Good morning. You're all doing well today. A privilege it is to look into the Word of God and have the Spirit of God just impress us with the Lord Jesus Christ and things the Spirit of God wants to show us regarding our own lives as we look at the life of Abraham. And so, if you have your Bible with you, let me invite you to open it to Genesis chapter 20 as we begin. Genesis chapter 20. We thought recently just how gracious God has been with you. You know, it's not uncommon even for the believer in Christ who have been saved even many, many years to not fully grasp all the grace that God has shown each one of us in so many ways. And it's not a big surprise in the sense that we're all prone to deceit. We're told in Jeremiah 17, verse nine, that our hearts are by nature deceitful above all things, that they're incurably sick. And that's why the grace of God in and of itself is so tremendously essential for all mankind. But there's a tendency in every human heart, because of its inborn deceitfulness, to underappreciate the grace of God, or to misuse the grace of God, or even abuse the grace of God. And you and I aren't exempt. And in fact, as we continue to look at the life of Abraham here, we'll see another tale of two men. We looked at chapters 18 and 19, and we saw a comparison of two men and their families. That was Lot and Abraham, and the contrasts were striking. In chapter 20, we have another striking contrast, not between two believers, however, but a believer and an unbeliever, Abraham and Abimelech. And unfortunately, what we're gonna observe from the unbeliever. is the qualities that should be manifested by the believer in Christ. And what we'll observe in Abraham, who's righteous in his position before God, is what we would expect from someone who is not saved. Interesting how that all works. You know, if you read this chapter as you go through it, if you didn't know Abraham was a believer for the first time, you'd think that M. Bimbleach was the believer. He displays integrity, character, generosity, Abraham shows himself to be a liar, deceitful, selfish, and compromising. Lovely, isn't it? You know, as believers of Christ, we need to be reminded that the Bible tells us the truth concerning all things. It doesn't really sugarcoat a lot. Our God is a God of truth, and what's recorded on these pages is the truth. And it records the truth of all of God's people and includes oftentimes the good, the bad, and the ugly. And that's not only true of Abraham or Lot as we've seen, but Moses, David, Peter, Demas. And if it were possible by application, it certainly would include you and me. You know, people wonder why does God show the sinful sides and the failures of these men? Well, to show us that apart from the grace of God, we are no better, that we're utterly frail and insufficient in ourselves, and by virtue of being born in Adam, we're really no different than the people we read on these pages. It's designed to show that these people that were even commended for their faith, and even as Abraham was called a friend of God, still has a sin nature just like we do. Again, it vividly reminds us that we are, if we're anything, we are what we are by the grace of God. And it demonstrates, though, we're saved by the grace of God, we're capable of any sin in the catalog of sins, and you don't wanna forget that. And it illustrates From the opposite standpoint, what Christ said in John chapter 15, verses four and five, where he made clear that without him, we can do nothing. And it warns us, as 1 Corinthians 10, 12 tells us, that we should take heed, everyone should take heed, lest ye fall. We're gonna begin here. What did I say to open up to? I've changed my mind. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter six. We'll get to Genesis 20, but this kind of sets the stage for what we observe in the life of Abraham in this particular chapter. First Corinthians six, is there any of you, having a matter against another, go to the law before, and this is the key word, the unrighteous, a term for those who are not saved, and not before the saints, that's a term for the church. Do you not know that the saints will judge the world, and if the world be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge even the smallest matters? Do you not know that we're gonna judge angels, and how much more than the things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things perishing, To this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame. Is it so that there's not a wise man among you, not even one, who'll be able to be judged between his brethren? But brother goes against brother and before unbelievers. Now therefore, it's already an utter failure for you to go against the law against one another. Why do you not rather accept the wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat and those things to your own brethren. Not a very positive thing. And then verses 9 and 11, 9 through 11 say, do you not know that the unrighteous, and if you look at verse 1, that's again a term for someone who is not saved, they will not inherit the kingdom of God, do not be deceived, neither fornicators, or adulterers, or homosexuals, or sodomites, thieves, covetousness, drunkards, revilers, extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. You know, verses nine through 11 are often used by those who read the Bible and don't fully understand God's amazing grace. And they'll say that anyone who practices these things will not go to heaven. And yet that's really not what the passage is teaching. In fact, let's be clear about one thing, and I mentioned this last week. Your behavior pattern and what you do and how you live has zero to do with your eternal destiny. Your salvation is not predicated on your sin pattern or lack thereof, and yet some people falsely conclude that when they read this verse, that's what it means. You know, Paul plainly stated that all of us have sinned to come short of the glory of God. And a sin is a sin, the same standard that God gave that says don't lie and says don't murder, the same penalty was associated with those sins, it was death. Now obviously on a human level, stealing a gumball is a lot less, I guess evil, so to speak, by comparatives than someone who takes the life of another. But you know, we all fall short. And you're not more worthy of salvation than the guy that has steeped himself into the lower levels of depravity, something that you might never think of doing. But you know, when God looks at sin, he doesn't look at some people like they're worse than others. He looks from the top down. And when you look from the top down at a bar graph, it's like looking at skycrapers, they all look the same. And all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. When someone is unsaved, the Word of God states that God can characterize them by the particular sin pattern. One who steals is characterized as a thief. One who rips people off financially can be called an extortioner and so forth, and we're all liars. In fact, we tend in our deceitful hearts to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. We see our sin as somehow excusable, but someone else's, no way, Jose, right? And here's the reality. Whoops. Let's try that again. There is no difference. From God's perspective, none of us have made the grade, we've all fallen short of the glory of God, and we're all stuck. You know, even in Revelation, toward the end of the book, it says, he who overcomes, that's the description of someone who's trusted Christ as their savior, and has the privilege of inheriting all things, God's gonna be his God, he's gonna be his son, but notice the contrast, and this is a description of the unsaved, the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and everyone's an idolater, and all liars. Wait a minute. The Bible says in Romans 3, 4, let God be true in every man a liar, shall have their part in the lake of fire which burns, with brimstone which is the second death. And so that's a description of someone who's not saved. God can characterize them by their particular sins because they haven't trusted Christ as their savior. Important. And we're gonna see this again here in a second. And such were some of you. Some of these right here. That is our description. Before someone is saved by their position in Adam, they could be all over the map. You could be a very moral sinner, a very religious sinner, a very immoral sinner, but a sinner nonetheless. And therefore, you are condemned by your position in Adam, and there's nothing you can do about it. You were born that way. because you're a sinner by position in Adam, you're a sinner by nature, and therefore you're a sinner by practice. And we know that we all inherited a sin nature through Adam, it's passed down through the man, and so I was born out of the womb with the capability of sinning, and I didn't waste a whole lot of time before I started doing it. And I also have Adam sin imputed to my account, he's the federal head of the human race, we all have that sin put to our account, and so we're therefore stuck. And so you could be a religious sinner, or an irreligious sinner, but regardless of your type of sin, you are stuck, you cannot change that fact, and so God provided a solution in Jesus Christ because he loved you. God so loved the world that he what? Gave his only begotten Son that whoever, it's open to anybody, believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. So God in the loves offers a great exchange. He's willing to take your sin in exchange for his righteousness, all by the grace of God. This is communicated to us in 2 Corinthians 5.21, for he, God, made him, Christ, who never sinned, as he was God and became a man, to be sin or a sin offering for us, to what end, this is a purpose clause, that we can become the righteous of God only in Christ. When you get saved, Christ puts you, or God puts you in Christ and attributes his righteousness to your account, so God sees you in Christ and therefore sees you is righteous, but someone had to pay for sin. Jesus, who never sinned, willingly paid a debt he did not owe because we owe a debt you can never pay. Regardless of what you got going for you, you're stuck in sin, but God in mercy provided a savior who took God's anger and judgment, punishment and wrath and hatred towards sin as he was made sin for us and love. And this starts to make sense when you realize that you're one of the ones he died for. This is why the word my is so important when it comes to salvation. Because people acknowledge Jesus died on the cross for sins, but what they miss sometimes in that equation is that he was the one you were dying for, and if he didn't die for you, you would have no hope. But he willingly took upon himself all of your sin, as he did all of my sin, and paid for it in full. In fact, in John 19.30, he cried out, it is finished, and that means the bill has been paid. and full, you're not on probation if you're saved here today, your bill's been paid. And so we can illustrate this way, we're born in Adam and therefore we're minus righteousness, we're full of sins, and we deserve God's just punishment for that to be separated, as Revelation 21 told us, in the lake of fire forever and ever. But enter in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was perfectly righteous, he never broke any of God's laws, and in love he took your sins and mine and put them on himself on that cross, paid for it in full, rose again, And the moment you trust Him, that righteousness that Christ has is put to your account and God again sees you as righteous. All by the grace of God. Not worthy of it, can't deserve it, it's free. And if you're like me, you like free stuff. And this is the best free stuff going. Jesus is the lamb of God that took away the sin of the world, rejecting Jesus, rejecting salvation for sin. A guy in Alaska rejected Christ because he didn't think it was right that God would send someone to hell because they wouldn't believe in his son. And what he failed to see is that he has no other hope. He was picking on a different God that wasn't, quote, so egotistical. And I'm thinking, you have no idea. God made you. He gave you these things. You rebelled against him. You deserve to die for your sins, and Christ paid your way there. Oh no, we can't have that. Very sad. So great exchange means that God made him a sin offering for us so we could become the righteous God in him. And so he took all of my sin and the moment I trust him I receive his righteousness as a free gift and I'm declared righteous. This is good news, very good news. And by the way, once you're saved, you're always saved. Most assuredly, Christ said, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him and sent me has right now everlasting life. The kind of life is everlasting. It can't come to an end. And the future promises you won't come into judgment because you passed, this is the perfect tense in the Greek, from the realm of death in Adam to the realm of life in Christ. End of story. It's a finished transaction that cannot be undone. And so every human being can be classified as either in Adam today or in Christ. There is no other middle ground. You're either in the realm of sin and death and looking forward to a place that you don't wanna go, or you got grace and life free and given in Christ and you're looking for a place that I can't wait to get to. It's called heaven. All by the grace of God. And so before you were saved, God viewed you as an Adam. But after you're saved, I love this, such were some of you, these Corinthians, what were they prior to salvation? They can be categorized as one of these. And sometimes I get asked, well, why does he mention these sins? Well, these are the sins of the culture of Corinth. A lovely place, wasn't it? But notice, you were what? Washed. You were, at a point in time in the past, sanctified or set apart under God. You were justified or declared righteous, how? In the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God who regenerated you. These are all passive indicatives. In other words, you didn't justify yourself, you didn't sanctify yourself, you didn't wash yourself. God washed you because you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amazing. And yet, as a believer in Christ, the battle is just beginning in how you live your life. In fact, go with me to Romans 5 for a second. God's objective with you, because you are now in Christ, is so different than your objective was prior to in Christ. Pick it up in verse 18. It says, therefore, through one man's offense, judgment came to men. In other words, Adam. Adam made a poor choice. We're in Adam, and so we're all condemned, just like Adam was. But notice, even so, through one's man's righteous act, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the free gift came to all men, all men that believe, resulting in justification of life, were declared righteous in life. For by one's man's disobedience at Adam's, many were made sinners. All were, so also one's man's obedience to the will of God, many will be made righteous, because they put their faith in Christ. Now the law entered verse 20, so the sin might abound, might increase, might be painfully obvious, but where sin abounded Grace abounded all the more. In fact, it's hyper grace is really the idea there. It's super grace, unbelievable. But what was the objective, verse 21? So that as sin reigned in death, that sin nature reigned in death, even so grace, and this is God's design here, might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's not only a quantitative life, but it's a qualitative life. And notice the word reign. Sin and death reigned when in Christ, you're in Christ, God's goal now is to have grace reign so that you walk in newness of life. In fact, chapter 60 says, well, since grace super abounds over sin, someone might ask the question, verse one, shall we say then, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Well, hey, let's let her go, because grace will be that much more exalted as grace super abounds over sin. And the emphatic answer is no way, Jose, certainly not. How shall we have not died to sin, that sin nature, live any longer therein? And the idea there in verse one is continue in the sin. In other words, why would you continue to let that sin nature reign in your life? And that's his point here. Why would you have it reign? God wants grace to reign. He wants that grace to give you a practical victory over sin so you can walk in newness of life. And it goes back to your identity. You're in Christ now. And in Christ you have all things to pertain in the life of godliness. I like how Paul said it in Galatians 2.20. I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I live because I died with Christ. Guess what? Christ now lives in me. That's amazing. And the life which I now live in this body is the idea, how do I live it? I live by faith in the Son of God. who loved me and gave himself for me. He took up residence within me in the form of the Spirit of God that can give me the power I need to enable me to walk in newness of life. And he explains in verse three, don't you know that as many of us were baptized, that's a dry word that means identified in Christ, were baptized into his death. I died with Christ. Verse four, Sarah, since I was buried through him, through baptism, that identification into death, just as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life with grace reigning in our lives, not that sin nature reigning in your life. And so he jumps down, verse 10, or excuse me, verse 11. Likewise, since you died with Christ, you are to what? Reckon this to be true. Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord, because that is the reality. That is the reality. So, verse 12, don't let that, here's the same concept again, it's so important to see the concepts of reigning here. Don't let that sin nature, not sins in particular, but that sin nature reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lust, that's what it wants to do. How do you do that? Verse 13, don't present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to that sin nature who wants to take you and your body and satisfy its lust, but instead present yourselves to God as being alive for the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. That is your new call in life. That's what it's all about. See, we think of that sin nature, it's that inherent disposition that we all have that affects our decisions and our conduct. Your natural-born tendencies, apart from divine intervention, determine who you are, and we all got different signatures with different strengths and weaknesses, and we're all affected in some ways in how we're raised and what we're exposed to, and that determines, in so many cases, the path that so many people take. My heart goes out to these people that are addicted to things that they can't seem to snap out of, and only God can provide the power to break them out of those chains. That's it. And see how you operate in your sin nature can develop sin patterns and become a weakness and affect you till the very day you go home to be with the Lord as his child. That sin nature is a disposition of enmity toward God. It's a rebel. We're all rebels when you peel back the labors. And the nice thing about raising grandchildren is they don't know how to hide it very well. You know, when they come for a visit, the sin nature is they're not sophisticated enough to sugarcoat anything. But your old nature is hostile toward God, it's against God, it's a natural affinity to the world system, that Satan sets up, that exalts everything that God hates, or God, yeah, everything that God hates, and encourages you to act independent of that, to live life on your own terms. It makes you think you're the son of your own universe. that you evaluate every decision and how everything around you from that perspective that says, well, how is this affecting me? Usually when you get up in the morning, the first thing you think about is, well, how is life affecting me today? Not, gee, how can I yield to the Lord and be a bright spot in someone else's life? That's the battle we all face. And so every believer has a sin nature. but its right to rule was stripped of its authority at the cross because you died with Christ, and you died to that sin nature. And so that sin nature no longer has the right to kick you all over the place like it did prior to salvation. Now amazingly, there are those who think that sin nature was destroyed at the cross, and the reason you sin in your body is because it has some residual sin left over. Makes no sense. In fact, Apostle John addressed that in 1 John 1. He says, if we say we have no sin, no sin nature, we're self-deceived. And the truth is not in us. That's crazy. I mean, there's some, I remember years ago, probably 15, 20 years ago, I met a guy who said, I haven't sinned in nine years. I said, dude, let me call your wife right now. No way, Jose. Oh, you know, in fact, verse 10 goes on to say, if we say we haven't sinned, we make God a liar, because he knows better. And you're not going to pull the wool over his eyes. And his word is not this. We're totally deceived. Totally deceived. And so he's saying victory can be ours, because not only did Christ pay for our sins in full, but we're identified with him. We're a new creation in Christ. We've got a new nature. And we've got the Holy Spirit, so we can present ourselves to him. And he can work in us and through us to give us victory. And thank God for the Holy Spirit. As we sang, we're complete in Jesus Christ, we receive all things to pertain to life and godliness. But victory is not automatic. And that's what makes the Christian life difficult, you have to think. And thinking takes energy. And that's why Satan invented a TV, because if you want to vegetate and check out, you can sit in front of that and drool for a while, right? But Galatians tells us, We're commanded to walk in or by means, is the idea there of the spirit, because that's the only way you're not gonna fulfill the desires of the flesh. Because in your flesh, that's what you're gonna do. But notice the battle going on. The flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. They're contrary to one another. They're vying for a position. Who's gonna control the moment? Your sin nature? Like when the guy cuts you off on the freeway? Or spirit of God? And because of that battle, there's times you wanna do the right thing and you don't. Thankfully you received a new nature when you trusted Christ, that is a natural affinity to God's word and the things of God and righteousness, but there's a battle going on. There's a conflict in the believer. Now some believers unfortunately know very little of this conflict because they've been dulled to the spiritual truth. They don't step out in faith and try to seek the Lord and have this internal opposition, they just lollygag along oblivious to who they are in Christ, and that's not what God wants. There's a battle going on. There's a battle going on. In fact, Paul alluded to this in Romans 17. He says, I know that in me, that is in my flesh. Nothing good dwells in my sin nature. There's nothing good. Now the desire is present with me to do the right thing, but how to perform it I cannot find in myself because it's not there. For the good that I want to do, I end up not doing. The evil I don't want to do that, I end up doing. Well, anyone relate to that in this room? Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I do it, but notice that rotten, filthy, stinking, sin nature in me that wants to rule the roost. That's the deal. That dirty dog, he's the culprit. And so when I'm frustrated, and I'm just going crazy, And myself, it's because that sin nature is kicking me all over the place. And that's why, you know, when it comes to having victory over sin, it's not a matter of trying harder, you know, gritting your teeth and pull yourself up and say, here we go. It's presenting yourself to God, to the Lord, and allowing the spirit of God to empower you through the principles of the word of God, so you can walk in newness of life. That's where the victory lies. You know, this is why Christ said this, abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. He says I'm the vine, you're the branches, he abides in me, and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can't do diddly. That's a fixed principle, it doesn't change over time. So if I'm not abiding in Christ, I'm spiritually squelching that power that God wants to give me through the spirit. And you see, that's a picture, or what we're gonna see in Genesis 20 is a picture of that reality. When Abraham's walking by faith, he pictures for us a carnal believer that makes dumb decisions and actually is a poor testimony to the world. You know, if I'm walking by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm abiding in Him and the Spirit of God is empowering me and illuminating my thinking, there's an awareness of the reality of those things which are above. There's a perspective that I can embrace by faith. I'm walking in dependence on Christ. I can be consciously aware of His sovereign care for me in those things. He can empower me to teach and understand the word of God and see how it fits in my life. I'm usable to the Lord. By the grace of God, I can bear fruit for His glory. But you know, if I'm carnal, I'm not abiding in Christ. I'm not rightly related to the Holy Spirit. My eye is on myself and on the world, and I'm overly concerned about how things are gonna work out for me. I can even retrogress spiritually, become dull of hearing, so that the biblical principles I once understood are now foreign to my thinking altogether. In fact, there's usually tension in my life, as a byproduct of carnality is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 3, that there's envy, strife, and division. There's stress going on, right? And so, even though I'm positionally righteous in Christ, I'm saved and eternally secure, and I'll be in heaven one day, Conditionally and practically, I'm not enjoying that righteous position. I'm spiritually compromised and I can very much live like an unsaved person. So someone could observe me and say there's not a dime's worth of difference between me and Joe Potato down the road. So what happened? Well, you gotta remember biblical faith here is an admission of our spiritual ability. That's where it starts. You raise the white flag in your brain. I'm helpless. Not only to work for salvation, but to handle my own life apart from God's grace provision is revealed in the word. And that's what Abraham does here. He has a lapse. He's got a sin nature like you and me. And you can make bonehead decisions when that's the case. In fact, let's go down to Genesis chapter 20 and see what happened here. Genesis chapter 20. Verse one, and Abraham journeyed from there. He's been at the plains of Mamre now for 20 years to the south to dwell between Kadesh and Shur and stayed in Gerar. And so Abraham left the plains of Mamre and traveled to Gerar of the land of the Philistines. And so for those of you that got a geographical mindset, he's been hanging out up here and he cruised down here to the Negev, which is kind of a wasteland. settles somewhere in between here, which is actually closer to Egypt. It's probably parts of it in Egypt. And that's where he's hanging out. It's in the land of the Philistines. So why did he leave? We don't know. We don't know why he left. But we know it's the land of the Philistines. Maybe, you know, he saw the plains were all smoke, nothing but a smoke show, and maybe he thought his nephew Lot was dead. Maybe he ran out of green grass for his cattle. I don't know, we don't know. But he left the place of blessing and he goes to a strange place. And we don't see God directing him here at all. But the place of blessing for Abraham was always in the land, in his tent, and at the altar. And he wanders from that place of blessing to a foreign land, which again illustrates in a practical way or a geographical way what happens to us spiritually when we depart from the place of fellowship with the Lord and we travel to a foreign land, if you will, in our minds, and there we go. And our old thought patterns, ruts that we've dug in our flesh, perhaps even thought done away with, can rear their ugly head at any time in our lives. And this is why there's You know, like I said, even people that are addicted, they made a couple of poor decisions, they got roped into somewhere they never wanted to be in, and they spend the rest of their life fighting that battle. It's just a practical negative effect of decisions that were made. And so he's got some weaknesses that are 25 years in the making that haven't gone away either. Speaking of Abraham. I mean, former weaknesses and tendencies, which we think are perhaps no longer powerful, can always be lurking under the surface. and they can suddenly arise and bring about our downfall because in our flesh dwells no good thing. Flesh stays rotten to the core till the day we lose it when we go home to be with the Lord. And so in Gerar Abraham lies about his wife Sarah. Verse two, now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, she is my sister, and Ambimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. And so Abraham does something here to actually endanger the seed promises. He says, she is my sister. And his decision illustrates the vulnerability that we all have. I like what McIntosh said here. How often those who are not afraid to trust God, or this wasn't Macintosh, this is someone else, I forgot who it was. How often those who are not afraid to trust God with their souls are afraid to trust Him with regard to their bodies. How often those who have the full assurance of faith in regard to eternal things are full of unbelief and fear when it comes to temporal things. Anyone in this room? Men resort to their own wisdom and cunning to solve their problems. Gee, that's gonna work out well, isn't it? You know, so here he does, he lies. I mean, have we heard this before? Genesis 12, when it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, indeed, I know you're a woman of beautiful countenance, therefore it'll happen when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife, and they're gonna kill me, but they'll let you live. Please say you're my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and I might live because of you. In other words, I'm gonna use you to save my own skin, thank you very much. So he lied. So this is something 20 some years later. Rears his ugly head, so what happens? And Bimelech, king of Gerar, takes Sarah to be his wife. Now, Abraham should have known that God is trustworthy. He didn't have to come up with his own scheme to save his own skin and put his wife at risk. But I can't really shake my head at Abraham because am I any different? No, are you any different? I mean, we have countless promises at our disposal. We're to rely on him for his glory, and yet when push comes to shove, If I want something, the tendency is to put my own scheme in place to get what I want. Because I don't really believe God will deliver. And yet, those who wait for him are never disappointed. Do I know that? Yeah. Do I always act on that? No. When I'm not walking by faith, I take matters into my own hands. I rely on human wisdom. And sometimes that contradicts biblical principle. And eventually it blows up in my face because how can it not? But here, the Abraham Covenant is actually endangered here. I mean, he's the king, he took Sarah into his own harem, and God said way back in Genesis chapter 18 that Abraham and Sarah, that the offspring was gonna come through Sarah, and so here we're running the risk of screwing that whole thing up. By the way, the ambivalent is not a name, it's a title like Pharaoh, so we don't know what the king's name is. But you know, he can do what he wants, and so that's what he does. And so what happens is God intervenes here, chapter, verse three, rather. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, indeed, you're nothing but a dead man because of the woman whom you've taken, for she's 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 herself said, he is my brother? In the integrity of my heart, in the 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's a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you don't restore her, know that you'll surely die, you and all who are yours." Now that's what you call a nightmare. Holy cow. And so God came to Ambiblick by night in a dream and warned him. You know, God couldn't allow Sarah to be defiled by an unbeliever. She was to be the vehicle in which Isaac was born. and threw him the Messiah, and amazingly, notwithstanding Abraham's sin, God did not allow him to be dishonored in the face of the ungodly. And so God confronts him and says, you're nothing but a dead man. Why? Because you're coming against a covenant I made with Abraham, and Abraham said, and God said to Abraham, I'm gonna curse those who curse you. He gave him unconditional promises. You came against his marriage, you came against the seed promises, I'm gonna give you a chance, otherwise you're nothing but a dead man. Why the severe judgment? Well, he says there in verse three, you've taken another man's wife, and that's certainly a sin punishable by death. And what he ended up doing, we'll see in verse 18, is he closed up the wombs of Abimelech's house, and perhaps nation, And I don't know if that meant they couldn't conceive or he worked it out so that they can enjoy marital relations or whatever, but it got Abimelech's attention. And Abimelech offers a defense, I mean, and it's legitimate. Did he not say this? Didn't she say this? And he says, in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands, I've done this. So God was providently working here and he didn't allow sexual relations to take place. But he makes an appeal. Are you gonna wipe out my household? Are you gonna wipe out an entire city? When I was deceived by these men, or both of them? So he's saying, God, I had no idea. Are you gonna wipe me out? If I'd known better, I wouldn't have done it. You know, God acknowledges that reality. Isn't that interesting? He acknowledges that reality. Verse six. Yeah, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. That just kinda hit me. The word heart shows up a few times in that verse. And then he tells him what you gotta do to get out of harm's way here. In the integrity of my heart, I have done this. God looked at his heart. When he gave him grace here, when God gives grace, he takes into account the hearts of people. God evaluates, he's on mission, he knows exactly what your motives are when you do certain things. He knows where your heart is at. I was reminded of this when Samuel came to anoint one of Jesse's sons. Samuel thought it was gonna be the good-looking older brother. And what did the Lord say to Samuel? Don't look at his appearance or at the height of his stature. I've refused him. Why? The Lord doesn't see as man sees. Man looks at that word appearance, but the Lord's looks where? At the heart. At the heart. I've rejected him. I've refused him. Now sometimes unsaved people will try to justify themselves before God by saying, well, God knows my heart. Well, he does. And that's where the deception comes in because your heart is deceitful of all things and desperately wicked. And they're saying that because they think in their heart they're morally good enough to be accepted by God. And they justify whatever decisions they're making. But here God acknowledges his heart and divinely intervenes to protect Sarah. That's God's grace. You know, Abraham and Sarah deserve none of this. None of this. And you know what, that should cause all of us to stop for five minutes and thank God for how he's intervened in our lives when we didn't deserve it and protected us in ways we're totally oblivious to. And if you don't think that's happened in your life, you need to reevaluate because it has. It has in all our lives. So again in verse seven he says, restore the man his wife, he's a prophet and he will pray for you and I'll come on that in a minute and you shall live. But if you don't, you're a dead man. That's the way it is. So what's going through Abimelech's brain here? You're gonna have this deceiving liar, it's a prophet and he's gonna pray for me? Does this make any sense at all? I mean if this is not an outworking of God's unconditional grace, I don't know what is. And so God gave him instructions to avoid destruction, otherwise he's a dead man. But he's saying, in essence, if you're going against the Abrahamic covenant's promises, which again, Abraham doesn't deserve, and he's lying through his teeth, but the covenant was unconditional, and God is gonna back up his word, end of story. You know, I couldn't help but think how Jesus Christ is going to bat for you and me today. First John 2.1, my little children, these things I write unto you, that you don't sin. But guess what? We do, and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He's mine, don't you touch him, is what Jesus is saying. Isn't that amazing? That's called grace. I mean, this statement here made by the Apostle John is designed to be an incentive for us to yield ourselves to the Lord and live for him. Not to abuse it. You know, even Peter, when he opens up his epistle, in the first five verses, explains that we have an inheritance, undefiled, perfect, reserved in heaven for us, and we're kept by the power of God. That's to be the incentive to present ourselves to him as living sacrifices. It's ours all by grace. We're not on probation. Abraham. was not being a man of integrity, he wasn't walking by faith, and here you have an unbeliever that is anxious to do the right thing before God and spare his life. You ever think of the position before God, Abraham is righteous in his position before God, Abimelech isn't, he's a heathen. No relationship with God, he's nothing but a dead man. And yet in their condition before men, Abraham's a liar, he's deceptive, he's selfish and compromising, Abimelech displayed integrity, great character, and generosity, as we're gonna see here in a second, as he gives all these things to Abraham. And so here you have the unbeliever, his character and decisions outshine the believer here, in this particular instance. You know, it's the reality that there's men that are unsaved, can actually act in a way that can put a believer to shame. act in a way that's morally superior to that of a believer. And so in verse eight, what did we read? So Ambilic rose early in the morning, called his servants and told them these things in their hearing, and they were scared out of their minds. They were very much afraid. And so we have a deserved review coming, verse nine. And Ambilic called Abram and said, what have you, What have you done to us? What did I do to irritate you? How have I offended you that you brought on me in my kingdom this great sin? You've done deeds to me that ought not to be done. Now that is a painful rebuke, is it not? Ouch. And Belebek said to Abraham, what did you have in view that you have done this thing? He's rubbing his face in it here, right? And Abraham comes up with a lame excuse here. What's he saying? Surely the fear of God wasn't in this place. Well, I can understand that, and they're gonna kill me on the count of my wife. Again, when you're carnal, who is it all about? It's about you. But indeed, she is truly my sister. She's the daughter of my father, not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife, so it's his half-sister. And it came to pass when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, this is your kindness that you should do for me in every place where we go, say, he is my brother. And so this is how the carnal mind that doesn't trust God works. It comes up with a lame justification. You walk by sight and say there's no fear of God in the Biblical in these people. They're savages. That was his perception. And by the way, it's kind of a half lie. Sarah's really his half sister. And thirdly, they made this pact 25 years ago. Ouch. This is what Macintosh said. Abraham again exhibits the dread of circumstances which his heart can so easily, which the heart can easily understand. He sojourns in Gerar, fears the men of that place, judging that God was not there. And he forgets that God is always with him. Isn't that not our problem? He seems to be more occupied with the men of Gerar than with the one who is stronger than they, forgetting God's ability to protect his wife. And when you forget whose hands you're in, you have to come up with an operation scheme of some kind to make sure you got yourself covered, right? So here this guy, Abraham, exposes himself to rebuke and reproach of men by the world through the power of unbelief. You know what a contrast. Romans 4, 20 and 21. When God says you're gonna have a child between you and Sarah, and that is humanly impossible at this stage. He didn't waver at the promise of God through unbelief. In fact, he was strengthened in faith and he gave glory to God because he was fully convinced that what he had promised, he was able to also perform. But then when it came to other circumstances, I don't know how God's gonna get me out of this one. And so verses 14 and 15 here, Then Ambilic took sheep and oxen and male and female servants and gave them to Abraham. And he restored Sarah, his wife, to him. And Ambilic said, see, my hand is before you. Dwell where it pleases. He gives him all kinds of stuff, says, you can stay as long as you want. Crazy, isn't it? And then he said to Sarah, behold, I have given you, your brother, a thousand pieces of silver. Indeed, this vindicates you before all who are with you and before everybody. Thus she was rebuked. What does this mean? This expression, this vindicates you, is literally, it's a covering of the eyes, meaning a gift given for the purpose of appeasing. Thus it might read, it is given to you as a payment and satisfaction as evidence to all who are with you and all the men that a wrong has been righted. The guy did nothing wrong. And what does he do? He bends over backward to show everyone that he did the right thing, even though he didn't do anything wrong. That's integrity that is rarely seen in the heart of an unbeliever. She didn't deserve any of this. I mean, the guy who did nothing wrong is offering payment to right a wrong that never happened. And it's a reminder that God's perspective on this whole scenario is based on the fact that he gave imputed righteousness to Abraham and Sarah, and they belong to him, and that's how he operates. God's perspective is based on an imputed righteousness by faith. Notice he says to Ambibolik, I haven't done anything wrong, behold, you're nothing but a dead man. And Abraham, who is totally walking out of fellowship with God, he says, he's a prophet and he'll pray for you. Do you see how God views us in Christ by the grace of God? It's amazing, isn't it? He's telling Ambibolik that you gotta be a debtor to the prayers of some inconsistent stranger in order for the health of your household to be restored. Now, obviously, Abraham's humbled here. He humbled himself before the Lord, and then he was positioned to intercede for Ambivalek, which was the right thing to do. You know, he could have been an idiot. No, I ain't gonna do it. But he did the right thing. What a display of mercy. The guy who screwed up has to intercede for the guy who did everything right. So what does Abraham do? Verse 17, so Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Ambibolach, his wife, and his female servants, and they bore children. For the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Ambibolach because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. So Abraham prays to God on behalf of Ambibolach. God heals Ambibolach and his wife, and he gave them the ability to have children. That's mercy. That is absolute mercy. If Sarah's position and Abraham's life were preserved, she would still be the instrument that God would use to fulfill his promises to Abraham. So what are some lessons we can learn here? Well, you know what? Let's start with biblical faith. The importance of walking by faith cannot be underscored enough. Either God is who he is or he's not. You know, when Abraham failed, he began to walk by sight and not by faith. He should have been in a place of peace, but instead there was fear. You know, and in our day and age, This become a reality in ways that we've never experienced because Paul had to tell Timothy, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power of love and of a sound mind. And so don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor me, a prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God. You know, if things continue in our nation and the trajectory they're going, this could be a reality. And God hasn't given us a spirit of fear. but his grace is gonna be sufficient to stand according to his power for the gospel. We're told in Proverbs 29, 25, the fear of man brings a snare. Whatever trust in the Lord shall be safe. Living illustration of that, right? And so when you lose sight of who God is and what he's promised, what can you expect in your life? Well, what do we see here? You got the fear of man. You got abhorrent selfishness. You got deliberate untruth. You got fear of circumstances. You got scheming to get what you want. And then when it's all said and done, you get rebuked, maybe even by an unbeliever. This whole thing could have been avoided had Abraham kept his eyes on the Savior. Maybe if he never would have left the Oaks of Mamre, he would have been fine. I'm reminded, you know, you're capable of any sin in the catalog of sins, especially in the areas that are weakness for you. This is an area of weakness that started, that was observed 25 years ago. And he's had time to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior. He's had time to see God's faithfulness in his life. But when he panics, he goes right back to scheme number one. Because in our flesh dwells no good thing. You meditate on what Christ went through to pay for your sins. You can recognize that you received all things to pertain to life and godliness, you're complete in Him, you've got an identification with Him according to Romans 6, so you can walk in newness of life, henceforth need not serve sin. You can take advantage of those things. You can claim those by faith and then face these difficulties head on in the power of God. Or you can panic and go back to Operation Sister. Spurgeon said, God does not allow his children to sin successfully. There's always a price. Now, what Abraham also did and what we're capable of doing is rationalizing our sin. Anyone here good at that? Heck yeah. Unfortunately, right? Maybe to him it wasn't a big deal. And yet it ended up being a big deal. We've seen several times throughout this series that God isn't going to be mocked. Whatever man sows, he's going to reap. And this is why Proverbs 28 tells us to confess our sins and God will give us mercy. He longs to be merciful. Longs to be merciful. And so I got some other things here, what this lesson shows us. It shows we need to remain connected to the divine, enjoying fellowship with God, because Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. So we need to walk in the light, as he is in the light, having fellowship with him. Our spirituality, or lack thereof, speaks volumes to the unsaved. So walk in the light, as he is in the light. Believers have a position with God that is greater than the character, integrity, or morality of the unsaved. Thus, we should live conditionally in light of our position. That's God's goal. This can only happen when we abide in Christ and allow Him to manifest His life in us and through us. And Christ has provided everything we need for victory through identification with Christ's work on the cross, which stripped the sin nature of its right to reign in us. Do you believe that? Do you reckon it to be true? Believers can and need to understand on behalf of the lost and dying world, because the affection for and prayer for righteous men avails much. And I like this one, God stands by His own at all times. God took Abraham's side before in Biblical, but undoubtedly dealt different with him in private. While every believer is accepted into the beloved, yet that doesn't mean that we're well-pleasing to the Lord, but we can rest in the fact that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. We see grace in action here, don't we? Have you thanked God for his amazing grace recently? God doesn't bless disobedience, but he in mercy does not allow us to reap the full consequences of our simple decisions. And we thank God for that reality as well. With all the in the Bible I gave to Abraham, he could have not by himself a position with God. Because a position with God is only received through faith alone and Christ alone. It's by grace you're saved through faith. How painfully obvious is that here? It has nothing to do with you, it's a gift from God, it's not of works, so you have nothing to boast in. What we see on display here in this chapter is God's amazing grace and mercy across the board. Maybe Ambivalek became a believer. Maybe it impacted him going forward. A lot to be thankful for, yes? I hope this lesson you found helpful. Let's go to our Savior. Father, thank you so much for including this in the scriptures to show us ourselves. As we see in scriptures, a mirror, not only a mirror of ourselves, but more importantly, a mirror of the Lord Jesus Christ and his amazing love for us and his grace for us and how that we're in him. And so grace can now reign for eternal life, not only quantitatively, but qualitatively. Help us to reckon ourselves to be dead and deepened on the sin, to see the importance of that, to present ourselves to you, to not yield ourselves as instruments of unrighteousness to that sin nature, but as an instance of righteousness for your glory. Thank you for treating us in love and mercy and grace and owning us, and thank you for our advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, who's there interceding for us even now. What a privilege it is to be called your child. May we never forget that, and may we express our thanks with yielded hearts and bring honor and glory to the Savior. It's in his name we pray. Do not.