Oh, let the Son of God enfold you
With His Spirit and His love Let Him
fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh,
let Him have the things that mold you
And His Spirit like a dove Will descend
upon your life and make you whole Welcome
to The Word for Today Featuring the Bible
teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith Of Calvary Chapel,
Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading
us on a verse-by-verse study Through
the entire Bible And on today's edition of
The Word for Today We'll continue to look
at God's promise to Abram As we pick
up in Genesis, chapter 13, verse 17 So
let's follow along As Pastor Chuck Smith exhorts
us on the importance of Appropriation by faith
Now the Lord said to Abram, Arise and
walk in the land Through its length and
its width For I give it to you
Now the idea is, okay Abram, I've given
it to you Now you step out and
appropriate it Walk through the land because I've
given it to you And there is always
that appropriation by faith God gives us His
promises But it's important that we then step
out And appropriate the promises of God Where
we lay hold to the promises Where we
claim the promises of God You'll find that
God is faithful He has given it to
you It's yours, but it is not yours
Until it has been appropriated by faith So
Abram moved his tent And he came down
really the center of the land Through what
they call today the Jerusalem Mountains From Bethel
on past Jerusalem Down that mountain ridge Through
Hebron And he built an altar there To
the Lord Now it came to pass In
the process of time In the days of
Amraphel, the king of Shinar Ariok, the king
of Elazar And Shildilarmur, the king of Elam
Entitled the king of the Goyim, or the
nations These are the kings actually from the
area of Babylon Shinar is another name for
Babylon That they made war With Berah, the
king of Sodom And Bershah, the king of
Gomorrah And Sheneb, the king of Adma And
Shemeber, the king of Zebuam And the king
of Bela, that is Zoar And so they
joined together These five kings, they're near the
Dead Sea, the Salt Sea And that Salt
Sea is a In the Valley of Siddam,
that is the Salt Sea The Salt Sea
as it became later Twelve years, they have
been in bondage to this Chidur Laomur And
in the thirteenth year they rebelled This is
the first mention of the number thirteen in
the Bible And it is interesting that it
is mentioned in the act of rebellion And
thirteen becomes the number of rebellion in the
scriptures And interestingly enough, it is the number
of Satan In a biblical numerical sense And
you give to the numbers a spiritual significance
Thirteen becomes the number of Satan And interestingly
enough, the names for Satan In the Greek
or Hebrew Are always the numeric value of
the name Is divisible by thirteen That is
why thirteen is used so much in the
realm of spiritism today If you've ever been
through the Winchester Rifle House Up in San
Jose The number thirteen was a very significant
number Seven steps down, six up and so
forth Always thirteen because she was a spiritist
And it's a rather weird thing to go
through because of that In the fourteenth year
Chidur Laomur And the kings that were with
him attacked The Rephraim and Asherah Actually they
began an invasion These four kings, evidently they
had a very powerful army For they came
down Conquering many, many cities They went on
down Into the Negev area And then coming
back up they came to Kadesh And finally
They came against the king of Sodom And
these kings from the Jordan Valley And there
they were joined together in battle In the
Valley of Siddam And the valley was full
of asphalt pits And the king of Sodom
and Gomorrah fled Some fell there and the
remainder fled to the mountains And then they
took all of the goods of Sodom and
Gomorrah And all of their provisions and they
went their way And they also took Lot,
Abram's brother's son Who dwelt in Sodom and
his goods and departed That was their mistake
Then one who had escaped came and told
Abram the Hebrew For he dwelt by the
Terebinth trees of Mamre The Amorite, the brother
of Eshcol and the brother of Ener And
they were allies with Abram Now when Abram
heard that his brother was taken captive He
armed his 318 trained servants Who were born
in his own house And he went in
pursuit as far as Dan So a messenger
came to Abram and told him the fact
That Lot had been taken hostage By these
kings with his family And these Canaanite kings
who were there near Abram Joined together with
him But you begin to understand now The
vastness of Abram's wealth When he is able
to arm 318 servants Who have been born
in his house And trained for battle Now
when you consider that they had wives and
children and all You realize how many people
were He had almost a little village or
a community all of his own Just his
own servants to take care of his goods
As the scripture said he was very rich
God had blessed him and he was extremely
prosperous And so he armed the 318 servants
trained in his own house Born in his
house And they pursued them up as far
as Dan Now this actually is from Hebron
A hundred and twenty miles or so From
Hebron up to Dan And when they came
upon them at Hebron Or at Dan Abram
divided his forces And he attacked them at
night And he and his servants attacked them
And then they pursued them as far as
Hobath Which is north of Damascus Now from
Dan to Damascus is another Oh fifty sixty
miles or so So they pursued them clear
on up to Damascus And even north of
Damascus to Hobath And he brought back all
of the goods All of the spoils that
these kings had made in this foray That
they had come and captured all of these
cities And so Abram came back with all
of the goods And he also brought back
his brother Lot and his goods As well
as the women and the people So Abram
was able to defeat these kings And no
doubt It was as miraculous as Gideon's putting
to flight the Midianites I am certain that
Abram was outnumbered The fact that these kings
were able to conquer The five kings who
had federated together They were able to conquer
all of these other cities They no doubt
had a very powerful army They also were
no doubt taken by surprise There at Dan
at night When Abram had divided his forces
and attacked them But I do not believe
that you can omit the miraculous And I
believe that Abraham recognized That it was God
who had delivered them But again a man
of faith coming out against these odds Trusting
in God And so he brought back all
of the goods And those that had been
taken captive And the king of Sodom Went
out to meet him in the valley of
Sheba That is the king's valley After his
return from the defeat Of Chedorlamor And of
the kings who were with him And then
Melchizedek The king of Salem Brought out bread
and wine He was the priest of God
Most High And he blessed him and said
Blessed be Abram of God Most High Possessor
of heaven and earth And blessed be God
Most High Who has delivered your enemies Into
your hand Now this person Melchizedek Is one
of the mysterious persons of the Old Testament
His name is significant Melchizedek the name means
King of righteousness But we are told here
that he is also The king of peace
King of Salem, Salem is peace The Salem
is thought by most scholars To be Jerusalem
So here is the first mention of Jerusalem
Within the scriptures Now if it is indeed
Jerusalem Then he is living in a Jebusite
city But whether or not he was a
Jebusite We don't know There are some Bible
scholars Who suggest that this was actually Shem
One of the sons of Noah Who was
still alive at this time Actually if the
chronology charts in the Bible are correct In
the genealogical charts if they are correct Abram
actually died before Shem If you'll go ahead
and figure out their ages and all So
just in passing I personally do not believe
it is Shem Because in Hebrews we are
told That this man is without genealogy If
it is Shem we have his genealogy But
the fact that he is without genealogy To
me would exclude it from being Shem And
so though it is an interesting concept I
do not think that it is biblical They
have Shem going at the time of the
Tower of Babel Moving to Jerusalem And becoming
the patriarch there But I don't think that
that is possible In that Melchizedek we are
told in Hebrews 7 Is without genealogy Melchizedek
king of righteousness Who was the king of
Salem He brought bread and wine to Abram
And he was the priest of God Most
High Now this is the first mention Of
a priest in the Bible Later on God
is to establish a priesthood In the tribe
of Levi But this is the first mention
of a priest in the Bible The idea
of a priest Comes from First of all
the consciousness of the holiness And the purity
of God And of the sinfulness of man
God being absolutely pure And man being tainted
by sin There is no way that a
sinful man Could touch an absolutely pure God
Without tainting him That is touch in an
intimate way of fellowship Communion, oneness And so
for a man to come into Contact with
God Touching God Would be necessary to have
a mediator A go-between Now Job who
probably lived before Abram And as we pass
through the genealogies in Genesis We came to
Jobab and we suggested That that was possibly
the Job of the Old Testament Job who
lived in that period Before the priesthood When
going through his great difficulties And his friend
I believe it was Eliphaz Who said to
him Hey just get right with God And
everything will be okay He said You don't
help me with that kind of advice I
know God exists I see the vast universe
that He has created But I can't see
Him I turn but He's not there And
when I realize how vast God is By
looking at the universe that He has created
Who am I that I could stand before
God To plead my own case In order
to justify myself You see Job's friends had
concluded That his problems stem from his own
sinfulness And Job was attesting to his own
innocence So the friend said Hey get right
with God And you're going to be okay
And he said God I can't come before
Him to justify myself He's too vast, He's
too great And there is no days man
between us Who can lay His hand on
us both No priest, no mediator No go
between And recognizing that This gulf between God
and man was so great But he saw
it not from the Sinfulness, righteousness aspect But
he saw it from the vastness Of God
to the smallness of man As David saw
it when he said When I consider the
heavens, the work of thy fingers The moon
and the stars which you have ordained What
is man that you are mindful of him?
And the question What is man that God
should even be mindful of him?
He who Weighs the oceans in the palm
of His hand The waters in the palm
of His hand He who meted out the
heaven with the span And the idea is
measured the heavens With the span of His
hand That should give you some concept Of
the vastness of God As we improve our
telescopes The size of the universe increases Ask
God how big is the universe you created
He'll say well I made it this big
So how big is God?
When I was a little boy I used
to ask my mama How big is God?
Is He as big as that telephone pole?
About the biggest thing I knew Lived in
a small city How big is your God?
You know these people have this buddy buddy
tummy You know the man upstairs or my
pal or my buddy or whatever They have
the wrong concept of God completely Oh the
infinitude of God We can only comprehend it,
understand it It is necessary to understand it
To really see myself in the proper light
Man who exalts himself Man who is lifted
up in pride Man who walks around in
haughtiness Is a man who has not yet
really comprehended The infinitude of God When I
see the heavens Who am I?
That God should be mindful of me So
the idea of the need of a priest
arose And the ministry of the priest was
twofold It was his duty to come before
God Representing the people The people could not
come directly to God They would come to
the priest They would bring their offerings to
the priest The priest in turn would go
before God for the people Representing the people
with their offering to the Lord And then
he would return and come out to the
people And as he spoke to the people
he represented God They could not deal directly
with God They had to deal through the
mediator, the priest Who was the go-between
And so Melchizedek, the first mention of a
priest in the Bible But he is the
priest of God Most High Or the Most
High God, El Elyon And recognized by Abram
as such For this man who is pointed
always as the classic example To those who
would believe We are always in the New
Testament being shown Abraham and his faith And
what was wrought by the result of his
faith And he is given to us as
the example of one who believed God And
inherited the promises because of his faith And
yet this man Abram, our example of faith
Recognized the superiority of Melchizedek As a priest
of God and offered unto him tithes And
received from him a blessing And as we
read in the book of Hebrews The lesser
is always blessed by the greater And so
the fact that he received the blessing from
Melchizedek Is an indication of the superiority of
Melchizedek over Abram Thus the superiority of the
priesthood of Melchizedek Over that priesthood that was
yet to come from Abram's seed Through the
tribe of Levi For Levi was in Abram
paying tribute to Melchizedek As Abram paid the
tithes And that tenth may not be just
of the spoil But it could be of
everything that Abram had He gave him a
tenth of all that he had So Levi
in a sense was also paying tithe to
Melchizedek in Abram Showing the superiority of the
Melchizedek priesthood order We'll
return with more of our verse by verse
study Through the book of Genesis in our
next lesson As we learn more about the
King of Salem And we do hope you'll
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again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith continues
His verse-by-verse study Through the book
of Genesis That's right here On the next
edition of The Word for Today And
now once again Here's Pastor Chuck Smith May
the Lord bless you And cause you to
grow in grace And in knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ May you increase
In your understanding and knowledge of Him May
you be freed From that power of darkness
The corruption that is in the world through
lust And may you grow up in Him
in all things Being strengthened And may you
increase day by day In His richness In
His love, in His grace, in His Word
In Jesus' name Kids, I've got some exciting
news Pastor Chuck has written a book just
for you Called The Story of David and
Goliath Just listen Smells delicious David had many
older brothers His brothers were big and strong
And tough enough to fight in a battle
It's so much fun to read along with
Pastor Chuck And learn about God's Word God
helped me to slay the lion and the
bear So God will help me to slay
this giant Lions?
Bears?
Goliath?
Oh my!
And parents, it's never too early to start
reading to your children These timeless Bible stories
taught by Pastor Chuck Imprint God's Word upon
their little hearts As you read these stories
over and over again And as a gift,
each book contains an audio CD of Pastor
Chuck Actually reading the story of David and
Goliath So your kids can read along To
order your copy, call The Word for Today
at 800-272-WORD Or see a sneak
preview of The Story of David and Goliath
Visit us online at thewordfortoday.org Again, the
number to call is 800-272-9673 This
program has been sponsored by The Word for
Today In Costa Mesa, California