Would you turn back with me to
Genesis chapter 20? I struggled with a title for
this message. I've entitled this message, Abraham's
Unbelief. That doesn't sound right, those
two words together, Abraham and unbelief. But in this passage
of scripture, we're given a story of Abraham's unbelief. And this is given to teach us
the gospel. Now, remember, everything in
the New Testament is found by example in the book of Genesis. Somebody once said Genesis is
the seed plot of all the Bible. And I do believe that. And remember,
this is what God the Holy Spirit has recorded for our learning. Now, I've said before that as
far as men born of women, men born of Adam, there's nobody
more significant than this man, Abraham. He's called the father
of the faithful. He's called the friend of God. What a title. It was said of Abraham in Romans
chapter four that he staggered not at the promise of God, through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully
persuaded that what God had promised, he was able also to perform. And the Spirit of God was pleased
to inspire Moses when writing this book, Genesis. to give an event in Abraham's
life where not only did his faith appear to be not strong, his
faith appeared to be non-existent in this passage of scripture. Now, you think of the setting,
perhaps just a matter of weeks before, he saw the destruction of Sodom. He had the Lord Himself say to
him, is anything too hard for the Lord? The Lord said that
to him. He heard those words audibly
in a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is
there anything he lacks the power to perform, including taking
care of and protecting you. He had just witnessed this awesome
display of the Lord's power. And when Abimelech confronted
him about his unbelief, he said, I thought surely the fear of
the Lord wasn't in this place, as if it could be there, but
not here. When he made that statement,
he was denying the character of God Almighty, His omnipresence. The fear of the Lord isn't here. Now, the Lord had appeared to
Abram some 30 years before, and some 25 years before this took
place. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
12. And there was a famine in the
land, verse 10, Genesis 12, verse 10. And there was a famine in
the land, and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there,
for the famine was grievous in the land. Now I've heard many
people say, well, he shouldn't have left. Well, if the famine
was grievous in the land and you didn't have anything to eat,
you'd probably do what he did. Verse 11, and it came to pass
when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto
Sarah, his wife, behold, now I know that thou art a fair woman
to look upon. Therefore it shall come to pass
when the Egyptians shall see thee, they shall say, this is
his wife, and they'll kill me, but they'll save thee alive.
Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister. Don't tell anybody you're
my wife. Say, I'm his sister, that it
may be well with me for thy sake, and my soul shall live because
of thee. And it came to pass that when Abram was come into
Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
The princes also of Pharaoh saw her and commended her before
Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. He allowed
her to be taken into Pharaoh's harem. Now, men, think about
how your wives would respond to something like that. But he
allowed that to take place. And he treated Abram well for
her sake, and he had sheep and oxen. He gained most of his wealth
through this, his asses and menservants and maidservants and she-asses
and camels. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh
and his house with great plagues because of Sarah, Abram's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and
said, what is this that thou has done unto me? Why didst thou
not tell me that she was thy wife? Why didst thou say she's
my sister? Why did you lie to me? So I might
have taken her to me a wife. Now therefore behold thy wife,
take her and go thy way. And Pharaoh commanded his men
concerning him and they sent him away and his wife and all
that he had." Now, Abraham came up with great wealth through
this improper conduct to say the least. Now in Genesis chapter
20, deja vu. Deja vu. He does the same thing. Sarah was still a beautiful woman
and she was 90 years old and he was so afraid for himself
because of her beauty. that he'd kill her or kill him
and take her. Same thing that he thought years
before. And one of the things I was thinking
about, this is speculation, but maybe the Lord made Sarah's aging
to reverse to in order to enable her to have the baby that she
was going to have next year because she has Isaac in chapter 21. And maybe he did something that
made her to where she didn't age or her aging reversed and
she was able to bear a child even though she had been in menopause. Now she is no longer that way
and can bear a child. Perhaps that's what took place.
But at any rate, he was very scared because of her beauty
and he told her to lie. And off she's carried into Abimelech's
And evidently she was there for some time because look in verse
17, so Abraham prayed unto God and God healed Abimelech and
his wife and his maidservants and they bare children for the
Lord had fast closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech
because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. So evidently some months had
passed, maybe a year, I don't know. No one had any children
in Abimelech's house, and it was because that the Lord had
closed their wombs while Sarah was there. Now, we don't read where Abraham
did anything to try to get her back. Maybe he did, but we don't
read of it. You remember when Lot was taken
by the king of Sodom and he and 318 trained servants came and
delivered him, destroyed Sodom and brought Lot back and he delivered
them, but we don't read of anything he did to get Sarah back. And here's one of the best words
in scripture, verse three, but God. But God. Abraham failed on every
account. But God. He's so glorious. But God. You can't help but think of that
scripture in Ephesians 2, 4, and you hithy quick and you are
dead in trespasses and sins, and he goes on to describe our
deadness and so on. But God. who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead in sins. But God. God intervened. That's what salvation is. If
there's not a but God with you and me, we'll go to hell. We
won't have any faith. We won't be delivered. But God. Isn't that the gospel? But God. For Christ's sake, but God. But
God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, verse three, and said
to him, behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which
thou hast taken, for she is a man's wife. Now, this was before the giving of
the Ten Commandments, and Abimelech knew adultery was wrong. Men
are born knowing the difference between right and wrong. This
heathen man knew adultery was wrong. He never had a copy of
the law, but he knew it was wrong. Now the point is we're born into
this world, not Sinless, sinful, but we still know the difference
between right and wrong. Everybody knows it's wrong to
lie. Everybody knows it's wrong to steal. Everybody knows it's
wrong to covet. Everybody knows it's wrong to
kill. Everybody knows it's wrong to commit adultery. And it was
wrong then, and the Lord comes to him at this time and confronts
him about it. But Abimelech, Verse four, had
not yet come near her. And he said, Lord, will thou
also slay a righteous nation? Said he, nodding to me, she's
my sister. And she, even she herself said,
he's my brother. They both lied in the integrity
of my heart. And the innocency of my hands
have I done this. Now, he talks like any other
heathen would. I'm a good person, I just got
tricked into this. I'm a man of integrity and innocency. And I think the Lord is speaking
somewhat ironically when he says, God said unto him in a dream,
yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart,
for I also withheld thee from sinning against me. That's why
you didn't do it. Don't pat yourself on the back
and say, I did this in the integrity of my heart. I withheld you from
sinning against me. And let me say this, and I mean
this from the depth of my heart, any sin you do not physically
commit, it's because he prevented it. You believe that? It's because
he prevented it. Verse 7. Now therefore, restore
the man his wife, for he's a prophet, and he shall pray for you, and
thou shalt live. And if thou restore her not,
know that thou shalt surely die, and all that are in thine. Now
I bet this was kind of hard for him to take. He lied to him. She lied to him. He played the
part of a coward. He did wrong. He made no effort
whatsoever that we read of to get his wife back. I don't know
how long this lasted. And then God says to this man,
he's a prophet. He'll pray for you. I bet that
kind of got to him. I mean, really? The way he's,
he's your prophet? He seems like a liar to me. He
seems like a coward to me. He's your prophet. And I'm not
gonna be, I'm not the one in the wrong and yet I'm gonna have
to have him praying for me before I'm not gonna be killed. I'm
sure that that was kind of a bitter pill for him to swallow as he
considered that. But he knew what God said was
so. He was gonna die if he didn't
do something about this. Verse eight. Therefore Abimelech
rose early in the morning and called all of his servants and
told all these things in their ears. And the men were so afraid. We're getting ready to get put
to death. Maybe they knew about Sodom. I bet they did. I mean,
that word travels. And they thought the same thing's
gonna happen to us. And Abimelech called Abraham
and said unto him, what hast thou done unto us? You know,
he was, quote, righteously indignant at this time, wasn't he? What
has thou done unto us? What have I offended thee that
thou hast brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? Thou hast
done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. Isn't that true? Now, he was wrong for taking
Sarah in the first place, wasn't he? I don't care if he didn't
know she was wife, he was wrong to do that, but he still says
to Abraham, you've done to me deeds that ought not to be done. And Abimelech, verse 10, said
unto Abraham, what sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing?
And Abraham said, because I thought. Now here's where we get in trouble.
Because I thought. Same thing old Naaman said. I
thought he'd come out to me and he'd strike his hand over the
place and call upon the name of his God and recover the leper. He tells me to just dunk down
in this filthy river Jordan. I'm not going to do that. He
went away in a rage. He thought. Now, this is so important. I
hope you're hearing everything I say, but if you don't hear
anything else, hear this. Hold your finger there and turn
to 1 Corinthians chapter four. 1 Corinthians chapter four, verse six. And these things, brethren, Have
I, in a figure, transferred to myself and to Paulus for your
sakes that you might learn in us not to think... Now, amen is an italics, isn't
it? It's an italics. I'm sure that
it's not wrong to put it there, but it wasn't there. Let's read
this without the words that are in italics because they were
not in the original. that you might learn in us not to think
above that which is written. Now understand this. Somebody
says, I just really can't see what you're saying. Is it written? That's the issue. Is it written? You see, the Bible is the absolute
authority. Believe what God's word says.
If God says you're nothing but sin, believe it. It's what God
says. If God says salvation is all
together by grace, believe it. It's what God says. Don't trust
your thoughts. You think wrong. You can just
write this down, whatever you think. Write it down. Whatever
you naturally think, it's wrong. I thought. And what did he think? That was his problem. I thought.
What did he think? Surely the fear of God is not
in this place, and they will slay me for my wife's sake. Now,
God had already made the promise, the Messiah is coming through
you and your wife. I mean, there was no question
about that. The Messiah, the promised seed
is coming through you and your wife. Well, I'm afraid to kill
me and kill my wife. He didn't believe God at all
at this time. I mean, this is very truly the unbelief of Abraham. He was not believing God's promise. You know, one of the things this
reminds me, is Abraham any different than you or I? He's really not. He's a sinner saved by grace.
And at this time, he is exercising great unbelief, great fear. And what he says is completely
contrary to the attribute of God. When he says, I thought
the fear of God is not in this place. Now I know it was back
in Sodom, I saw what happened. But hear what, that's a denial
of his omniscience. That's a denial of his power.
I mean, you can just go on and on. Abraham, at this time, through
caving into fear, was making a statement that denied the very
character of God. This is Abraham. You know, I
feel almost funny entitling the message Abraham's Unbelief, but
what are you gonna call it? Is there a better name to call
this? Abraham's unbelief, what unbelief he demonstrated at this
time. And then he vindicates himself.
Verse 12, and yet indeed, she is my sister. She's my half sister.
I gave you half the truth. Now remember, the half the truth
is a whole lie all the time. But he was trying to vindicate
himself. I gave you half the truth. You know, she is my sister.
She is my sister. I mean, she's my half sister.
She's not my full-blooded sister, but I ended up marrying her.
But I wasn't lying to you. When you're covering up the truth,
you're lying. And that's exactly what he was doing. He was covering
the truth and he was lying. And yet indeed, she is my sister.
She's the daughter of my father and not the daughter of my mother.
And she became my wife. It came to pass when God caused
me to wander from my father's house This is so incongruent. God caused me to wander. Then
I said, this is our kindness which thou shalt show unto me,
and every place where we shall come, save me, he's my brother.
Now God's causing you to wonder, isn't he gonna take care of you?
God destroyed Sodom, isn't he gonna take care of you? He's
all powerful, but he made this deal with Sarah. He said, well,
I want you to do, wherever we go, you tell them you're my sister,
and that'll save my skin. If they don't see that, they'll
kill me in order to get you. Verse 14. And Abimelech took sheep, and
oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham. Just like in Genesis chapter
12, he was enriched during that time. Same thing happens here. He comes out smelling like a
rose. You say, that's not right! That's grace. That's grace. And Abimelech said, behold, my
land is before thee. Dwell where it pleaseth thee.
And unto Sarah he said, behold, I have given thy brother. I love
the way he says, I've given your husband. He says, I've given
your brother. He's saying that tongue in cheek. And you know
he's doing that in order to correct her. That one you call your brother. I've given your brother a thousand
pieces of silver. Behold, he is to thee a covering
of the eyes and to all that are with thee and with all others.
And thus she was reproved. So Abraham prayed into God and
God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants and
they bear children, started going back to normal. For the Lord
had fast closed up the wombs of the house of Abimelech because
of Sarah, Abraham's wife. Now, what do we learn from this? We learn a lot. First, we learn
that Abraham, like every other believer, is still a sinner. That's plain, isn't it? You know,
people talk about Abraham in such a way. Abraham's no different
than me or you. He was still a sinner. Do you remember the man who cried
out in Mark 9, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief? These
two things are always in operation at the same time. In every believer,
there's an old nature that does not believe. And in every believer,
there's a new nature that does believe. Abraham, like every
other believer, had two natures, the old man and the new man.
This does not give any believer an excuse to ever sin in any
form. Well, I got my whole nature,
you know, can't help it. It doesn't give a believer a
justification or an excuse for sin in any form, but it certainly
gives us an explanation for our sin, doesn't it? This old man,
Abraham, Had that every believer is a sinner saved by grace, who's
still a sinner in his experience, but he's also a saint, a sinner
and a saint at the precise same time. And listen to this, that
doesn't mean 50% sinner and 50% saint. That means 100% sinner
and 100% saint. Such was Abraham. Grace is what God does. What
did Abraham do in any of this that we see? Did he ask the Lord
to get him out? He might have, I don't know,
but the Holy Spirit's been pleased to make it to where we don't
have a record of him doing anything. This is 100% what God did. But God, grace is what God does. Abraham didn't do anything to
fix this. It was God who appeared to Abimelech.
Grace is what God does. Grace is not God's response to
me or you asking for his help. That's not grace. Grace is not
something God offers you if you'll just accept it. There's not a
drop of grace in that kind of thinking. That's not saving grace. Grace is not what God offers. Grace is what God does. God acted here, didn't he? But
God. Look back in verse six of our
text. And God said unto him in a dream, yea, I know that thou
didst this in the integrity of thy heart. Here's why. I withheld thee. from sinning
against me. Therefore suffered I thee not
to touch her. Now, a couple of things I want
to point out about that. First thing is this, sin is against
God. I kept you from sinning against
me. Now, wait a minute. Wasn't he sinning against Abraham
and Sarah? Well, I wouldn't say he wasn't, but here's the main
problem. Sin is against God. I've withheld you from sinning
against That's why David said, against thee and thee only have
I sinned. That's why the prodigal said,
I'll rise to my father and say, father, I've sinned against heaven.
That's what he said first, isn't it? Against heaven and in thy
sight. You see only when you see that
your personal sin is against him, will you come to him for
mercy. You know, If I sin against Jonathan, I don't ask Rich to
forgive me, I ask Jonathan to. It's only when I see my sin is
against him that I'll truly ask him to have mercy on me and forgive
me of my sin. For Christ's sake, only when
you see it's against him do you ask him to do something for you. And you know it's gotta be him
doing something for you. And thank God for restraining
grace. Abimelech speaks of his integrity
and his innocency. This is just the language of
a heathen, isn't it? But thank God he was restrained. Now, another thing that I see
from this passage of scripture is this teaches us something
about the absolute sovereignty of God. The king's heart, Abimelech,
Miu, The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers
of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will. You see, Abimelech was
in God's hand, so were me and you. Everybody, it doesn't matter
who they are, they're in God's hand. Everybody that's troubling
you, they're in God's hand doing his will for his glory and your
good. And that was true with regard
to this man Abimelech. And I like thinking about this
too. He said, I've kept you from sinning against me. Could God
have kept Adam from sinning? Of course he could. Why didn't
he do it? Because it was all a part of
his glorious purpose. Christ is the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world, and it was all according to God's
purpose. Now, people, I think it's, I
find it irritating now. I used to be intimidated by this,
but I find it irritating now when people say, well, you're
making God the author of sin. I'm not making God anything. God's who he is, and whatever
he does is right, and I'm not gonna apologize for it. Whatever
he does is right. And he doesn't do it because
it's right. He doesn't have some law over his head. It's right
because he does it. And whatever he does is right,
just, holy, good, and true. And it was best for Adam to fall. And look at all the good that's
come out of it. The salvation of God's people, the glory of
God. Verse seven, now restore the
man his wife, for he's a prophet. and he'll pray for you. I love
that. I mean, I'm sure a bibliac was thinking, something's wrong
with this. You telling me this man's a prophet?
You tell me that if he prays for me, that's the only way I'm
gonna be healed? I don't know about this. I'm
sure he was thinking things like that. That's because he's a heathen. That's because he didn't know
the living God, but I'm sure it was difficult for him. But
I want you to remember this. God viewed Abraham the way he
views every other believer. Because of Christ, holy and unblameable
and unapprovable in his sight. That's how God viewed Abraham
at that time and right now and eternally. He's a prophet. He'll pray for you. And if you
don't do what I say and restore her, you're a dead man and everybody
in your house is. God brings good out of evil. Don't ever forget that. Only
God can do that. Me and you can't. But the glorious
God brings good out of evil. Now we learn from this story,
this is what I learned, I'm bad. You learn that? Abraham did. It's not my faith that saves
me, it's his faithfulness. You learn that? It's not my faith
that saves me. It's his faithfulness. And I think it's so amazing that
Abraham came out of all of this smelling like a rose. It's called
justification. God justified. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? Try it. Can't be done. God justified them. And we have a beautiful, in closing,
we have a beautiful type of Christ in verses 17 and 18. So Abraham
prayed unto God and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his
maidservants and they bare children for the Lord had fast closed
up the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah Abraham's
wife. Abraham prayed for Abimelech. Christ prayed for me. Father, forgive them, they know
not what they do. I pray for them, I pray not for
the world, but for them which you've given me, for they are
thine. Abraham prayed for Abimelech,
the Lord Jesus Christ prayed for me. And you know what? God answered Abraham's prayer. Abimelech's family was healed
and the children were born again. The wounds, life was opened. Christ prays and life comes. He never prays in vain. He's
able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God seeing he
ever liveth to make intercession for them. Life comes as a result
of his prayers, and this did not take place until the problem
was taken care of. Sarah had to be restored. And
the reason I'm saved is the problem's been taken care of. My sin's
been put away. I've been restored. He wouldn't
do it unless the problem was taken care of. And the problem
was taken care of on Calvary's tree. Its heir was restored,
sin put away, and the wounds were opened for the sake of Abraham's
prayers, and life is given as a result of Christ dying on the
cross, and taking care of the problem, and praying to the Father
in behalf of his people." Aren't scriptures amazing? Love the word of God. The scriptures
are so amazing. And this is a beautiful example
of the amazingness of the scriptures. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
gospel, how we thank you for your word, how we thank you for
your grace. How we thank you for the revelation
of your son. How we thank you for the forgiveness
of sins for Christ's sake. How we thank you that salvation
is of thee, that it's wholly your work. Lord, we confess we
would not be saved if that were not the case. Lord, we see ourselves in Abraham
so much. But Lord, we're also thankful
that Abraham by your grace, staggered not at your promise through unbelief.
His old man didn't believe, but the new man you gave him did.
Oh Lord, may we walk by faith, looking to your son, relying
completely on who you are. In Christ's name we pray, amen.