Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nybert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. Many years ago, I heard a preacher
defining grace, and he made this statement, grace is in spite
of. And that resonated with me. Grace
means in spite of. And in Genesis chapter 12, the
story of Abraham and Sarah going down into Egypt, we have a beautiful
illustration of grace being in spite of, in spite of Abraham,
in spite of Sarah. Now, first, before we look at
the story, I want to ask this question, what is meant by grace? what is meant by the grace of
God. Now, if you would ask any religious
person if they believe in salvation by grace, I guarantee you they'd
all say yes. No one would say, no, I don't
believe in grace. I believe in salvation by works.
Every religious person you come across would say they believe
in salvation by grace. Now, what is meant? What does
the Bible mean by this word? Because what the Bible means
and what religious people mean by this word grace are two totally
separate things. Your average religious person
believes grace is God's goodwill that he offers you if you will
just take it. It's up to you as to whether
or not you'll accept it or reject it, but God willingly offers
you grace. Now, my dear friend, that is
not what the Bible means by grace. What does the Bible mean by grace? Well, first of all, if you don't
believe it's the gift of God, God's sovereign gift, not an
offer, but a gift, you don't really believe in grace. God's grace is that which He
sovereignly, as an act of His own will, bestows upon an individual. He doesn't offer it to them.
gives it to him. Somebody says, well, what if
they won't receive it? Well, if they don't receive it, he never gave
it. Everybody he gives his grace to, they receive it. Now, if you don't believe that
you are evil, sinful, dead in sins by nature, and there's nothing
you can do to save yourself. If you don't believe that about
yourself, you really don't believe in grace. You see, grace is only
for those who cannot save themselves. Remember that definition, in
spite of? Grace saves in spite of my inability
to save myself. You don't really believe in scriptural
grace unless you believe in electing grace. That God, before time
began, by his grace, chose a people to be saved. Now, if you don't
believe in election, you believe in salvation by works. You think
you have some part in salvation, be it Never so small, you still
believe you have a part and that is a denial of grace. If you
believe that Christ's death can not save, that he can die for
you and you end up still not being saved, you don't believe
in grace. You see, grace is centered around the effectual work of
Christ on the cross, how he actually accomplished salvation in spite
of the sinfulness of the people that he is dying for. You believe
that if he died for you, if you believe grace, you believe that
if he died for you, you must be saved. Now, you don't believe
in grace unless you believe grace is invincible and irresistible. and it must save all of the objects
it's bestowed upon. And if you believe grace can
be resisted, you don't really believe grace. You see, God's
grace is saving grace. And if you believe that a person
can experience God's grace, and end up falling away and leaving
Christ, you don't really believe in scriptural grace. That's not
the way grace works. Grace causes all the Father elected,
all the Son redeemed, and all the Holy Spirit gives life to. It causes all those people to
persevere all the way to the end, looking to Christ only. Now that's scriptural grace. As I said, That is grace in spite
of our own sinfulness and inability to save ourselves. Now, in this
passage of Scripture, we have a beautiful illustration of God's
grace acting upon Abraham and Sarah in spite of their own sinfulness. Now, In Genesis chapter 12, this
is when Abraham finally enters the land of Canaan. Now, God
had said to him back in the land of Mesopotamia, leave your mother
and father, leave your land, leave your house, and you go
to a land that I'll show you. Well, Abraham did not do exactly
as God had said. He took Lot with him. He took
his father Terah with him. Instead of leaving his relatives,
he brought them with him. He didn't go all the way into
the land of Canaan. He went into the land of Haran.
And he stayed there until his father died, which would be about
five years. And then Stephen tells us God
removed him into the land. That's how he got into the land
of Canaan. Now, I'm so thankful. God purposed
for him to be there. He's going to be there in spite
of all of his inconsistencies and contradictions. That's just
the way God's grace works. It's in spite of. Thank God for
that. Now, Abraham, by the grace of
God, is finally in the land of Canaan. And what happens? There
was a famine in the land. Now, Abraham perhaps thought,
here I am in the place the Lord told me to be, why is there a
famine? Why am I experiencing this great
and grievous trial of a famine? But he was, there was a famine
in the land and there was nothing to eat. And Abraham went down
into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in
the land." Now, he went to Egypt, which represents the world, salvation
by works, bondage. Remember how when they went into
Egypt, they had to make bricks without straw? Works religion. He went down to Egypt to relieve
himself of this famine. And most of the men that I've
read said that he should have never left Canaan. He should
have waited on the Lord and waited for the Lord to provide for him.
Well, perhaps. I wouldn't say that that's not
so. But he had a lot of mouths to feed. There wasn't anything
to eat. So he went down to Egypt. And the scripture says just to
sojourn there. to be there temporarily until
the famine was over in the land of Canaan, then he would go back. Now let's go on reading verse
11. And it came to pass when he was
come nearer to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarah his wife,
Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon."
Sarah was a very beautiful woman. Verse 12, therefore, it shall
come to pass when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall
say, this is his wife, and they will kill me, but they will save
thee alive. Now at this time, evidently,
Abraham has forgotten every one of the promises God made to him.
Because God had promised that through this man's seed, all
nations of the earth would be blessed. You see, the Messiah
was going to come through the loins of Abraham. His descendants
were going to be the nation of Israel. God had made this promise,
and if Abraham would have been believing, If Abraham would have
been thinking rightly, he would have thought, well, I can't be
killed because God said the Messiah is going to come through me.
Or let's take it a step further. He could have thought, well,
if they do kill me, I'll be raised back to life to have the seed
because the Messiah is going to come through me. God said
it. God purposed it. It must come to pass. I cannot
be killed. Which was true, but that's not
the way he was thinking. He said to Sarah, you're so beautiful,
when they see you, they'll kill me and take you. Now here's what
we need to do to get out of this mess. Verse 13, say I pray thee
that thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for
thy sake, and my soul shall live because of thee. Don't tell them
you're my wife. They'll kill me if you do that.
Tell them you're my sister, and then they'll spare me and I'll
be okay. So I don't know how long they
were in the land at this time, but look in verse 14, what Abraham
thought would come to pass did come to pass. And it came to
pass that when Abram was coming to Egypt, The Egyptians beheld
the woman that she was very fair, very beautiful, just like Abraham
said. The princes also of Pharaoh saw
her and commended her before Pharaoh, and the woman was taken
into Pharaoh's house. She became one of Pharaoh's concubines. She became a part of Pharaoh's
harem. Now, I want you to think. These
men come to Abraham and Sarah, and they both lie to these men. She's not my wife. She's my sister. Okay, it's okay for us to take
her. We'll take her. and they brought her into Pharaoh's
house, all through these lies. And really, Abraham didn't know
if he'd ever see her again. How did he feel when he went
to bed that night and Sarah wasn't there? And he knew she had now
become one of Pharaoh's concubines through his lie. Perhaps he got
to sleep that night and woke up the next morning and thought,
I hope that was a bad dream. And he looks over and sees Sarah
is gone and his bed is empty. And he realizes she is with Pharaoh
at this time in his harem. I'm sure that he felt devastated
over what he had done to her. Now, verse 16, it says, he, Pharaoh,
He entreated Abram well for her sake. Now, Abraham actually got
rich over this. You know, Abraham was a rich
man. The scripture points that out. Here's where his riches
came from, what Pharaoh gave him. We read in verse 16, and
he entreated Abram well for her sake. And he had sheep, and oxen,
and he-asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she-asses,
and camels. He became very wealthy through
this. Rich in silver and gold, and
animals, and servants. He became a wealthy man through
this. Now, I don't know how long this
went on, but look at verse 17. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh
and his house with great plagues because of Sarah, Abram's wife. Now, what happens? In the household of Pharaoh,
all of a sudden, people start becoming sick. Everybody becomes
sick. What kind of sickness? I don't
know. I don't know if they had tumors or boils or what the sickness
was, but everybody became very, very ill without exception, with
the exception of one person, Sarah. She was not plagued. Everybody else was plagued. And
I'm sure that somehow everyone noticed that there's only one
person who had not been plagued. This woman named Sarah. She was free from the disease
that the Lord had plagued the house of Pharaoh with. And I'm
sure they did some contact tracing and they found out that this
plague began when Sarah entered. And I'm sure this message was
given to Pharaoh and he comes to Sarah and says, what is this? Why are you not plagued? Why
are we plagued? Why did the plague begin when
you came into my household? And she said, because I'm Abraham's
wife. Well, Pharaoh didn't know that. He didn't know she was
his wife. He thought she was his sister.
And so look what happens. And Pharaoh called Abram, verse
18, and said, what is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst
thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Now, I'm sure Abraham
didn't know how to answer that. Is he just gonna say, I lied?
You know, we don't give an answer that he gave, but I'm sure he
was very embarrassed. He was very humiliated. He was
very humbled thinking about how he had lied and brought this
all on. And this is so interesting. God didn't act in behalf of Sarah
because of good conduct on her part. She agreed to this thing. God did not act in behalf of
Abraham because of good conduct on his part. He was the one who
came up with this wicked invention. God did it in spite of Sarah
and Abraham. And that's what grace is. Grace
is God acting in spite of. And if God gives grace to me
or you, it will be in spite of us. It's done for Christ's sake. Nevertheless, he saved them for
his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power known. That's why God saves. For our
sakes. It's for Christ's sake. It's in spite of us. And this
grace that God gives to Abraham and Sarah to deliver them from
Pharaoh was in spite of them. Now let's go on reading. Why
saidst thou, she is my sister? So I might have taken her to
me to wife. He hadn't done it yet through
God's providence and God's restraining grace. But he said, I would have.
Now, one thing that I want to point out is Pharaoh knew adultery
was wrong and he'd never been exposed to the law of God. Abraham
knew adultery was wrong. Sarah knew adultery was wrong. They all knew this. You know
what that lets me know? That God's law is written on
everybody's heart. Everybody knows the difference
between right and wrong. Somebody says we need to teach
people the difference between right and wrong. People already
know the difference between right and wrong. God's law is written
on the heart of every man and woman. boy and girl in this world,
and they know that the Ten Commandments are written on the heart of every
man in the sense that they know these things are wrong. They've
got a conscience that tells them that. Now, he knew it was wrong. He said, why did you put me in
a position like this? You take your wife and go your
way. And I'm sure this was a reproof from Pharaoh to Abraham and Sarah. I'm sure they were both very
embarrassed as they left. Three things that I've got to
realize that Abraham must have learned at this time. First,
he knew that he was a sinful, weak, evil man. To put your wife in a position
like that, that shows badness of character. He was wrong in
doing this in every respect. The second thing this taught
Abraham is that my faith, there's not much to it. God had made
all these promises to him and yet look how he conducted himself
at this time. In a shameful and wrong way,
Abraham knew that the only reason he was saved was because of the
faithfulness of God. So here they leave. He says, take her and go your
way. I'm sure that there was righteous indignation on Pharaoh's
part toward them in the way that they'd conducted themselves.
And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, Abraham, don't
you touch him. You know, he knew that God's
favor was upon Abraham. I'm sure Abraham told him who
the living God was and he knew God's favor was upon him. And
he had some sort of fear of God because God had plagued his home. All the plagues came from him.
So he said, you all keep your hands off Abraham and Sarah,
do them no wrong. And Pharaoh commanded his men
concerning him, and they sent him away, and his wife, and all
that he had. And Abraham went up out of Egypt,
he and his wife, and all that he had, and lot with him into
the south. They're returning to the promised
land. And Abraham was very rich in cattle, and in silver, and
in gold. Now, What I get out of this is
Abraham came out of this smelling like a rose, having more now
than he did at the beginning, and he didn't suffer any consequences
for his actions. He ended up being better off. Now, somebody may think, well,
what about Hagar? Now, we're going to read about
Hagar in Genesis chapter 16, the Egyptian maid. And she came
out of this and brought Abraham into a great sin through Sarah's
counsel. Once again, they got in messes.
But do you know that even this was overruled to be a blessing
because through Hagar, we're given this story in Genesis chapter
16 that Paul tells us is allegorical to teach us of law and grace. And we learn of law and grace
and how to interpret the entire Old Testament through that story. So even that was a blessing.
Everything that happened to Abraham was good. He comes out of there
wrong as he could be, Sarah wrong as she could be, and they come
out rich in silver and gold and cattle. He came out smelling
like a rose. Now what that speaks to me of
is the gospel. When God saves a man, they don't
suffer consequences for their actions because Christ suffered
the consequences for their actions. And He put those sins away. There's no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus because there's nothing to condemn them
for. Christ put away the sins of everybody He died. for in
such a way that they don't have to bear the consequence of their
actions. They're gone. Abraham comes out smelling like
a rose. Abraham was very rich in cattle
and silver and gold. And what did he do? Verse three.
And he went on his journeys from the south, even to Bethel, unto
the place where his tent had been at the beginning between
Bethel and Haiyah. He came back to the first place. And that place was right between
a place called Bethel and Hai. Bethel means house of God. Hai means house of ruin. And that represents the two natures
that every believer has. He'd left this kind of thinking,
thinking he'd go into Egypt and deliver himself. But now he goes
back to the first place. I think of what the Lord said,
repent and do the first works. Let me show you a couple of passages
of scripture in the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter three. The
writer to the Hebrews says, but Christ, this is Hebrew three,
six, but Christ is a son over his own house, whose house are
we if we hold. The confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm unto the end. Now notice what he says. What
is the confidence of our hope that everything God requires
of me he looks to Christ for? What is the hope that what Christ
did is enough to save me? that he by himself purged our
sins. You can't graduate past that.
Now, when Abraham got into trouble is when he left that, going to
Egypt, going to the law to try to help him out, but now he comes
back to the first place. Hebrews 3, verse 14, for we are
made partakers of Christ, if, there's that word again, if,
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. Now, what is the beginning of
my confidence? When I first trusted Christ,
I knew that He was all I had. I knew that the only hope that
I had was that everything God required of me, He looked to
Christ for. And that when Christ said, it
is finished, my salvation was accomplished. Now, he went back
to the place between Bethel and Haggai where he built an altar. Now, when you go back to the
first place, you're going to see the necessity of the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ once again, just the way you saw it
the first time. He built an altar. What's an
altar for? An altar is for the sacrifice,
for sin. Those sacrificial animals all
pointed to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those sacrificial
animals could never take away sin, but they pointed to the
coming of Him who did take away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Christ Jesus, He's God's priest. that presents the sacrifice which
is himself upon the altar of his humanity to God in behalf
of his people. And when you're brought back
to the first place, you're brought back to see once again how that
Christ is all in salvation. Paul said to the Colossians,
As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. How'd you receive him? As an
empty handed sinner. You never graduate past that. Now, what did he do in verse
four? When he got to the place between
Bethel and Hai, under the place of the altar, which he'd made
there at the first, And there Abraham called on the name of
the Lord. And that is what every believer
does. They call upon the name of the
Lord, that name that's revealed in the sacrifice. Now you don't
even know what the Lord's name means. apart from the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the sacrifice of Christ
demonstrates to us who He is. He's just. He won't let sin go
unpunished. He's merciful. He provides His
Son. He's wise. He made a way to be
just and justify the ungodly. He's powerful. He can put away
sin. Every attribute of God is on
display in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's His name,
His attributes, and every believer calls upon his name. Right now,
Lord, I'm calling upon your name, who you are. Save me." Now, we
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