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. 17 Then the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” 20 Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

A.  Angelic Mission to Sodom and Gomorrah

1.  Personal investigation:  God says “I will go down to see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry…”

a.  “anthropomorphic language”… common in Genesis

·      Genesis 3:  Adam and Eve hear the sound of God walking in the cool of the day

·      Genesis 11:  Let us go down and see this Tower they are building

·      Here:  I will go down and see if the outcry is as great… if not, I will know

b.  to give a sense of immediacy and human involvement

c.  NOT because God didn’t already know exactly what was going on in Sodom

God is NOT “nearsighted”… “I will go down to see…”

God knew every filthy, excruciating, repulsive detail of the thoughts and actions of every man, woman, child who had ever lived in Sodom and Gomorrah!!

Job 31:4 Does he not see my ways and count my every step?

Proverbs 5:21 For a man’s ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths.

Why, then, does God speak like this?

Why does He take the time to send the angels to investigate?

2.  Purpose #1:  to show God’s absolute commitment to justice

a.  God does nothing in wrath and judgment except what is deserved

b.  God is meticulously careful about protecting His reputation as a just judge

Romans 3:4 Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.”

Romans 3:19 … so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

3.  Purpose #2:  to involve the angels in His work  [He doesn’t need to use them, but chooses to, just like He chooses to use us…

Revelation 19:10 At this I fell at [the angel’s] feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!

B.  The Outcry Against Wickedness:  How Long Must God Bear It

1.  The issue:  Sodom and Gomorrah’s horrible wickedness

2.  The “Outcry”… like the earth, crying out about Abel’s blood… the outcry of injustice, and wicked perversion, the outcry of prosperity gone bad

a.  clamor of wickedness… boisterous noise of parties, screams of wounded brawlers, groans of sick drunkards, squeals of wild laughter

b.  even worse, the outcry of blood from the ground, of helpless victims murdered

c.  especially the cry of the earth that has had to bear Sodom and Gomorrah all these years

C.  God’s Deceptive Silence

1.  Wicked people are often deceived by God’s silence… as though He doesn’t exist, doesn’t care, or is evil like them

2.  NOT TRUE… this quiet encounter with Abraham is the calm before the second most terrifying storm in history, after Noah’s flood

D.  God’s Desire for Intimacy with His People

1.  God cannot hide from Abraham what He is going to do

2.  Fascinating:  internal deliberation in the heart of the Lord:  “Shall I hide…???”

vs. 17 Then the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?”

God has the right to hide anything from us that He wants to!!!

He is under NO OBLIGATION to reveal Himself or His plans to us

Daniel 4:35 All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?”

Romans 11:33-34  Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!  “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

God decides what He will reveal and what He will conceal…

Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

All that God reveals to us is simply GRACE on His part… He doesn’t owe us insight, explanation, prediction, warning, permission… He is God, He is the King

AND YET, for all of that, God delights to reveals Himself and His plans to us

3.  God reveals Himself to His people

ESV Amos 3:7 “For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah has far greater impact if God predicts it and explains His reasons for it ahead of time to Abraham and to the world through him

God desires relational intimacy and will not hide this from us

NASB John 14:2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.

“If it were not so I would have told you” implies that God delights to open His mind up to His servants

D.  God’s Reasons for Intimacy:  from Generation to Generation

1.  Already seen this in detail… Abraham chosen by God to be God’s instrument for the blessing of ever nation on earth

vs. 18-19   Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

2.  From generation to generation Abraham will direct his household to walk in the ways of the Lord

3.  VITAL VERSES ON GOD’S MULTIGENERATIONAL PLAN FOR THE FAMILY

a.  why does God reveal Himself?  Ans.  Abraham will become a mighty nation and all nations on earth will be blessed through him

Definitely referring to the Jews generally, and to Jesus Christ specifically

b.  connection between verse 18 and verse 19:  the blessing to the nations is in direct connection with Abraham teaching his children to “keep the way of the Lord”

c.  Abraham’s true seed are a godly nation, who keep the way of the Lord

Application:  Godly fathers MUST follow this same example with their children

This is what God delights in in a family, in a godly father

19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

The start of it all is personal ELECTION…

 19 For I have chosen him

The result of election is Abraham’s godly parenting, godly training of his son, and his household to be holy

The result of Abraham’s obedience:  fulfillment of all promises

4.  As part of that, it is good for Abraham to understand God’s fierce wrath against the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah… as a warning to him and his descendents forever

Ephesians 5:3-7   But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person– such a man is an idolater– has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.

Intimacy here reveals God’s holy wrath and serves as a safeguard for us:

Exodus 20:20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

E.  God Reveals His Plan to Abraham

vs. 20-21  Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

1.  More than just a simple fact-finding mission

2.  Abraham knows full-well that the wrath of God is coming on Sodom and Gomorrah

3.  In fact, he’s probably been expecting it for some time

4.  Note human language:

I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

5.  God includes Abraham in the anguish of the destruction of human beings, just as Christ included the disciples in the hunger of the 5000

“They don’t need to go away, you give them something to eat!”

·      God could have saved the animals without Noah’s Ark… but He chose to use Noah’s obedience

·      God could have delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt without Moses’ staff, but He chose to use Moses’ obedience

·      God could have destroyed the inhabitants of Jericho without Joshua’s orders to walk around the walls for seven days, but He chose to use Joshua’s obedience

·      God could have killed Goliath with a bolt of lightning from the clear sky, but He chose to use David’s slingshot and stone

·      God could have chosen to save the nations without missionaries risking their lives, but He chose to use the Moravians, William Carey, Adoniram & Ann Judson, Hudson Taylor, Lottie Moon, and countless others as obedient vessels to carry Christ’s name to the ends of the earth

·      God has always chosen to INVOLVE His children in His work by means of their faith, their obedience, their prayers, their generosity

F.  God’s Perfect Holiness and Wrath

1.  More than anything, intimacy with God means understanding God’s perfect holiness

2.  Isaiah’s vision:  the seraphim continually cry “Holy, holy, holy…”, and Isaiah’s intimate vision of Christ brings him to cry against his own wickedness

Isaiah 6:5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

3.  Anyone drawn close to God soon feels the searing brilliance of God’s pure light

1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

IV.  God’s Intimate Intercession with Abraham

A.  God Initiates Prayer

1.  Remember:  this entire encounter was initiated by God Himself

2.  We would have no access, no prayer life, if God had not granted it

Isaiah 59:1-2  Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

3.  ALL prayer is heard through Christ… were it not for Christ’s death on the cross, no man would be righteous enough to stand in God’s presence

Hebrews 10:19-22  Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Intimacy in prayer is an IMMENSE privilege, very costly… it was bought with the precious blood of Christ

God here initiates the prayer encounter… theologically understand:  God is the Alpha and the Omega of prayer… God begins prayer by initiating the encounter

The initiative is also the potency of God’s threatened wrath against Sodom and Gomorrah

The terror of God’s eternal wrath against lost sinners should motivate us to passionate prayer as well

B.  Abraham’s Three Great Concerns in Prayer

1.  God’s Reputation

Genesis 18:25 Far be it from you to do such a thing– to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Abraham’s central concern here is God’s name, God’s honor, God’s glory as a righteous judge… the salvation of the righteous is secondary!!!

Note:  MIT class on Bible… professor’s question:  is God Himself also under a standard of righteousness higher than Him

Answer:  Not “higher than” God, but intrinsic to God’s very nature

“God is love”, not merely “God is loving”

“God is light” = God is the standard of righteousness

Abraham’s internal sense of right and wrong comes from being created in God’s image… the moon is reflecting the light back to the sun who gave it and saying, “Shall not the sun be bright?”

2.  God’s People

NOTE:  Abraham is NOT praying for the wicked people of Sodom, primarily

He is there on behalf of the righteous… certainly he has Lot and his family in mind

3.  God’s Creation

Jonah 4:11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”

In a final sense, Abraham IS concerned with the whole city of Sodom and Gomorrah… concerned because it is God’s creation that He will destroy

C.  Abraham’s Character in Prayer

1.  Faith:  Word-based response

It started with God revealing His plans to Abraham… “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?”

2.  Intimacy

NIV Genesis 18:22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD.

NAU Genesis 18:23 Abraham came near and said, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

Hebrews 10: 22  let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith

3.  Compassion

Concerned for the welfare of the righteous in the city… afraid for them, lest they be swept away in the wrath of God

4.  Boldness

Abraham is willing to challenge the Lord’s righteousness

Vs. 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing– to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Abraham senses the incredible boldness he is showing by pressing God again and again

Genesis 18:27 Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes

5.  Humility

To call Himself “dust and ashes” is very humble

6.  Perseverance

Abraham is relentless in prayer… 50 people, 45, 40, 30, 20, 10… six times he intercedes for the righteous of Sodom and Gomorrah

7.  Reverence

For all the boldness and perseverance, Abraham remembers to whom He is speaking… the JUDGE OF ALL THE EARTH

By faith he understands that every single human being who has ever lived will someday stand before this holy judge… Abraham himself will stand before Him to be judged

This is the character of Abraham in prayer:  faith-filled, intimate, compassionate, bold, humble, persevering, and reverent

D.  Abraham’s “Failure” in Prayer?

1.  E. M. Bounds’s assessment

E.M. Bounds, passionate, Christ-like Methodist pastor in the nineteenth century in Tennessee and Alabama; arose every morning at 4 a.m. for three hours of prayer… once while staying at a friend’s house in Brooklyn, NY, he inadvertently awoke the whole house at 3 a.m. with the intensity of his praying and weeping over the lost… he was 76 years old at the time!!

An expert on prayer, he wrote passionately and frequently about the subject… however, like many Methodists following Wesley’s example, he was sometimes too man-centered in his thinking on prayer

His basic idea:  God does nothing except in answer to prayer;  if something is not happening, it’s because believers are not praying for it sufficiently

He said:

“Sodom’s fate was for a while stayed by Abraham’s praying, and was almost entirely relieved by the humility and insistence of the praying of this man who believed strongly in prayer and who knew how to pray… Perhaps the failure to ultimately rescue Sodom from her doom of destruction was due to Abraham’s optimistic view of the spiritual condition of things in that city.  It might have been possible—who knows?—that if Abraham had entreated God once more, and asked Him to spare the city if even one righteous man was found there, for Lot’s sake, He might have heeded Abraham’s request.”

Idea:  Abraham stopped too soon… he should not have stopped at ten righteous people in Sodom

E.M. Bounds subtly blames Abraham for Sodom’s destruction!!

2.  The witness of Abraham’s own eyes

Genesis 19:27-28  Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD.  He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.

Abraham himself may well have felt he failed in His prayers for Sodom…

Have you ever felt this way in your prayer life?  You ask for one thing and get what seems to be the exact opposite??

3.  But did he really fail?

E.  Abraham’s Success in Prayer

1.  Clear statement in Scripture

Genesis 19:29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

At the very moment when Abraham was looking at the dense cloud of smoke, Lot was safe in a cave with his daughters…

“God remembered Abraham” ALMOST CERTAINLY refers to Abraham’s prevailing prayer

2.  All the righteous were saved, and some who were not

Remember, Abraham was NOT praying for the wicked people of Sodom, but rather that God would save the righteous

And all the righteous WERE saved… all ONE of them!  Plus two daughters who were not so righteous

3.  Refuting E. M. Bounds:  It was God who began the encounter, and it was God who ended it too

Abraham didn’t begin the prayer encounter… God did

Neither did Abraham END the prayer encounter, but God did

Genesis 18:33 When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

Illus.  When a servant stands before a King, the servant is not free to end the encounter… the servant cannot simply walk away.  Rather, it is the King who ends the encounter.

Lesson:  Abraham did not fail in prayer, but rather God granted His request by rescuing Lot

Our faithful prevailing prayer is effective EVEN if God hides the effectiveness from us… it may seem like our prayer life is up in smoke, like Abraham must have felt the next morning… but God heard Abraham, and God hears us

When we pray 1) for His glory and name’s sake 2) for the accomplishment of His purposes and the salvation of His chosen people

V.  Application

Passionate, Prevailing Prayer for Spiritual Power, for Boldness in Evangelism, for the Moving of the Spirit’s Wind and Fire

When Hudson Taylor went to China, he made the voyage on a sailing ship. As it neared the channel between the southern Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra, the missionary heard an urgent knock on his stateroom door. He opened it, and there stood the captain of the ship.

“Mr. Taylor,” he said, “we have no wind. We are drifting toward an island where the people are heathen, and I fear they are cannibals.”

“What can I do?” asked Taylor.

“I understand that you believe in God. I want you to pray for wind.”

“All right, Captain, I will, but you must set the sail.”

“Why, that’s ridiculous! There’s not even the slightest breeze. Besides, the sailors will think I “m crazy.” Nevertheless, the captain finally agreed. Forty-five minutes later he returned and found the missionary still on his knees. “You can stop praying now,” said the captain. “We’ve got more wind than we know what to do with!” )

Errol Hulse, editor of Reformation Today:

Throughout history, the church has been revived and enlarged through outpourings of the Spirit. Jonathan Edwards, a leader in the First Great Awakening, writes; “It may be observed that, from the fall of man to our day, the working of redemption in its effect has mainly been carried on by remarkable pourings out of the Spirit of God…at special seasons of mercy.” Without periodic, extraordinary visitations of God, the church inevitably degenerates.

Nearly a century has passed since the church has experienced widespread revival. Although the gospel has advanced into more places and nations than ever before, the church faces defeat in many ways. Glowing statistics can never measure the spiritual climate of the church.

In our generation we have increasingly suffered from spiritual lethargy and powerlessness. There is a high percentage of weak and lukewarm Christians in western churches who evidence little interest in growing in grace and knowledge. The church may be bustling with activity and at the same time be infiltrated and permeated with the world’s thinking and doing. It is sometimes the case that our forms of worship camouflage a dead spiritual condition.

Today the church world-wide is struggling. The impact of our churches upon the spiritual state of the world as, with all too few exceptions, been minimal. The missionary effort among us is feeble. The enemies of the gospel are winning the say in almost every area of the world.

Our paramount need is for heaven sent revivals of the kind that have adorned the history of the church. Nothing less than the powerful work of the Holy Spirit on a massive scale will meed the desperate spiritual poverty of our age, and remove the gross darkness that covers the nations. Only the manifestation of God in the midst of His people can give the church victory, making her the “praise of the earth.”

Jonathan Edwards said elsewhere that when God has something very great to accomplish for his church, it is His will that there should precede it the extraordinary prayers of his people, quoting from Ezekiel 36:37 — “I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them.” In Zachariah 12:10 it is revealed that, when God is about to accomplish great things for His church, He will begin by a remarkable pouring out of “the Spirit of grace and supplication.” It is the invariable constitution of the kingdom of heaven that blessings of great magnitude are not imparted except to prayers of the deepest urgency.

History demonstrates this principle. The common precursor to revivals has been prevailing prayer. Pentecost, which was the first Christian revival, followed ten days of intense prayer characterized by whole-hearted unity (Acts 1:!4, 2:1-4).

Before the Second Great Awakening (late 1850’s), Jeremiah Lamphier called a prayer meeting in downtown New York. Within six months, 10,000 businessmen were praying for revival, and within two years about 2,000,000 people were added to the churches.

The same pattern is found before the 1859 revival in Ulster, Ireland. James McQuilkin and three others began to meet in a school house every week for prayer and Bible study. They kept themselves warm with armfuls of peat gathered on the way to the school house every Friday evening. While peat warmed their bodies, the Spirit kindled the fire in their hearts. By the end of 1858, the participants at the prayer meeting had grown to fifty. Intercession without distraction to other subjects was made for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on themselves and the country. Their prayers and possibly many more were wonderfully answered in 1859 when an estimated 100,000 were added to the churches in Ulster.

·      First Baptist Church needs to dedicate itself anew and afresh to prevailing prayer

·      Quarterly Corporate Prayer meeting is just a start… but a good one

·      Sunday morning prayer is refreshing for the twenty or so people who come

·      Wednesday evening prayer is sparsely attended

·      We need MORE, LONGER, MORE FERVENT, MORE EFFECTIVE PRAYER!!!