Genesis chapter 20. Genesis chapter
20. Be looking at one verse of scripture,
verse 7. Sarah, Abraham's wife, has been
taken by the king of Jerar. His name is Abimelech. Abraham had said, for fear of
his life, he made an agreement with Sarah. This happened in
Egypt. Now it's happening in Jerar. He said, when we go into these
cities, you tell them that I'm your brother. I'm going to tell
them you're my sister. And that's what they did. And the king,
Abimelech took Sarah based on what Abraham had told him. But
God, I love that verse three, but God, God Almighty who rules
in heaven and earth came to Abimelech in a dream and he told him that
the woman that he had taken was another man's wife and therefore
He's liable to be killed by God. I thought about this passage
of scripture, Psalm 94 11. The Lord knoweth the thoughts
of man that they are vanity. All men, all men. Every person, now you think,
I'm just lost in this thought. God knows everything. Everything that everybody is
thinking. He knows the intent. He knows. Nothing is hidden from God. God
told him, the woman you've taken is another man's wife. And Abimelech
pled innocence. He said, I did what was done,
but I did it in the integrity of my heart. He told me that
she was his sister. And so I'm innocent. That's basically what he's saying.
But that Abimelech might know. that it wasn't according to the
integrity of his heart that he didn't take Sarah. Therefore,
nothing more than pride would be the result of that. But rather,
she wasn't taken, the Lord told her, because I kept you from
taking her. And from sinning against me,
God intervened. And let's remember this truth
right here. When he told him, he said, I
kept you from taking her and sinning against me. All sin,
ultimately, all sin is against God. It started in the garden. The scripture says when David,
he took Bathsheba, sinned against Bathsheba. He had her husband
killed, sinned against her husband. Murdered him, had him murdered.
Sinned against his family, whoever was involved. But when David
confessed his sin in Psalm 51, 4, he said, against thee, thee
only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. The Lord
told Abimelech, I kept you from sinning against me. I kept you. I restrained you, I stopped you.
Only the Lord possesses the power to restrain any man from doing
that which he has the capacity to do. Psalm 76 10, the scripture
declares, surely the wrath of man shall praise thee and the
remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. Abimelech, like all
of us, he didn't commit a fraction. of the wickedness that he could
have committed had the Lord not hindered him from doing so. It
amazes me how people look and say, well, you'd never catch
me doing that. I'm telling you, listen, I'm telling you that
that's a foolish statement. Just thinking that, no, I'd have
never done that. You're kidding. You're lying to yourself. Don't
think that we're not capable of anything. If God doesn't restrain
us, the Lord knows how to restrain His people and unbelievers. He knows how. He did Abimelech.
He knows how to restrain us. Sickness, taking care of things
that we just hold on to in this world. We think we've got to
have that. Got to have that at the expense of worshiping God.
God knows how. Best thing in the world God ever
does for anybody. Take away their love for things,
mess and stuff and give them a love for Him. The Apostle Paul,
that God Almighty might deliver him, Paul, from being exalted
above measure by the abundance of the revelations that was given
him, gave him a thorn in the flesh. Scripture says a messenger
of Satan to buffet him. and reminded Paul, whenever Paul
besought the Lord thrice to remove the thorn, here was the Lord's
answer, My grace is sufficient for thee. So, we must remember,
by the grace of God, God restrains us, restrains us and restrains
others. Hold back, withhold, His will
is going to be done. And if the Lord turns us and
restrains us, Changes our course, and we think, I wonder why that
happened. God Almighty rules in the army
of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth. Nobody stays him.
And he's going to rule such that all things are going to work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. God rules. God chastens. God
wounds. Scripture says how Almighty God
does what he does, you know, in love. For whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth, scourgeth everyone he loves. So being told by the
Lord that his deliverance from death was God's work. God kept him. I kept you from
touching her. But with that in mind, the Scripture
says, verse 7, Therefore, restore the man his wife." Now, I got
to looking at this verse of scripture Monday morning, and there was
something about this one verse of scripture that just quickened
my heart. I just, one verse, and I I truly felt, I need to stay
here and I pray that the Lord allows it, I've told you before,
come out of my mouth, the way it's in my heart, but this is
a glorious picture, that one verse of scripture, a glorious
picture and type of the restoration and salvation of God's people. And so I'd like to look at it
in that light, spiritually. Listen, now therefore restore
the man his wife. Now Sarah is here, she's a picture
of the bride of Christ. She's Abraham's wife, but she's
a picture of the bride of Christ. And Sarah is in bondage. She's
in bondage to one that's not her loving husband. Abimelech's
got her. He's got her. He thought that
she was Abraham's sister, but he's got her. But she's being
held by one that doesn't love her, has no true affection for
her. And so here as the bride of Christ,
and it's the bride that's always been possessed of the Lord. She's
a picture of the church, the elect, the chosen, the select
ones. The bride of the Lord Jesus Christ
that he's always possessed. He's everlastingly possessed
her, eternally possessed her. How do I know? God doesn't change. If he's the husband of the bride
right now, when was he not the husband of the bride? You tell
me that and I'll tell you he changed. He changed in that position. There's no shadow of turning
with God. He's always. I looked up Hosea
2.19. And it says this, the Lord says,
and I will betroth thee unto me forever. Forever. I am looking that word at forever
up. Here's what it says. Concealed,
the vanishing point, time out of mind, past or future. The vanishing point. You ever take any art classes? You take a smart class and it
comes to a vanishing point. It comes to just a point. But
in theory, if you went to that point, it would always keep going.
If it never stopped, it's a vanishing point. That's what it says. That's
the definition of it. It says, conceal the vanishing
point, time out of mind. I like that, time out of mind.
forever. I would betroth thee unto me
forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness and judgment and in loving kindness and mercies.
Young's literal translation says, and I have betrothed thee unto
me in righteousness and judgment and kindness and mercy. God doesn't
change. So here she's the bride spiritually. It's a picture of the bride of
the Lord Jesus Christ, but she's captured. She's in bondage. She's been taken by one that
doesn't love her. And so here the Spirit of God
sets forth concerning this captivity. How did it come about? How did
the bride of Christ come to be in bondage to one that doesn't
love her? Well, in Adam's transgression,
the bride fell into bondage. But remember this, at no time
did she ever fall from her relationship to the bridegroom, to the Lord
Jesus Christ. She's always been his. You say, how can someone be in
Christ, found in Christ, and fall into the bondage of sin?
I don't know. I don't know how to explain that.
But I can tell you that she's never been separated from the
Lord. I love that what Brother Scott said. God puts a man, that's
where he keeps a man, right there. Now don't ask me the depth. I can tell you the truth of it,
and I can behold the marvel of it. But to explain all of this,
How can God Almighty, you know, be declared one God and be manifest
in three persons? And the Father saved from heaven
concerning the Son that was being baptized and the Spirit of God
descending upon Him in the form of a dove, and Christ is the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. How can I explain that? I don't
explain it. I just tell you that this is
what Scripture says. Whenever God's pleased to reveal the fullness
of it, when we see him as he is and we'll know him and be
like him, I can't explain that. But I can tell you that Sarah
is a picture of the bride, the people of God, and she's in bondage,
but she's still Abraham's wife. Well, Abimelech was told to restore
her. setting forth the will and good
pleasure of Almighty God concerning the bride. You restore her. Sarah's
restoration to her husband, to Abraham, would magnify the glorious
rescue that is spiritually wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ, the
conquering king himself, Lord Jesus. How did Sarah come to
be in bondage? A lie. A lie. A half-truth is a lie. She's
my sister. Well, technically she's my sister
by another mother, you know. Well, when you state something
and you conceal half the truth, that's a lie. You didn't tell
me everything. So how did she get into bondage
to Abimelech? A lie. And in the garden, sin
entered this world the same way. Satan lied to Eve, hath God said,
you're gonna die. You're not going to die. That's
a lie. If God said you're going to die if you eat of the fruit,
you're going to die. He lied to her. God knows in the day
you eat, you're going to be like God. You're going to know good
from evil. You're going to know all that.
A lie. She got into bondage by a lie
and so did mankind. When Satan lied to her, all mankind,
when Adam when Adam ate of the fruit. Not
Eve. Adam is the representative. God
told Adam that you eat. And when he ate of that fruit,
their eyes were opened. And they knew, I'm naked before
God. And they hid themselves. They
were afraid. And man died spiritually and
was in bondage. Now he's in bondage. And from
Adam, all mankind that has come has all walked according to the
course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air. All of us are born into bondage, bondage to sin, bondage
to Satan, and therefore bondage to death, liable to death, spiritual,
physical, eternal, but the glorious bridegroom who never has been
under the wrath of God now is in bondage. Bondage to this captivity
of Satan and this glorious bridegroom now is coming to this world to
save his people from their sins and restore them, deliver them. They're in bondage to sin. Sin's got them. Sin is transgression
of the law. How is the Lord going to deliver
His people from the bondage of sin? How? He's going to have
to be made sin. He's going to have to take and
bear them. He's going to have to become
them. He's going to have to become sin. He hath made Him sin. who knew no sin. So he bore the
sin of his people. Bore the sin of his own, of his
bride. To deliver her from sin, he had
to take it. To deliver her from it, he has
to take it himself and become what she is. And he bore it in
his own body, the scripture says at Calvary. Carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. And he put away, by bearing our
sins, the debt that we owed to the law. What did we owe to the
law? I said this last Sunday. What did we owe to the law? Death. That's what we owe. That's what
it's going to take. And he died. So here he bore
our debt in his body, and now Having borne our debt, he comes
in regenerating grace, and the scripture declares that he's
having borne our debt. The presence of sin is still
there. The debt of it is gone from God's
people. Now, because he's borne debt,
borne the debt of it, paid the debt of it, borne the sin of
it. Now the scripture says in Romans 6, 14, sin shall not have
dominion over you, for you're not under the law. You're not
under the regulation for righteousness of the law. We love the law of
God. I've said before, whenever somebody talks about the law,
you remember this, the law is good. The law is good. It's righteousness, holy. but
under the obligation to keep it. If a man or woman is not
saved by the grace of God, Christ hadn't borne their debt, the
regulation of the law is still in effect. I'm telling you. But
we're not under the requirements for righteousness of the law. We love it, can't keep it, The
Lord bore our sin. We were in dominion to sin. He
took it. He conquered death. How? He died for us. He bore our sins
and the penalty of that sin was death. And He died. The law was going to be satisfied. I tell you this, when He bore
our debt, The law demanded its penalty be served, and he died. He died in our place, dying for
us. He suffered the penalty of the
wrath of the law in our stead, was buried, and three days later,
the father manifested his victory over death on the behalf of his
people and raised him from the dead. raised for or because of
our justification. He's conquered death. He's conquered
sin. And concerning Satan, Satan's
rule over his people, the adversary of the sheep, he was defeated. First of all, I can tell you
this, he was defeated in heaven. Lucifer and a third of the angels
raised up and he was thrown out of heaven down to the earth and
the power that he has as a roaring lion seeking who may devour,
the power of the devil is regulated, delegated is the word I'm looking
for, delegated power. And his power to deceive, his
power to deceive was victoriously shown by the Lord Jesus Christ
to be resisted on the behalf of his people in the wilderness
of his temptation. And soon Satan, according to
Revelation 20 10, is going to be cast into the lake of fire.
False prophet, tormented, the scripture says, day and night
forever and ever. So the scripture says in Genesis chapter 20 verse
1, now therefore restore the man his wife. There's only one
person that can do that, spiritually. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Only he can handle the problem with sin, problem with death,
Satan. Restore the man his wife, and
he has done that. Colossians chapter two, I want
you to turn with me right here. This is a beautiful picture.
Colossians two. Colossians 2.10. Colossians chapter two, verse
10. You want to talk about restoration?
Restoration. Look at this right here. Colossians
2.10, and ye are complete in him, which is the head of all
principality and power, in whom also you were circumcised with
the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried
with him in baptism, wherein also you're risen with him through
the faith of the operation of God who has raised him from the
dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven
you all trespasses. blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross, and having spoiled
principalities and power, he made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them in it." Restore the man his wife. And the Lord Jesus Christ did.
Christ did. Sarah was to be back in Genesis
20 verse 7, she was to be restored to her husband according to the
word of God who was declared to be a prophet. Verse 7, now
therefore restore the man his wife for he is a prophet. He's a prophet. and who is the
husband of the sheep, but he who is the prophet. Turn to Deuteronomy 18. I want
you to look at this one. I love the way, the revelation
of this scripture. Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy 18, verse 15. The Lord thy God will raise up
unto thee, now look at that word, A capital P, prophet. From the midst of thee, of thy
brethren, like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken. The Lord thy God will raise up
unto thee a prophet. from the midst of thee. Now that's
one of the clearest declarations in scripture concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ being the prophet, son of God. Raised up of God,
raised up by God, for God, for no man, the scripture says, took
that honor unto himself. He was to be raised up from among
his brethren, Therefore, God over all who is
blessed forever did condescend to take upon himself our nature,
be made in the likeness of his brethren that he might be a merciful
and faithful high priest. according to the word spoken
by Moses under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, made like
unto Moses. That's what Moses is. He'll be
made like unto me. How's that? He's the appointed authority
over the people of God with this wonderful difference. Moses was
the servant of the Lord. The Lord is God. That's the difference right there. He is a prophet. Therefore, restore
the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and
thou shalt live. Now here we behold the sustaining
grace, the power of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people. As the great high priest who
ever liveth, to make intercession for his people, pleading his
own merit on their behalf. Turn with me to John 17. I wrapped
this up. John 17. Here he is now. The Lord prays and the Lord told
the father, he said, I know you ever hear me. He always prayed
according to the will of his father. One God, one will, one
love. Restore the man, his wife, he's
a prophet. He'll pray for you and you'll live. He'll pray for
you and you'll live. John 17 and verse six, the scripture
says, the Lord praying, high priestly prayer, I've manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were and thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word. Now look at verse nine. I pray
for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. I pray for those that you've
given me. I'm praying for them. The scripture
declares in verse 15, I pray not that thou shouldest take
them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from
the evil. Verse 17, sanctify them through
thy truth. Thy word is truth. Verse 20,
neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word. Verse 24, Father, I will, that
they also whom thou has given me be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory which thou has given me for thou lovest
me before the foundation of the world. Restore the man his wife. He's a prophet. And he'll pray
for you. And you'll live. And scripture
says in closing, he said, and if thou restore
her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou and all
that are thine. you restore her, and if you don't. And here's the spiritual truth
concerning that. Well the natural truth of it
is if Abimelech refused to restore Sarah to her husband Abraham, if he was going to arrogantly
resist God, I'm not going to have you rule over me. If he
sought only disobedience before God, and proceeded to take her
and defile her, if that was his intent. I'm gonna take her, I'm
gonna defile her. When God had promised Abraham
that by him, by Abraham, we dealt with this last time, Sarah would
have a son according to God's promise. If you don't restore
her, know for certainty you're gonna
die. I will tell you this, spiritually
speaking, if we bow not to God's declaration of how God restores
his people, if we dare to defy him and defy his revelation of
truth concerning how he restores his people, and we're bent on
disobedience, And we're bent on our way and our will, our
path, our thoughts, question God, thou shalt surely die. And all that are thine, all like
you. The scripture says to touch with
disrespect. The people of God, you restore
her. You restore that woman. If you
don't, I'll kill you. God Almighty considers an attack,
disrespect upon His people. And I know that the people of
God have been persecuted and if they're persecuted it's only
because the Lord allowed them to be persecuted for His glory
and their good. But if Almighty God is pleased
to reveal this truth that we need to take it to heart. Almighty
God takes it personally when his people are attacked. He considers it an attack upon
himself. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? Matthew 25, 40, inasmuch as he said this to the goats
on his left hand, inasmuch as you've done it unto the one of
the least of these my brethren, you've done it unto me. And this
is the desire of the sheep of God, Psalm 17, 8. Keep me as
the apple of thine eye. Hide me under the shadow of thy
wings. The Lord, having told Abraham,
I'm going to give you a son. Sarah, your wife, will have your
son, not Abimelech. He told Abimelech, you touch
her. I'm going to kill you. God has
magnified his word above all his name. That's Psalm 138 verse
2. He's established that his counsel shall stand and he will
do all his pleasure. Restore the wife to her husband. He's a prophet. He's a prophet. Well, you talk about distinguishing
grace. He told Abimelech, he said, you're a dead man. He's
a prophet. And here's this one that had
said some things about his wife. This is mine. Don't you touch
her. She's mine. He's a prophet. He'll pray for you. If you restore
her not, know for a certainty. you shall die and all that's
thine. I pray God bless this to our
hearts for Christ's sake.