And we need to read the whole
chapter since you weren't able to do so. Genesis 20. We'll read the whole chapter. And Abraham journeyed from thence
toward the south country and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur
and sojourned in Jerar. And Abraham said of Sarah, his
wife, she is my sister. He told Abimelech the king that
and others who received him because he was a great man. He was a
well-known man, a rich man. He said, She's my sister. And
Abimelech king of Jerar sent and took Sarah. But God came
to Abimelech in a dream by night 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. But Abimelech had not come near
her. And he said, Lord, wilt thou
slay also a righteous nation? Said he, not unto me, she is
my sister, and she, even she herself said, he is my brother. In the integrity of my heart
and innocency of my hands have I done this. And 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.
Therefore suffered I at thee not to touch her. Now therefore
restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and he shall
pray for thee, and thou shalt live. And if thou restore her
not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou and all that
are thine. Therefore, Abimelech rose early
in the morning and called all his servants and told all these
things in their ears. And the men were sore afraid.
Then Abimelech called Abraham and said unto him, What hast
thou done unto us? What have I offended thee, that
thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? Thou
hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done." And Abimelech
said unto Abraham, What sawest thou that thou hast done this
thing? And Abraham said, Because I thought, surely the fear of
God is not in this place, and they will slay me for my wife's
sake. And yet, indeed, she is my sister. She is the daughter of my father.
not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. And it
came to pass when God caused me to wander from my father's
house that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt
show unto me in every place whither we shall come. Say of me, He
is my brother. And Abimelech took sheep, and
oxen, and men's servants, and women's servants, and gave them
unto Abraham. and restored him Sarah his wife.
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 a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, he
is to thee a covering of the eyes. unto all that are with
thee, and with all others. Thus she was reproved." So Abraham
prayed unto God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his
maidservants, and they bear children. The Lord had fast closed up all
the wounds of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. Now these things are written
for our learning. God had Moses write these things
down that his children, that his people might read them, hear
them preached, and learn from them. And there are many things
we learn from this, but the half won't be told this morning. Nor
will we learn this just sitting and listening. We will have to
learn it from experience. Sad to say. But here's the first
thing that we see in this story. Every man at his best state is
altogether vanity. Abraham is called the father
of the faithful. Abraham is the one who the Lord
uses to represent the believer, the father of the faithful, the
beginning of the children of Israel. Every man, no matter
how great, no matter who he is, at his best state, at his highest
point, is altogether vanity. Any and every man and every woman
is capable of committing any and every sin known to man. What Abraham did was unthinkable. God's word exposes man for what
he is. That's how you know this is God's
word. God writes the biographies of His people in this book. Our
tale is told. But He writes the biographies
of His people, such as Abraham, in His book. If we were to write
someone's biography, we would gloss over their bad points,
wouldn't we? Their gross sins, we would not
bring up their gross sins, would we? We would not. We are prone
to hero worship. Those we esteem very highly,
we would not tell their glaring sins or fault. God does. And I'm glad. I'm glad. This shows us the utter depravity
of the human heart, the total inability of any man or any woman
to do good, that we cannot resist the least temptation except by
God's grace. Abraham is a glaring example
of that. We learn here that the oldest,
even the oldest and the strongest believer is capable and sometimes
will commit sins of their youth. They will do in the end, as an
old believer, they're capable and sometimes do. will commit
things that they've committed a long time ago. Abraham already
did this. Twenty-five years ago, in chapter
12, when the Lord called him, remember, he denied his wife. In Egypt, he was afraid again.
To show us, this shows us that him that thinketh, he standeth,
no matter how old. No matter how long you've been
around, 70 years, take heed. Take heed of the Word. Take heed
of yourself, Paul told young Timothy, lest you fall. Lest you fall. My, my. The strongest
in faith cannot stand except by the grace of God. Our Lord told His disciples,
He came and found them sleeping, and He said, Arise, watch, pray
that you enter not into temptation. Didn't He say that? Pray every
day, without ceasing. Lead us not into temptation. And this tells us, oh my, this
story of Abraham. In the beginning, Abraham the
father of the faithful. The beginning of the children
of Israel, Abraham the father. shows us clearly that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Even the chief. Even the worst. Even repeat offenders. Old sinners. Young sinners. Bad
sinners. From Adam to Abraham. From Abraham
to David. From David to Simon Peter. Sinners. From Simon Peter to me. This
is good news. And this teaches us This story
teaches it, like the story of Lot. This is right behind chapter
19. You know, we saw that Lot was
such a seemingly an ungrateful. He didn't listen. He didn't learn. He didn't heed what God said. He should have consulted or he
should have stayed with Abraham and so forth. But Abraham, what
is Abraham better than Lot? No, no wise. Disproves. None good. No, not one. All have
sinned. This proves that. No different. And this proves beyond shadow
of a doubt that salvation is by the sovereign electing love. Those whom he loves, he will
never stop loving them. He'll love them to the end. Though
it's by the sovereign mercy of God, by the sovereign grace of
God. Salvation is in the sovereign
will, the sovereign purpose, the sovereign covenant, because
God made a covenant concerning Abraham. And He came to him and
told him that covenant, no matter what Abraham does. And I don't care if somebody
really takes this and runs with it. But this is my hope. This
is the hope of every sinner. No matter what he or she does, all things are ordered and sure
that God hath made with us in Christ an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and sure. And this is all my hope and all
my salvation. God said, you're going to beat
your mind. You're going to be a blessing. You're going to be
blessed. But look at him. Look at him. Oh, his chosen people in Christ.
Nothing and no one can alter that. Not the heathen. Nothing
can change that covenant. No one. Not even us. Boy, that's
good news. Oh, my. Abraham's God's elect.
How do you know? Because God put up with him.
God was long-suffering time. Abraham was loved by God. How
do you know? Love covering the mold to the sin. Abraham was called. Abraham,
the Lord revealed himself to Abraham. He was quickened. God
loved Abraham. Oh, my. And our Lord Himself
said this, Abraham saw my day. Oh, he saw it and he was so glad.
He was so glad. Abraham believed Christ was his
sin-bearer, his substitute. Oh, I can't wait to get to chapter
22. But we're going to have to. Abraham, in spite of all his
sins, his lies, God chose him. God loved him. And Sarah too. Sarah is just
as guilty. My, my, my. And we saw in Lot's
case, you know, how that, you know, in the light of that terrible
sin, Lot and his daughters, how that the Moabites came out of
one of Lot's daughters. And we asked the question, why
did this happen, such awful sin? Well, the Moabites had to be
in this world. Why? Because God has a Moabite
in his family tree. Her name is Ruth, a Moabite. And this, what happened, this
underscores and again shows us that Christ was numbered with
the transgressors. Abraham, his sin. Isaac does
the same thing. When Isaac comes along, you'd
think he'd learn. No, he inherited from his father
that sinful nature. And he's going to do it. God
visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children of the third
and fourth generation. He's going to do exactly what his daddy
did. Abraham's going to do exactly
what Adam did. And so will they. But for the
grace of God. But Christ, oh my, he's going
to see his seed. And he's going to... Oh my, through
sinners, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, down through Judah with Tamar
and all of that. And Christ must be born. He must be numbered with the
transgressors. And again, we see here that where
sin abounded, the worst of sins, God's grace did much more than
that. As unthinkable as Abraham's sin was, think about all that
Abraham experienced. Think about all that the Lord
had brought Abraham through. Think about all the mercy that
the Lord had shown Abraham, all the grace the Lord had shown
Abraham, and all the deliverances that God brought Abraham through,
and such wonders and dangers that he went through. And seeing
Sodom destroyed like that, you'd think it would scare him. By
the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. That's what makes
His sin so unthinkable. So much mercy. So much grace.
But we're sin-abound. And this is what makes God's
grace so amazing. Only unthinkable sin makes God's
grace amazing. Unspeakable. Thanks be unto God,
Paul said, for His unspeakable gift. Not that Christ came for
good people, but for why we were yet sinners. Oh my, it gives
God great glory, doesn't it? This teaches us beyond a shadow
of a doubt that righteousness is imputed. We are accepted in the Beloved. We are accepted by the righteousness
of another, by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
are made righteous, declared righteous by Jesus Christ, who
is the center of righteousness. The sinner's substitute. Christ
came not to show us how to live righteously, but to do it for
us and impute it to us. The book of Galatians, Romans
4, or the whole book of Romans for that matter, tells us clearly,
if Abraham were justified by works, he could glory. But look
at him. No. How is he justified? By the
faith of Jesus Christ. This story tells us and teaches
us that the Lord reigns over all, over the righteous and the
wicked, that the heathen are in His hands. The king's heart, O Abimelech,
a powerful man, a sovereign man, he thought. He does what he will, with whom
he will, Obemelech, he thinks. I believe the Lord saved Obemelech.
In the very next chapter, he and Abraham made a covenant together.
And Isaac, what Isaac did, he did in the same land in front
of Obemelech. At any rate, Bimelech thinks
he's sovereign, thinks he's somebody, doing what he will, thinks he
has free will. But the Scripture says the king's
heart, even the king's heart is in the hands of the Lord.
Now, that verse of Scripture ought to give us great comfort.
Not the peasant's heart, not the underling's heart, but the
ones who are in charge of everything. The ones who reign and rule over
us and all that we have, they are in the hands of our Lord.
Not only all that they have, but their hearts, like the rivers
of water, turneth it with us everywhere. That's good news. Say unto the heathen, Thy God
reigneth. It reigns over you. And all it
takes for God to turn a man's heart is a little dream. He doesn't
have to do something great. Just a little dream. Just a little
thought to strike fear in his heart. A dream. He may have had
a dream. Like Nebuchadnezzar. Like Darius. And all of them. Dream. Verse
3, it says, God came to Bimelech in a dream by night. Apparently,
God used to, or the Scripture says that, He used to speak to
men in dreams by night, or in dreams. He doesn't do that now. He speaks through His Word. His
Word is complete. And I noticed this. The first
thing that God says to somebody when He's dealing with them,
what does He say? You're a dead man. You're a dead man. That's how we preach and that's
what we tell people. That's what God's Word says.
And you, who were dead and trespassed sin, have to think quickly. Oh
my. But God. But God came to Abimelech
in mercy and grace and told him, you're a dead man. You're guilty.
You've taken another man's wife. Abimelech was married. You see
that down there in verse 17? He had a wife, but he took this
other man's wife. How many wives did he have? I
don't know. It says one there, but he wanted another one. Oh
my, you know, this was common back then, and it's common today.
Acceptable. Not to God. Not to God. And you know, all are guilty.
All are guilty. Abimelech said in verse, he pleaded
in verse 4, he had not come near her. And he said, Lord, will
you slay me? Will you slay a righteous nation? I haven't come near her. She said she's my, Abraham said
she is my sister. And she said that he's my brother. and in the integrity of my heart
and the innocence of my hand, have I done this? I have done
this. I didn't touch her. But is he
guilty? He took her with the full intention
of touching her. He's guilty. And our Lord said,
to look on them all because you're guilty. All are guilty. You can't
plead innocency because you haven't done it. God holds us accountable
for our thoughts. And the only thing that keeps
us from carrying that out is sin. That's what he told of Imalek. Verse 6, God said unto Imalek
in a dream, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of
thy heart. You know, there are people who seem to have great
integrity, aren't there? Unbelievers, heathen people.
Don't they? I meet some fine people. I meet
some very honest people. Don't you? Some very kind people. Some very seemingly good people.
Decent people. Law-abiding, devout people. Good husbands, good devoted
fathers and husbands and citizens and so on and so forth. Don't
you? Honest in their dealing. Why? Why are they that way? The grace of God. The grace of
God. I remember Brother Mahan saying
this years ago, and it really stuck with me. And Brother Chapman,
I heard him quote it too. But he said, so many people mistake
the sovereign, restraining grace of God for their own personal
holiness. That God keeps them from doing
anything. And they think it's their holiness. Or constraining grace. Constrain
means to cause to do something. Restrain means to prevent from
doing something. The sovereign constraining grace
of God. Any good that's done. It's not
that in that person to do it. There's none that doeth good. No, not one. Did our Lord say
that? Why do you call me good? There's
none good but one. If there's any good, if anybody does any
good, it is God that worketh in them to do that. Right? We're talking about who gets
the glory here. That's what. And Mimelech, he pleads. He is
a man of integrity. And you know, sometimes when
you are wrongly accused, it's a terrible, terrible feeling.
You want to plead that. I didn't do that. I'm innocent
of this thing. Well, you may be in this case, just because
I withheld you from it. But to be sure, you're guilty
of everything. So don't plead your innocence.
Don't ever plead your integrity. Don't ever plead your heart,
your goodness. Don't ever do that because you're
guilty in the eyes of God. That's what he tells us there.
That's one thing we're seeing here. Something else we learn here
is, and the Scripture says, the fear of man bringeth a snare. The fear of man bringeth a snare. In verse 11, Abraham was afraid. Abraham was afraid. Even the
strongest believer becomes afraid. David said, what times I'm afraid,
I will call upon you. I will trust in the Lord, he
said. So David was afraid. One time,
David was so afraid. David who fought Goliath. David
who stood out in front of the whole Philistine army by himself.
David. Yet one day he said, I'm going
to perish at my hands and soles. And he went down to Gath, the
very place where Goliath came from, to Philistine. Do you remember that story? He
acted like a madman. David, bold, courageous, faithful
David, who knew the Lord, said, let the spittle run down his
beard and scratched on the door. And they said, this guy's crazy. He's a fool. Oh, my. Every man is best state. Every
woman at their best state. If we haven't acted the fool,
we will. If you don't think you have,
then you have. We have. Oh, my. Abraham's afraid. Abraham's scared for his life.
My, my, my. What's wrong with him? He's flesh,
that's what he is. He's flesh. That's what Satan
said about Job, didn't he? Skin for skin. And I know he'll
deny you if I can touch his body. Verse 11, down there in verse
11, Abraham said, he said, I thought surely. The fear of God was not in this
place. And they'll slay me for my wife's
sake. They're going to kill me. The
fear of God's not here. Well, Abraham, where's the fear of
God in you? If you fear God, really, why
are you afraid of them? What a hypocrite. God's people are not hypocrites.
They're not acting apart, playing apart. Sometimes we act hypocritically
to them. Sometimes we say things hypocritically.
We say one thing and we do another. So did Abraham. He said, I fear
God wasn't here, so what difference does it make? God reigns everywhere,
doesn't He? God is everywhere, isn't He?
What are you afraid of? Our Lord said to Isaiah, who
art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall
die? And don't fear me. He said, don't be afraid of their
faces. He had to tell Jeremiah that. Don't be afraid of their
faces. Jeremiah said, I'm a child. I can't speak. Who makes man's
mouth? Who's going to open a ear? Moses
said, I can't speak. Don't send me. God got angry
with Moses over that. Afraid. Fearful. Oh, my. You
know, the fear of man is terrible unbelief, isn't it? The fear
of man is to ascribe to man what only belongs to God. Do you hear
me? Do I hear me? The fear of man
is to ascribe to man what only belongs to God. Because why would
we fear the creature who's in the hands of the Creator? He
can't do anything except what God allows him to do. The creature. He is a puppet. Yes! Go ahead
and tell Armenians we said that. Man is a puppet. He does what
God, Proverbs 16, verse 4 says, God has created all things for
Himself, even the wicked. Didn't He say that? Satan can't do anything except
God allows it. The world, the religious world,
hates that. I love that. That's my hope. He desires to sift me. He walks about seeking whom he
may devour. Oh, thank God he's the Lord's
devil. Now, I'm not charging God with
anything Satan does. I'm just simply saying God reigns. God reigns over the evil, over
the righteous, everyone, the heathen. Oh my, the fear of man
will make us a coward. The fear of man will make us
deny the Lord. Fear of man will make us love
ourselves and deny the Lord, like Peter. Simon Peter. He loved the Lord. Well, at that
time, he loved himself more. And he denied the Lord. Fear
of man will ruin our witness. Lord, help us all. I believe. Oh, help my unbelief. Fear of man will keep you silent.
Fear of man will make you twist the truth. It makes you compromise the truth.
Preachers fear men more than God, so they compromise the truth.
Amen to it. He twisted the truth. He told
a white lie. White lie? My, my. A. W. Pink said this. Arthur Pink
said, How often those who trust God with their souls are afraid
to trust Him with their bodies. with temporal things. Oh, Abraham
believed that God was his salvation, the salvation of his soul. Well,
Abraham, where is your faith in God's keeping you and your
body and your wife and everything in His hand? Where is that faith?
He keeps everything about you, Abraham, not just your soul.
He said, I am thy shield. That's what the Lord said to
Abraham. Abraham, I am thy shield, meaning I'm the one protecting
you. preached a message one time about
how we don't protect our loved ones. We do. We try, you know,
but we really don't. We don't protect them. We don't
protect them by our strength or might or weapons and so forth. A man came up to me and he said,
well, if they try to get my child away from me, they're going to
have to come over my dead body. Well, he didn't hear a thing
I said. Abraham, I am thy shield. I am
thy shield. I am your protector. I am your
Savior. We learn here like the Bimelech learned, we should never
justify ourselves. Never justify ourselves. Just
plead guilty. Just plead guilty. If you haven't
done it, you will. If you say you haven't done it
and take pride in it, let Simon Peter tell you. You will. It's
certain that you will. If you say, I've never done that,
it's certain that you're going to do it. It's certain. If you're one of the Lord. And
we should never excuse our sins. Never excuse our sin like Abraham
did. He justified it. He justified it. He plotted this
with his wife before they came here. Oh, my. She's guilty. They're
all guilty. They're all gifted. What a mess
this is, isn't it? What a mess this is. Oh my, here's
something we learned, that God protects His own from the world. God protects His own, His elect,
from the world. Nothing and nobody can touch
His own. They're hedged about, just like
Job. Every one of them are hedged about. This great mighty king
who could do what he will with whom he will took Abraham's wife
and gave orders, bring her to me. But God gave orders and said,
you better not touch her or you're a dead man. Aren't you glad? Nobody can touch
us or our own God's own. He can't touch them. They can't
touch God's people. Touch not mine anointed, he said,
my beloved. Don't touch them. unless he says
so. When God finally gave Satan leave
to do what he was watching, he only allowed him to do what would
fulfill God's purpose for Job's good and God's glory. You see?
Nothing moves and nothing harms us. Why are we trusting him? Even when we don't. Even when
we don't. Isn't that good? We learn from
this that God preserves His people from the world, and that God's
people preserve the world. We learn from this that God's
people preserve the world. There in verse 7, He said to
Abimelech, Abraham, this is his wife, and he's a prophet. and he's going to pray for you
and you're going to live. If he doesn't pray for you, you're
going to die. He's the man I accept. He's the
man I sent. And if he doesn't pray for you, and
he did, down in verse 17, it says, God, Abraham prayed unto
God and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservant. And they bore fruit, children.
The people of God are the salt of the earth. They preserve this
world. The only reason God hasn't destroyed this world by now is
because God's elect are in it. And He still has more elect in
it. And God saves the heathen through His people, his men,
who are the preachers of the gospel. They don't save them,
but God uses them as the means, he said. Abraham was a prophet,
and the Lord used him to pray for Abimelech, and they made
this covenant, and he spoke with him. You know, everything's not
written that happened. All that was said, that Abraham
and Abimelech had long conversations. They stayed here. They stayed
there a long time. And you know Abraham told Abimelech
the Gospel. You know he did. And I believe
he was one of the Lord's own, Abimelech. But God's people preserved
this world. And we learn, too, from this
story that... And I knew it was going to go
a little longer because there's just too much here. But we learn
here that God's prophet is a sinner. But he's God's prophet. The Lord is going to deal with
Abraham real shortly like He's never been dealt with before.
After these things. But the fact is, He deals with
Abimelech now and says, you'd better listen to this man. You reckon Abraham thought of
himself as a prophet after this? You reckon he felt like a prophet
of God? It was another thing humbling
him, which he needed. But no matter, God said, what
do you think of him that thought about Abraham? And he rebuked
him. He said, what did you see that you would do such a thing?
How could you do such a thing? He said, this ought not to be
done. What you've done, it just shouldn't be done. You've done
it. Yeah, we're all capable of doing things unthinkable. Why
would we do that? Show that we're no good. But
in spite of what Abimelech thought about Abraham, he said, God said,
you're going to have to hear him. You better hear him. He's going to pray for you. And
he did. Abraham prayed for Abimelech. And they became brothers, I believe.
True brothers. Both right and center. What about
Sarah? She's guilty. She's just as guilty
as anybody, isn't she? She laughed. Remember when she
laughed before? Abraham believed God. She laughed. God put up with her, didn't He?
The long suffering of the Lord. She laughed. She laughed. She
was in on this. She agreed to this. How could she have agreed
to this? How could she have agreed to
this? Was she tired of living in tents? And she may be thinking,
ooh, that palace looks pretty good. Look at all those riches
and finery and all that. I'll go up there and this old
fellow I'm married to, huh? What was she thinking? She's
guilty. She's guilty as charged. My,
my. And so God rebuked her. He rebuked
her in verse 16. And Abimelech, the Lord through
Abimelech said to Sarah, listen to this, amazing, through Abimelech,
said unto Sarah, Behold, I have given your brother a thousand
pieces of silver. Behold, he is to thee a covering
of the eye. In other words, he is your husband
and you are his wife. Let it stay that way. And all
that are with thee. And she was reproved. And Abimelech
was reproved. And Abraham was reproved. And
Sarah was reproved. by being guilty before God and
by the mercy of God. God spared them all. God long
suffered and He spared. He's the Savior of even the world,
but especially of them that believe. Very quickly, Romans 4. You've got to see this. This
is in closing. Romans chapter 4. partially quoted. Romans 4. This is the exclamation point
upon this wonderful story of God's saving grace and mercy
and covenant mercies and grace. Oh, my. My, my. And you know,
along the lines of Sarah, what do you think Sarah thought about
Abraham that he would deny her? So scared of him. What do you
think she thought about Abraham? How could she remain married
to such a coward? Now here's the grace of God.
The grace of God toward her. The grace of God in her. She still called him Lord. How could she call him Lord?
He's a coward. She did. Why? How could she? She knows herself. That's how. She knows herself. She esteemed
Him better than herself because she was just as guilty, if not
more. Oh, my. The grace of God. Folks, salvation is by grace. You know that? Salvation is by
mercy. Romans 4. Look at this. What
a story. Romans 4, verse 20. Abraham 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." That's not what we just read
about, was it? That's not what we read. He staggered. He wasn't strong in faith. He
didn't believe God. He was afraid. That's not what
God said. God says, who shall lay anything
in the charge of God's name? It is God that justifies. You
see, if Abraham justified by works, he failed. He failed. He's an old man. He's a failure.
But God said, John, God says of my righteous servant, he shall
not fail. By His knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify me. And surely shall one say, In
the Lord have I righteousness. Abraham is doing it. Abraham
stands up and says, In the Lord have I righteousness and salvation. Doctrine. This is our salvation. Oh, God doesn't bring it up.
He says there are sins and iniquities I remember no more. I won't bring
them up. They'll never forget them. They'll
be guilty all their lives. My sin is ever before me, David
said, but God, but God, I'm going to shut it
because it means something to me right now, who's rich in mercy
for His great love, not kind, His. Even when we're dead in
sin, it's quicken us together in Christ. By grace are you saved. Doctrine? A point of doctrine? Salvation. Salvation. God doesn't bring it up. In this
hall of faith, Abraham's mention doesn't mention his sin. Sarah
said she received strength. It's not mentioned. Nobody's
sins are mentioned. They're all glorified. Why? Wow, because who is he that condemns? Christ. There is therefore now
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. None of
them, one more, none of them that trust in him shall be found
guilty.