Genesis 12:1–9 Psalm 121 Romans 4:1–8,13–17 John 3:1–17

Abram was called forth from Ur of the Chaldeans; he was called to leave his country, his kindred, and his father’s house; he was called to sojourn in a land he would never own, except for a small plot of land with a cave — a cave in which he would bury his wife, and in which his children would later bury him. And what did he find in this land? Canaanites — the cursed progeny of cursed Ham. Although their iniquity was not yet “complete” in the time of Abraham, they would later be sentenced to annihilation. Does that mean these tribes were good in the time of Abraham? Were they more Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner or were they more Sodom and Gomorrah? From God’s words to Abraham in Genesis 15, we must presume the latter.

For their iniquity, God burned Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from Heaven. For their iniquity, God sentenced the Canaanites to be devoted to destruction. For our iniquity, what will God visit upon us? Are we better than Sodom? Are we more moral than Gomorrah? Are we spared like Zoar due only to some small number of saints? Let us not delude ourselves by closing our eyes to the reality of our culture. Pornography is rampant, and children are increasingly exposed to it at younger and younger ages. Promiscuity is now not only ‘normal’, but even promoted as healthy or good. An incredible number of marriages end in divorce, and a significant percentage of children — a majority, in some communities — are born out of wedlock. Our ‘entertainment’ is increasingly explicit both in terms of sexual content and in terms of violence. We worship the gods of the marketplace — we pay greater attention to the Dow and the NASDAQ than to our neighbor, we care more for our 401(k)s than for our communities, and we decline to take God up on His outright invitation to test Him with regard to tithing. More than sixty million children have gone to their graves — or, more likely, the incinerator or even the research lab — in the name of ‘convenience’ and ‘privacy’. Pick an empire, or a political entity, from history — any empire, or any political entity. With vanishingly few exceptions, what we do on a daily basis would make even history’s most despised and depraved blush. Our god is not El Shaddai — not God Almighty; our gods are Mammon and Moloch. We worship our wealth and sacrifice our children to ensure GDP continues to grow. We live in a dark and blind world. The natural man is spiritually dead — totally unable to move toward or even to respond to God. Yet think of that call of Abram. He was called forth from dark Ur — a center of moon worship, which included human sacrifice. God gave Abram the faith to respond to the call, and that faith was counted to Abram as righteousness. Like Noah, Abram found favor with God — he did not win it with works. For what came first: The faith of the works? Only after he believed did Abram leave Ur, sojourn in Canaan, circumcise himself and his household, offer up Isaac, and otherwise obey the Lord. Works follow belief. When Christ came in the flesh, He found a world just as dark and just as blind as ours. The Jews, despite having the Scriptures, did not recognize the Messiah. Nicodemus, a well-known teacher, did not recognize Christ, and could not grasp how one could be born again; he went so far as to ask how one could return to the womb to be born a second time. But what does Christ say? The Greek is deliberately vague: It can mean one must be born ‘again’ or ‘from above’. These are, of course, both true, and Christ further clarifies: One must be born of water and the Spirit. What is this other than Holy Baptism? “What benefits does Baptism give?” “It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.” And do not let the enthusiasts tempt you to doubt: The Word of God promises that Baptism works forgiveness of sins and that the promis...