I think we just have some wonderful, wonderful hymns to sing together. Let's open up the word of God. Turn in your Bibles, please, together this morning to the book of Genesis. I'll ask you to turn to chapter 19, and we're going to be reading the end of 19 all the way through chapter 20 this morning. We'll pick up the account where we left off last Lord's Day morning. As God rained down fire and brimstone upon those cities of the plain. We're going to pick up at the end of that in verse 29 and read down then through the next episode that we have in the life of Abraham. If you'll follow along now as I read. And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plane that God remembered Abraham and sent lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which lot had dwelt. Then what went up out of Zohar and wealth in the mountains and his two daughters were with him for he was afraid to dwell in Zohar and he and his two daughters dwelt in a cave. Now, the firstborn said to the younger, Our father is old and there is no man on the earth to come into us, as is the custom of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine and we will lie with him that we may preserve the lineage of our father. So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. It happened on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, Indeed, I lay with my father last night, let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie with him that we may preserve the lineage of our father. Then they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when he arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ami. He is the father of the people of Ammon to this day. And Abraham journeyed from there to the south and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur and stayed in Gerar. Now, Abraham said of Sarah, his wife, She's my sister. And Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, Indeed, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you've taken, for she is a man's wife. But Abimelech had not come near her. And he said, Lord, will you slay a righteous nation also? Did he not say to me, She is my sister? And she even she herself said, he is my brother in the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands. I've done this. And God said to him in a dream, yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart, for I also withheld you from sinning against me. Therefore, I did not let you touch her. Now, therefore, restore the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours." So Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants, and told all these things in their hearing, and the men were very much afraid. And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, What have you done to us? How have I offended you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You've done deeds to me that ought not to be done. Then Abimelech said to Abraham, What did you have in view that you have done this thing? And Abraham said, Because I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place and they'll kill me on account of my wife. But indeed, she truly is my sister. She's the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother. And she became my wife. And it came to pass when God caused me to wander from my father's house that I said to her, this is your kindness that you should do for me in every place wherever we go. Say of me, he is my brother. Then Abimelech took sheep, oxen and male and female servants and gave them to Abraham, and he restored his wife to him. And Abimelech said, See, my land is before you. Dwell where it pleases you. Then to Sarah he said, Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Indeed, this vindicates you before all who are with you and before everybody. Thus she was rebuked. So Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his female servants. Then they bore children. For the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. And so reads the word of God. Now, I want to, brethren, this morning simply acknowledge in the portion that we read from the 19th chapter to simply acknowledge that God has included in our Bibles the sin of Lot and of his daughters with him. That could be a very, very instructive passage in many, many different ways. For one, we could say, well, you observe from this, it's better to go to the place of God's choosing with his blessing than to go without it. Because from the very beginning, the Lord had told Lot, go to the mountains. And remember, he was, as it were, whining before the Lord and say, well, I can't go that far unless something happened to me. Can I stay in this city in Zoar? He ends up at the mountains anyway. But obviously not with the blessing of God that would be desired. Better to go to the place of God's choosing with his blessing than without his blessing. And so we should learn. We could say, well, we observe here a case when people feel desperate. His daughters felt desperate. Don't ever feel desperate like they felt desperate. They were feeling desperate for the sake of the family lineage. We've got to do something. When people feel desperate, they will take desperate actions. That's what they did. guard against feeling hopeless, guard against being depressed. You're skating on thin ice when you do those things, and likely you'll end up sinning. It could teach us, furthermore, that when you're under, quote, the influence, whether it's the influence of alcohol, whether it's the influence of drugs, whether it's the influence of whatever it may be. That will open you up to all kinds of things. And certainly, as he was under the influence, it opened him up to sins of ignorance. And speaking of sins of ignorance, that's what God deals with in the next portion of Scripture with the Bimelech, of what goes on with him, what Abraham did, how Sarah was in the midst of all of this. And God shows us. Well, you see the account there with Lot and his daughters. Moabites came out of it. The Ammonites came out of it. And quite honestly, they were people who were thorns in the side of Israel for generations to come. So it's a story that begins here, but it turns to a story of conflict. A story of great tension and judgment, but even of sovereign election, because of out of those we would well, we wouldn't say it today, but there was a time we would say illegitimate children. And we don't want to speak down of anyone who had no choice in their being born. But we find out of that God's sovereign election that even out of the male vice, God will elect and he saves a Ruth. That's God's electing grace out of tragedy. He brings glory to himself. Well, though I just preached on a little bit, that's not what I'm going to preach on. We're going to look at a Bimalek, Abraham and Sarah in Chapter 20. That's our passage. You know, Yogi Berra is not a minister, he's not a pastor. I don't know that he's even a believer. But if Yogi Berra were preaching this sermon today, I think he would say something like, there's deja vu all over again with Abraham. You know, Yogi Berra and his deja vus, right? Because here's Abraham, deja vu. I think I've been here before, right? The repeat of his sin. Old sin! But old sin meets new grace. That's what we have in the passage, old sin and new grace. Let's dive right into the passage this morning. Keep your Bibles open before you. Verse one, and Abraham journeyed from there to the south and he dwelt between Kadesh and shore and stayed in Gerar. Now, Abraham said of Sarah, his wife, she is my sister and a Biblical king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. And old sin comes back. You ever had that happen? Well, not more than four or five times a day, right? And old sin comes back, and in this case, it's in a saint. Abraham is the one to whom the Lord reckoned his faith as righteousness many, many years before. He is a saint. He is the father of the faithful. And yet, he repeats his sin. That specific sin, because sin is still in him, you see? And that's the way it is. You and I both know it, even though we only recognize and really want to confess the smallest part of it. But it's there and it's the sin that sinned in a saint. Secondly, as I've said, it's the same sin. If you go back to chapter 12 and read somewhere along about verse 13, It says, and I quote, please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake and that I may live because of you. This is when he was down in Egypt. This was many years before. Now here he is saying it again. She is my sister. He is my brother. It seems to be that the sin is sort of like the proverbial bad penny that keeps turning up. And here it is again, something unwanted, yet making its appearance over again. You know, we could wish that sin were like a band-aid. You know, you know, experience with band-aids like mine. You put it on once and you take it off or it comes loose and you can't put it back on again. It just didn't want to stick. That's the nature of band-aids, right? I wish sin were like band-aids. Once you did it, that's it. You can't repeat it. You can't use it over again. But it's not. It'll just seem to want to stick. Stick, stick, stick again. It's the same sin, not a different sin. And not only was it the sin and the life of a saint, one that he had already done and now he's doing again, but it was a sin with significant consequence because the Lord shows us the connection. And he says in verse two, be a Beneluk, king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. The consequence of what Abraham said and Sarah said, there comes to or opens up opportunity, if you will, for a Bemelech and he comes and he takes her. You see, all sins don't have the same consequences when they're sinned. Now, we hardly see the tip of the iceberg of what consequences there really are with sin. And sometimes we think, oh, there aren't really consequences and nobody gets hurt. That's not true. We just don't see it at the moment. All consequences or all sins don't have the same kind of consequences. Some will, in our judgment, affect people more directly or indirectly. If I, for example, am very angry with you and I lose my temper and I boom right in the kisser, well, that affected you directly. If I just start behind your back, spreading lies around, well, that's going to hurt you. Not quite as directly, but it'll get back to you and you'll feel it directly. Or if I just think in my heart, but I don't say anything and I have a smile on my face. Not quite as direct. They don't all have the same. But here's one when he's saying it has a consequence, at least indirectly, if you will, for a Benelux, because he can only judge. She's fair game. And he acts upon that. You see, with Abraham thinking in his mind, with Sarah thinking, now, if we do this, what are people going to, you know? What's going to happen? What effect will it have on them? What consequence will this be? When we are sinning or premeditating sin, who are we thinking about? Well, ourselves. What we think we can get out of it, the passing pleasure of it, whatever it might be. We're not concerned of what happens to other people. How will it involve them? Who cares? We sin. It's an old sin for both of them. Now, here it is again. You know, that's the kind that we have too. I can call them shadow sins. You know, wherever you go, it goes. Whenever the sun shines, there it is. It's the same one. Changes shape a little bit, but it's always connected to me because it's my shadow. It's a dogging sin. As that dog wants to follow right at your heels. Wherever you go, whatever you do, he relapses. You get the idea of what's going on here and you know it from your own experience. And brethren, it's important. It's helpful. It's necessary that we understand the nature of the life of sanctification. It's important that we understand what is it to live the holy life and to live the life that we have in the Spirit. And one of the things that will help us is to understand that some of the sins that we are going to sin are going to come out in connection with the weaknesses of our character, with who we are and they'll want to flow through the channels of those weaknesses and those character traits and so forth over and over and over again. Let me illustrate. Some stretches of road, you know, around the country, I can think of a couple, are designated infamously Blood Alley. They call them Blood Alley by the locals because why? because accidents tend to happen more on those stretches of roads than on other places in general. It may be because maybe visibility isn't as good on the road, or maybe the road's surface isn't as, you know, gripping to the tires, or there are more distractions, or more intersections, more hills, whatever it may be. Accidents can happen anywhere, but they tend to happen more on Blood Alley. than any other place. Therefore, people who drive Blood Alley have to realize we need more care, more alertness, more caution, more control than ordinarily we might need it. Brother, you have to remember you're driving Blood Alley. And within you, you know yourself now to the point of saying, here are things which may be the occasion, the context that may precipitate sin, because I've seen it once, twice, 50 times, 100 times in my life. I've seen it there. And I want to say she's my sister. He's my brother. You see, you have to understand that about yourself. And when you're approaching blood alley to say, OK, so be all the more trusting of God, be all the more humble, be all the more watchful over your own heart, because out of it are going to proceed the issues of life. And to drive with all caution. All sins have a way of coming back. Now, secondly, you come in verses three and following to this. And God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, indeed, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you've taken, for she is a man's wife. Then there comes to Abimelech here in this situation a revealing intervention by God himself. And he makes known himself and the situation to the king, and he does it through a dream. So, Abimelech must have seen these things. I love the way God has, in redemptive history, the way that he has made known his word. Sometimes he does it in a dream, he does it in visions, he speaks to the prophets, and all these different things. Here it was, it was through a dream, and therefore Abimelech saw, and in the dream he heard. He didn't ask silly questions. Well, did you dream in color? And was it stereophonic? And all this kind of stuff. I don't know. God gave him a dream, and that was real. And Abimelech knew it was real, and he was captivated by it. And in the dream, the Lord blew the whistle on his own. On Abraham. It's interesting if you read it carefully, the way the Lord blew the whistle on Abraham is he did it without even using his name. Because if I remember correctly, when I read through that, he didn't say and Abraham, he just said man, you know, wife, man, married, that sort of thing. He doesn't even directly, if you will, implicate him, but everybody knows it's Abraham and Sarah. And he reveals the situation to the king. Hey, there's adultery in the air. Now, this revelation that the Lord makes to him effectively will turn this whole thing right side up. You know, if God, humanly speaking, if God hadn't intervened like if situations today, if God hadn't intervened and things, you know, continued on as you sense that they're going here. You would no doubt have ended up with a paternity case trying to determine whose child is this. Who's the father? Well, you see, God's not going to allow that. God doesn't allow that. He stops everybody from having children there. He doesn't even let the king come close to Sarah. He's intervening in wonderful and marvelous ways in telling the king, this is what the situation is. You see, but Satan, the seed of the serpent, would love in any and every way to bring question over the seed of the woman, if at all possible. You know, and if Sarah can stay there in the harem, and that's where she is, If she can stay there and she should have a baby and so forth, and God said there's going to be a child of promise and Sarah's going to be the mother. Well, what? Begin to have questions. Well, what child? Who's the child? How does all this happen? Is this really a child of promise and all these kinds of things? And you begin to question the seed of the woman, anything the seed of the serpent can do to get us to doubt, to look differently, to misunderstand the seed who is Christ. He would love to do it. But God intervenes. That's the blessed truth. He doesn't let it go there. Now, Abimelech has something that he wants to say and that he does say in connection with this as well. Verse four, but Abimelech had not come near her. And he said, Lord, will you slay a righteous nation also? Did he not say to me, she is my sister. And even she, even she herself said, he's my brother in the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands. I've done this. So Abimelech has a response and he gives his reasoning to the Lord who has said to him, Abimelech, you are a dead man. You know, if somebody says to you, especially the Lord says, you're a dead man, don't you want to say, let's talk about this? Is that really what we want to do here? He is obviously quick to say, Lord. From my side, this is what happened. And he appeals to the character of God. Remember, Abraham appealed to the character of God. Will you destroy a city for 50? Fifty righteous or how about forty five or forty or thirty or twenty? He appeals to the righteous character of God, just as a bimalic is appealing to the righteous character of God. Will you destroy an entire nation? There are things in that implying that as the king, the nation is responsible, they're all as one, as it were what he does, the people will receive the consequence of it. Will you destroy a whole nation? Furthermore, King Abimelech pleads the integrity and the innocence of his actions because he has been given misinformation. She said, he said. How was I to know? I took them at their word. You see, the Lord has laid out to Abimelech in no uncertain terms, you are a dead man because of the woman. And that's a statement of condemnation. And King says, man, I didn't know this was going on. I was ignorant. You see, here's a case in the Bible where, as the proverb says, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is death. It seemed right to Abimelech, I haven't done anything wrong, and yet God says you're a dead man. Which one are you going to go with? See, here's an instance where a matter, the truth of it, the sanctity of it, is, if you will, how do I want to say this, is greater than the conscience. In other words, Abimelech is saying, I've got a good conscience on this. God says you're wrong. You see, your conscience is not the final court of appeal, whether something is right or wrong. God is. And sometimes we have to, quote, reeducate our conscience. You see, that's why a whole society can have a conscience that says abortion is not murder. Their conscience believes that. God says, shall not take the life of the innocent. Which you're going to go with. Okay. That's what God's Word is saying, right? And the Lord says true, true Abimelech, true in so many words, true. I acknowledge this, you know, regarding where you came from, what perspective you have and so on and so forth. But the Lord then goes further and reveals something to Abimelech that furthermore that Abimelech had no idea about. And that was how the Lord was in his situation to keep him from sinning further by having a sexual relationship with Sarah. He thought it was himself. He thought that's the decision that I've made for whatever reason that I won't. But God said, I'm the one who kept you from sinning against me, because sin is first and foremost against God, against me. And the only have I sinned and done this wicked thing in your sight, says David, regarding the sin of Bathsheba. That's what Beneluk is saying. That's what God is saying to them. I'm the one who kept you from having this relationship. But this is what you've got to get out of this, out of this, this, this revealing intervention that the Lord comes and all this response. And that is the Lord begins with a Bimalic with a very serious statement and shows him the seriousness of his situation by telling him he's a dead man because of the woman. Now you have to take that, of course, ultimately with verse 7b and verse 7b says, but He says, regarding Abraham, he's a prophet, I pray for you, but if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours. You have to take that in connection there with that, that what's going on here is the Lord comes first of all, and he says to Abimelech, here's the seriousness of your situation. I want you to know, Abimelech, in so many words, there's trouble in River City and you're living in River City. You've got trouble, trouble with a capital T. You're a dead man because of this woman, because the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And first of all, he lets him hear the wages of sin is death. Adultery is in the air. It's a sin against me, as well as a sin against people. And he tells him the seriousness of that. Makes him feel his need, if you will. And then, what does he do? Verse 7. Now therefore, restore the man's wife. He's a prophet. He'll pray for you and you shall live. He shows him his need, he shows him that he's dead in his sins, if you will, and then he holds out the hope to him that he might live and not die. And that hope comes by way of repentance and faith. He tells him to repent. Now, the word repent is not there, but he tells him to repent. What does he say? Restore the man's wife. That's repentance. It's almost a play on words in the original language, because the word there, restore, is sometimes used in a different mood to be the word repent. So it's almost a play on words. To restore is to repent. He's saying, repent this woman. Turn her back, as it were. Send her back. Restore her. You see, you can't live in sin. You can't live the old life. You can't live in disregard to God's revealed will and be right with God and go to heaven. You can't do that. Do you think you can? Repentance is the way of life. Being unrepentant is the way of death. One way is the straight and narrow. The other way is the broad and crooked. There are only two ways. Which one are you on? At this given moment of Bimalek, it looks like you're on the wrong one. But there is hope that you might live that being held out to you, repent and then true repentance is always accompanied by what? True faith. believe. Here is a prophet who will pray for you that you might live. You see, the Christ theme is here reflected in the passage that we have with Abraham. He is the prophet. You see, wow, that's hard to believe. He's just sinned greatly. Here is the Messiah. Here is the Messiah. Here is the theme reflected. This man is the one that you need. You've got to go to him, that one to whom you go. He will pray for you. And the outcome of what he will do on your behalf is that you will live. He's the intercessor. Christ, the prophet, the priest and the king, he's here. You have to have him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. You and your household. That's what he does. You see, without that intervention, where would he be? You're a dead man. And he holds out hope and hope will come in the way of turning from your sin and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as one. Now, that brings us in in verses eight down through a few more to a personal confrontation. Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants, told all these things in their hearing, and they were very much afraid. They believed it, too. And then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, what have you done to us? The personal confrontation starts with the king of Abimelech. bringing Abraham in before him. As he spread this word, maybe got the counsel of the servants of those around him. I don't know. It doesn't say. But anyway, they believed everything that the Lord had said, everything that the Lord had shown, and they bring Abraham in. Benelux says to Abraham and so many words, what have I done to deserve this? What were you thinking? That's what it distills down to. And so Abraham, he tells it. There are three things that he uses to try to, if you will, justify. Number one, fear of man. Verse 11, Abraham said, because I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place and they'll kill me on account of my wife. The fear of man. If you will, he over estimate, he overestimated in terms of, quote, the level of the fear of God. He said it's not going to be there when, in fact, it was there. I don't know whether I say overestimate or underestimated, but you understand the point. He didn't accurately estimate. There was more fear of God than he gave credit for. And was there. You know, that's so often as is so often true. It's like the pot calling the kettle black because the Bible says, fear God and keep his commandments. And part of his commandments involve thou shalt not bear false witness, Abraham. A pot calling the kettle black, no fear of God. Well, Abraham, what about your fear of God at that moment? Well, as he points the finger out, of course, they're coming back to him. And besides that, the fear of man brings a snare. Abraham feared man, guess what? He got caught in the snare. Second line of justification was what we said wasn't totally wrong. Verse 12. But indeed, she is truly my sister. She's the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother. And she became my wife. It isn't all false. There is some truth in it. But you and I both know that when you present a half truth as a whole truth, then it becomes a whole lie. And that's what it was. Besides that, do you really believe there is such a thing as a half a sin? I don't. And his third line of reasoning is, oh, this is what we planned and what we've done all along. We're consistent. Give us credit for our consistency, right? Verse 13, it came to pass when God caused me to wander from my father's house that I said to her, this is your kindness that you should show should do for me and every place wherever we go. Say of me, he is my brother. So the way that we would look at that today, probably, is to say, well, Abraham and Sarah conspired. Maybe not like Ananias and Sapphira to conspire and lie against the Holy Spirit, or maybe they did conspire like Ananias and Sapphira. But they conspired. To manipulate the situation just a little bit, massage the truth, as some people refer to it, right? so that things will look a little better. And he's got all this self-interest in it, of course, so that I might live. Here's a grand biblical picture, brothers and sisters, of what not to do. Of what not to do. That when he is confronted for his wrongdoing, when Abimelech has every right to say, what have you done? What have I done to deserve this? What in the world were you thinking? has every right to ask that, that Abraham more or less tries to justify himself. Here's what not to do when sin is there. Try to explain it. Try to maybe extenuate it. Let's cut to the chase. If the accusation of sin is true, and not all accusations are true, but if the accusation of sin is true, go with it. Jesus said, agree with your adversary on the way. And do so quickly. Lest it get worse for you. So if the accusation is true, You sinned. Go with it. You buy that truth and don't sell it. Don't extenuate it. Don't explain it. Say, I'm wrong. I sinned. I repent. Here's a case of what not to do. Now, it's only because of God that all of this, being what it is, Yet we find that unexpected grace flows. Remember, I began by saying an old sin, but new grace. Grace flows in the midst of all of this sin and wrongdoing and no doubt hurt that came to the people and so forth. Because what do we read in verse 14? Does it strike you as a bit funny? It seems to be flowing against the current. It says, Then Abimelech took sheep, oxen, and male and female servants and gave them to Abraham and restored Sarah, his wife, to him. And then says to Abraham, See, my land is before you. Dwell where it pleases you. And then to Sarah, he said, Behold, I've given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Indeed, this vindicates you from before all etc. etc. Unexpected grace flows in the lives of these people. It flows to Abraham because Abimelech brings to Abraham all these possessions. The sheep, the oxen, the male and the female servants, and so on and so forth that's mentioned there. He returns his wife to him. He gives him a place. As it were, he converts his status. He had been an alien in the land. And now he says, you don't need to be an alien anymore. You're a non-alien. You're a citizen, as it were. Here's land. You can live here. And nobody's going to hassle you for it because you won't be an alien. And besides that, here's silver. He's blessed. He's blessed. It's flowing to Abraham, who I thought did the wrong. And then to Sarah. Sarah, she said, didn't she? He's my brother. She was implicated in it. She was part of the problem, too, wasn't she? And yet it says unto Sarah, he said, behold, I've given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It's obviously in connection with her because he's telling her. And Abimelech has given her, taken her out of the harem and given her back to her husband, Abraham. And he says to her, your reputation is now protected. It's not going to be drug through the mud that otherwise it possibly could be. At the end of verse 16, notice here it says, and she was rebuked. I have to tell you, I believe that the translators missed it. Remember, the word rebuke is not inspired. This is an English translation of the inspired language. And I therefore feel the freedom to believe that the translators missed it. In my judgment, it should not be translated, and she was rebuked. But I think that it should be rather there that she was exonerated. And the reason I say that is because the word that is used there can be, you know, again, could be rebuked or to be corrected. It's the word to correct or to write something. And when it's put in the passive, it could be and you are corrected, meaning in the sense of you are put back in your rightful place where you are properly understood and not misunderstood. And just given the whole context, I think that's the way that it's taken. And some of the English translations, by the way, will also translate it in the positive sense, not that she was reproved and rebuked and scolded. but that she was put back in the right place, if you will, and her name was kept intact. Grace flows. It flows to Abimelech. Look at verses 17 and 18. So, Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his female servants, and then they bore children. For the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. God did a reversal. He restored what was taken away. And grace flowed to him, and to Sarah, and to Abraham. You know, in the whole account here, brethren, that we have, there are two things. that I want us to reflect upon as we bring it to an end. And one is what I'll call the golden thread that is over all, through all, and in all this, and that is, this is an account of God's faithfulness. You see, where God is put in the positive light, because He can only be put in the light because He is light and in Him there's no darkness, and men are put in the rightful place, But God is put in the positive light in all of this. And what is it? It's his faithfulness working through all of this and his wisdom. You know, we can miss seeing the forest because we're looking at the trees. Look at this man, look at this woman, look at this man and so forth. We can get focused on the details of the story and miss the overall faithfulness of God that is in and through all of this. Abraham and Sarah are not just private citizens, if you will. They are God's elect instruments chosen of God through whom the blessing is to come to the nations of the world. He didn't say that about just anybody and everybody. They stand in relationship to God in a unique way. as God's chosen covenant instruments through whom the blessing of his seed, and we know ultimately that was the fulfillment in Christ, that that blessing is going to come to the nations of the earth. It's going to come through a promised child that Abraham and Sarah will have by the grace of God, not by the ordinary means. You can't have an Abimelech fathering a child. The faithfulness of God will keep his covenant and his covenant promise all the way through, and blessings will flow to the nations. And the interesting thing is, I think that that grace already is flowing to the nation of, you know who Abimelech is, by the way, I haven't told you yet. He's a Philistine. And grace is flowing to King Abimelech. And grace is flowing into the nation of the Philistines because of what the Lord says that all that was reversed and they were able to bear children. Abraham and Sarah would have put it in jeopardy, but God will bring it out of jeopardy. And his faithfulness. is that which is sown through the entirety of the passage, that even where there is sin, it will not overthrow the covenant which God is working for the good of His people and the nations of the earth. That's only something God can do. That's the God of our faith. The God of our confidence, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is He, your God. And then the blessings of grace. There's two things I want to say. The blessings of grace that flow through the storyline, if you will, the blessing of that grace of salvation and deliverance as God delivers out of sin. You know, the amazing thing is, has this come to you? The amazing thing is, is that God begins by holding Abimelech responsible, you know, saying you're a dead man. He rescues culpable Sarah out of the harem. He says nothing directly to Abraham about his wrong. And then he turns around and says to Abimelech, you need the man that, quote, I say, sinned against you. Let's strike you as funny. You need him because he's a prophet. And Abimelech believed it. And that's why he gave him the sheep, the oxen, the servants, and all these things. And God increases the blessing to Abraham. You know, if you will, Abraham ends up with all kinds of loot here, right? He ends up with all these things that are given to him. And Abraham's a repeat offender. But he ends up with all the loot. Maybe not all of it, but a lot that he didn't have before. Because of God's covenant faithfulness. To bring that blessing, even though the child's not yet been born. In the anticipation of that seed, the blessing of grace flows. And it flows in a way that you don't expect it. I guess that's why you've got to call it grace. Because the guilty, undeserving, and the unworthy, they get it. It's a gospel worthy of all acceptance. Christ came into the world to save sinners. There's one last facet of grace that I want to mention here, that I think is in here. Especially for the people of God And it's the grace of God's love The grace of God's love in this case particularly manifested Abraham and Sarah the repeat offenders Same old sin New grace And here's an expression of God's covenant love You know, in that covenant love, the Lord says in the prophet, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31. I have loved you with an everlasting love. You know what? Christians should not always be, quote, picking the daisies. He loves me. He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me not. Which one are you going to end up with? You know, we shouldn't be picking daisies. I have loved you with an everlasting love. I'm talking to Christians, God fearing, Christ trusting, Holy Spirit indwelt believers. I'm saying to you, yes, you're a repeat offender. You're no different than Abraham and Sarah. God loves his people when they're good. And God loves his people when they're bad or he doesn't love us at all. Sometimes people are afraid to receive the love of God because you're bad. But I want to tell you something. Receiving the love of God, especially when you're bad, is so very, very necessary and helpful. Because if you don't, I'll tell you what, there's a little chink in the armor and the wicked one would love to get between you and that, you see. But furthermore, I say especially to receive the love of God when you're bad, because Paul says it's the love of Christ that controls us or the love of Christ that constrains us. It's the love of Christ that exerts an influence over our lives. He says, having come to this conclusion, what is it? He said, the conclusion I've come to is that one has died for all. That's Jesus Christ. And he says, and he has died for all, that those who live may no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again. You see, it's the love of God that will have that constraining influence over you, even when you're bad, so that you'll repent of your badness. And where do you go when you repent? To Jesus Christ. And the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Do you really, really, really, really, really, really believe that God loves you when you're good? I'm talking to you who are in Christ. He loves you when you're good, and He loves you when you're bad, or He doesn't love you at all. It's His covenant love. He loves Abraham. He loves Sarah. My understanding is He loves Abimelech. With a covenant faithful love. Well, my prayer has to be, and it is, that that grace of this covenant-keeping God will continue to flow. And I believe it will. It will continue to flow. And may it abound more and more in the lives of God's covenant people. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the wonderful truth of your word. We bless you, Lord, that your word is a faithful word because you are faithful. We bless you, Lord, that your word is true because you cannot lie. And we would build our lives upon the foundation, Christ himself. And to be built up, Lord, in the grace and knowledge of the one who's loved us and given his life for us would be our desire. So, Lord, may your word today As it's been read and expounded and applied, Lord, may it find the place that it needs to stick in our lives, the place where it needs to find home and to reside with each and every one of us. Lord, we confess the sin that still remains with us, how it wants to always be finding its expression. We thank you, Lord, for the forgiveness of sin through the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit and the promise that if we by the Spirit put to death the deeds of our body, that we would live. Lord, wonderful, wonderful promises of grace that you've given to your people. We're overwhelmed by your goodness. Lord, let your love for your people, let it be received in believing hearts. And may the love of Christ truly, Lord, constrain us. That we would so, as it were, walk with him in the fellowship of his gospel. That we would, as it were, go on to know the Lord evermore. Father, bless your people now. Bless those, Lord, who need to hear the word and who need to repent. And as you've let us lead them, be glorified in all these things. We ask it together now as we're praying for Jesus Christ. Amen.