Genesis 20, and read the whole
chapter. And Abraham journeyed from Thence
toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and sojourned
in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his
wife, She is my sister. And Abimelech, king of Gerar,
sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in
a dream by night and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead
for the woman which thou hast taken, 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, or Abraham, 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 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,
and therefore suffered I 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, or how, that thou hast brought on me 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, but 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 at 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 of Imalek
said, Behold, my hand is before thee, dwell where it pleases
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, and to 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 their children. For the Lord had fast closed
up all the wounds of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah,
Abraham's wife. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we count it
a privilege again. We say this every time, but it is
indeed a high honor and a privilege to come into this place and open
your Word and gather with the Saints, gather with your people
before your Word, seeking a Word from you, seeking to worship
you. Thou art worthy to be worshipped,
dear Lord. And we come here tonight with
hopes and desire to worship you, to hear from you. It is my desire
to declare thee, thy great faithfulness to us, your watch care over us,
your son, declare his name and what he has done, who he is.
It's our desire as a group of believers to worship the Lord
Jesus Christ, to come to God the Father by the Son. We pray
that there might be two or three gathered in his name with true
hearts to worship. You said the hour has come, and
now is, when true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. The Fathers seek us such to worship.
Lord, may there be a few in here tonight with hearts prepared
to worship, and may they do just that. May you speak through your
Word. Give us all that we need from
your Word. The first thing your people need
is comfort. You told this to your servant,
to comfort ye my people. Say unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that salvation is completed. The first thing
we need is comfort. Feeling the depths of our sin
and depravity, feeling our weakness, we need to know that Christ is
strong on our behalf, that he saves the likes of us. We need
to hear that. We need comfort, Lord. We need
encouragement through trials and troubles and temptation. We need strength. We need rebuke. We need reproof. We need correction.
We need destruction and righteousness that we might be truly furnished
unto all good works. Lord, we need all these things
and more, and they come through preaching, reading, the study
of your word. So we now ask that you would
open your word to us and give us something from it, something
profitable. Arrest our hearts and minds,
our attention. Send us your Holy Spirit, without
whom we can do nothing. We cannot worship. Nothing good
will be accomplished. Nothing good will be said without
your Spirit. And that wind, that spirit blows,
goes where he lists it, where he is pleased. Lord, may it be
thy good pleasure to blow on this place tonight, that we might worship you and see the things
of Christ. Lord, we pray for our sister who is sorrowing at
the loss of her loved ones. We pray for your comfort and
your help. during this time. We pray for Brother Ralph. Lord,
we pray that you might be with him. No one else is. No one else
is there. We pray that you might be with
him and make him realize, like Elijah, that he is not alone,
but thou art with him. Come for him, Lord. Pray for
all your people that meet together tonight, the Church, which is
on earth. Pray for them. Pray for your
preachers of the gospel tonight, every one of them. And ask your
blessings upon this night. In Christ's name we pray and
are met together. All right, Genesis 20. One verse could sum up this whole
story. I immediately thought of one
verse after reading of Abraham's terrible sin again. I immediately thought of one
verse. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. The whole
story here is a striking example of man's sinfulness and weakness and God's faithfulness to his
people. It's a beautiful example of that. The thought just occurred to
me that God never mentioned this to Abraham. He didn't say anything to him
about it. Did he? I'm reading through
it. God didn't reprove him for it.
You know he was. Well, nothing can excuse the
behavior of Abraham here. nor of us in our sinfulness and
our failings and falling. Nothing can excuse him or us,
but God excuses. God forgives and God forgets. God forgets. Those sins are paid
for. They're under the blood. There
is another verse that comes to my mind in all of this, Proverbs
24, verse 16. I immediately thought of that
verse. It says that for a just man, a just man falleth seven
times and rises up again. And the words, the number seven,
whatever the scriptures use as a number, it doesn't mean necessarily
that that's the exact number. It's just a number that, to show
the amazing long-suffering of God. Seven times. Seven times. Like our Lord told Peter, you
know, how many times should I forgive my brother? Seven times? He said,
that's seventy times seven. Sometimes, I quoted that verse
in Proverbs, a just man falls seven times and rises up again,
and Abraham was a justified man. That's what the scripture says,
doesn't it? It says that Abraham believed God and God imputed
it to him for righteousness. That was before Abraham did anything. He just believed God. God came
to him. God chose him. God elected him. God called him. God brought him
out. God did it all. It was all the
work of God. God gave him faith. Faith is
the gift of God. God did all the work and then
imputed the very faith that God gave Abraham. Abraham believed
God. And then God said, You're righteous because of that faith.
See, Abraham didn't have anything to do with it. And sometimes
the only way you know a man is just—you and I were talking about
this—sometimes the only way you know a man is just, or is a believer,
or a Christian, like Lot or like Abraham, sometimes the only way
you know is because God says so. We sure wouldn't know it about
Lot, would we? Would you think Lot was a believer?
Not for a minute is there anything in Lot's life to make us think
that he's a believer. Can anybody think of one incident
in the scripture about Lot? One act of faith he did? Well,
Abraham is called the father of the faithful, isn't he? And
like I said, so many preachers And people make over Abraham
and his faith. There's more written in the scripture
about Abraham's lack of faith, or just as much anyway, about
his faithlessness as there is his faithfulness and what faith
he had because God was faithful to him. And sometimes the only way you
know a man or a woman is just or justified is because God says
so. And in all of this, all of this
story here, and in all salvation, salvation could be summed up
in one word. The word I love so well. Christ, yes. But another word
that involves Christ. Covenant. Salvation could be
summed up in that word. I think it was Arthur Pink that
said, if a man or woman, anybody who learns something about God's
covenant will know something about salvation. The scriptures
are full of this thing of covenant. And there's only one. Are you
with me? Covenant. A covenant is an agreement
between one or more parties. Most of the time it's two people.
They agree. They shake hands. They write
a document. They make an agreement between
one another. Covenant. And both parties promise
to be true to whatever it is they agreed on. Well, the Scripture says God
is ever mindful of his covenant. Always mindful of his covenant. And that covenant that God made,
promises God made, he made with his Son before the world began,
concerning all of the people that he would choose or elect
and give to his Son, And Christ will come down and do everything
necessary to save them. And God said, you do that, I'll
make sure they're saved. Everybody I choose, I give to
you. You go down, you live a life
as a man for men, for them, establish a perfect righteousness that
I can accept, and then go to the cross with their sins on
you which I must punish. and pay for every one of them,
die, because the soul that sinneth must surely die. You do that,
I'll save them all. I'll save every last one of them
that you die for." Christ did, didn't he? The Scripture says
he obtained. He went into the Holy of Holies
once with his own precious blood, and he obtained eternal redemption
for his people. Hebrews 9.12. He obtained it. And God is ever mindful of his
covenants. And the reason everyone is saved
is going to be saved because of that covenant. Because God
says, I will, because Christ did, and because he said, you
shall. They shall. They shall believe
and come to Christ. They shall repent. I'll make
sure they do. Salvation is sure. Salvation
is certain. Salvation is fixed. for all that
are in that covenant." Now, the world could take this and abuse
it and misconstrue it, but let them. Salvation is fixed for
all believers. Salvation is fixed for all that
are in that covenant, no matter what. no matter what." Now, I like that. Because Christ said, "...all
that the Father giveth me," what? "...shall come to me." All right,
now that's sure. He didn't say, "...all that the
Father giveth me, I sure hope they come. I'm going to be disappointed
if they don't." He said, "...they shall," didn't he? Boy, I like the next part of
that verse, don't you? Him that cometh. Who's going
to come? All the Father gives him. They're
all going to come. Every last one that are in that
covenant, chosen by God, given to Christ, that Christ died for.
All the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. But look at, no wise. But what
a terrible sin he knoweth! Cast out. Now, I could close this book,
but that is gospel. Oh, that's good news to an old
sinner, isn't it? I see some smiles. There must
be some sinners in here. Say, sinner, will you meet me? That's good news. It was good
news to Abraham, buddy. After the first time it happened,
and Steve, it did again. And after each of his failings,
look at verse 1 and 2 again. Abraham journeyed from Thents
toward the south country and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur,
and sojourned into Jerar. And Abraham said of Sarah, his
wife, she's my sister. And this king took Sarah, This
is unbelievable. This is absolutely unbelievable
that this happened again. The first time we studied, when
Abraham did this, the first time, back in chapter 12, it's just unthinkable. What if
Joe would do that to you, Nancy? Huh? What if you all went out
and ate dinner somewhere, and some men were looking at you,
and Joe said, She's not my wife. She's my sister,
or I found her outside on the way in. That's unthinkable, isn't
it? Why Abraham did that. Twice! Phew! Twice. Terrible sin, terrible. Well, Proverbs 27, 19 says that,
as in water, Face answereth to face. Have
you ever looked in water or mirror? As in water, you look face answereth
to face. So does the heart of man to man. I haven't done this with my wife
yet, but I've fallen back into the same old sins I've done before.
They're just as bad. Right back into them. Terrible,
terrible fault. Same old recurring sins, and
I see this in myself. I see it in myself. Abraham was
not a young man now. He was not a young man now. He
was in his nineties, wasn't he? He was in his nineties. He'd
been walking with the Lord now for twenty years, twenty-some
years. This was not the fall of a young
man. This was an old believer who'd been walking with the Lord
for several years, And this was no new sudden temptation
that he fell into. Something just unexpected come
along when he did. This was deliberate. A deliberate
sin. Willful. How many of you have read that
scripture in Hebrew that said, if we sin willfully after we
receive the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more
sacrifice? It can't mean that, can it? It can't mean that If
we willfully sin, then there's no sacrifice for us. It doesn't
mean that. Abraham did it. Didn't he, didn't
he, Sheriff? He willfully did that. He planned
this thing. That's what it said. Look at
verse 13. He planned it. He said, let's,
wherever we go, you tell them you're my sister. Well, you know, it is a lifelong,
and I wrote this down, Arthur Pink said this, and this is good. It's a lifelong lesson that we
learn. It's designed to teach us that
we're utterly helpless and weak and we're nothing. It's a lifelong
lesson that God teaches his people. He allows them to fall. Yes,
allows them to fall. It's a lifelong lesson we learn
that we might see our utter helplessness, our weakness, and our nothingness. That's the more we grow in a
sense of our infirmities. That's what Paul talked about,
his infirmities, weakness, nothingness. The more we'll see our need of
clinging to Christ. That's a good statement. The
more we see of our utter helplessness, what are you going to do? Where
are you going to go? You're not going to look to yourself, are
you? You're going to lay hold on the horns of the altar, aren't
you? Huh? Christ is the horn and he's the
altar. Horn of my salvation strength. When we see our utter nothingness,
we'll see Christ as all and in all. My boy. And you know, we can
never know. This is another thing we learn.
We can never know what's in our hearts until circumstances arise
to bring it out. Right? We can never know. Peter. Everybody will deny you but me. Yeah, Peter. I haven't allowed you to get in
any circumstance yet. And I'm going to. Just to show
you, Peter. You're nothing. Without me, you're
nothing. Just a little while later, Peter,
David, and now Abraham. I'm out. Someone said this. Someone said
we possess no more religion than we have in a time of trouble or trial. We possess no more
religion than we have in a time of trouble and trial. And how
often we fail, how often we fail during those times. Abraham did
miserably. And as I've said before, the
reason God puts these things in here about people, this is
God's biography of men. God doesn't gloss over their
faults, does he? He tells it like it is. He shows
men for what they are. And the reason he put this in
here so we won't look and admire Abraham. Right? We admire Abraham's God. Abraham's God who was so... Abraham
was so unfaithful. Abraham's God was faithful. Wasn't
he? That's what I see all the way
through. All the way through. And we fail so often in so often
in times of trouble and trial. And someone said this, the Lord
Jesus Christ is such a striking contrast from all men and women. Listen to this. This is great. The stress of circumstances only
serve to display His perfection. Put this in that language we
can understand. Trials. Yeah, He went through
trials. trials, troubles, only serve
to display his perfection. When he was hungry and tempted
by Satan, he didn't complain, he didn't
murmur. He lived by the Word of God,
didn't he? I couldn't—I'm sorry I had to
say this. Every time My wife, if she misses
a meal, she says, I'm ravenous, and she's just irritable. If she misses a meal, she just
gets irritable. And it's like, get out of my
way, where's the food? Our Lord went forty days and
forty nights without eating. And then when he was tempted
with bread, he said, I don't need that. I live by the word
of God. When he sat by the well, you
know, they took that journey to Jerusalem and he passed through
Samaria. When he sat by the well, now
walking long distances in hot, arid climates back then was extremely
difficult and wearisome. That long that long, hot journey
by foot, and worn with the journey, sat on that whale, and somebody
came along, we'd have probably been too irritable to talk to
a woman. Nice day, isn't it? Rough trip. Right? Christ had nothing but
grace poured from his lips for that woman of Samaritan, that
Samaritan woman. When the cities in which he would
do his mighty works had rejected his message, he said, even so,
Father, it seemed good in thy sight. When he was reviled, he
reviled not again. On the cross, that supreme trial. his perfections were fully displayed,
praying for the forgiveness of his enemy, speaking for the salvation
of a thief by his side, making provisions for his witted mother,
healing up his spirit in the hands of the Father. And somebody
said, Our garments, our garments? Filthy rags. The one he wore,
he is righteous without shame. From top to bottom. In all things
he has the three eminence, doesn't he? We fail in the slightest. He never failed. Not once. Like
I said, this was an old sin of Abraham. An old sin he fell back
into. He should have learned something
by now, shouldn't he? Should have learned something by now.
But he didn't. And like I said, it's one he
planned even. That made it even worse. And I thought about this. God
should have been angry with him, shouldn't he? God should have been angry with
him. God should have cast him out, shouldn't he? He should have cast him out.
But he didn't. And I thought about this verse,
John, Romans 4. It says, It is by grace to the
end that the promise might be sure to all to see. Listen to that again. It is by
grace, it is by grace to the end that the promise might be
sure to all to see. It's by grace. Migrate can't
be worked, or we'd all fail, wouldn't it? Abraham would have
failed. Because in this verse, the gifts
and calling of God are what? Without repentance. The gifts
and calling of God, the calling of God. God called Abraham, didn't
He? God's not going to call anybody. And it's in the back. Turn to
what? Never. Never had more. The calling
of God without repentance. The gifts of God. Faith. Whatever
he gives, he accepts. No matter how little. Little
faith, big faith. Not much big faith. It's all
little. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
And because he's ever mindful of his covenant, his promises, There's one sinner in here. You're
going to go out of here with a little lighter step. Because
grace is bestowed without respect to any worth in us. No amount of unworthiness in
us is going to make him take it back. Because God's grace
is not merited. It's a gift. It's free. It's
not merited. Nothing we can do. will unmerited. How were you when God saved you
to begin with? A vile, wretched sinner, right?
And he saved you. Didn't say anything in you. Good. All bad. All sin. But he saved
you. Chose you. Called you. Didn't.
How are you now? Better? Some of you probably
think, I'm worse. I've sinned against light, I've
sinned against love, I've sinned against grace. How are you now? Same? So is he. The same. Yesterday, today, forever. Isn't that good news? Huh? You were nothing when he found
you, and you're nothing now. Nothing now. Look at God's sovereign
prevenience, or to prevent something. God's sovereign, pervenient,
restraining grace. Look at this, verse two. Verse three, I'm sorry, verse
three. God came to Abimelech in a dream
by night and said to him, You're a dead man. That woman there is another man. You're dead. Boy, I like that,
don't you? Thou art but a dead man. Oh, I immediately thought of
this verse. The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord.
As rivers of water, he turneth it whither so ill. Doesn't it? Kind of like saying, I haven't
touched you, I haven't touched you. All this talk today, preachers
today, and you'll hear this out of the mouth of every single
preacher Nearly every single preacher today, but a few. You
won't hear it from this one. You won't hear it from others
that stand in this pulpit. And there may be some out there,
but very few. Out of the mouth of these preachers
and people, everybody talks about God wanting to do things and
can't because men won't let him. How many times have you heard
that? God wants to save you, but Can't. You won't let him. Ask Abimelech. Huh? Abimelech was a heathen. He couldn't touch this woman
because God wouldn't let him. You see, our God, they asked
David one time. David knew the true and living
God. David was the man after God's own heart. And they asked
David one time, they said, David, where's your God? And he said,
my God's in the heaven. And you remember how I described
him? He said, he does whatever he pleases. See, that's the only
God there is. This is the God here. It's the
same God today. See, God does whatever he pleases,
and men can only do what he pleases, not vice versa. It's not that
God can't do anything unless we're pleased to let it. It's
the other way around. Isn't that what happened here?
Ask Abimelech. God said, You're a dead man.
Oh, the sovereign watch care over God's people. Nothing can
harm us. Nothing can harm one of God's
saints unless God wills it. Every time I quote that answer,
you smile. Thousand shall fall at thy side, ten thousand at
thy right hand. It will not come nigh to thee. If it does, it's because he's
pleased to let, to allow, right? Boy, there's a state upon Jehovah,
a state of perfect peace. Verse four, Rimbellack said, He didn't even know the Lord. He said she's my sister. And
even she said he's my brother. But in the integrity of my heart
and the innocency of my hands have I done this? I haven't touched
her. Integrity? He took her in, Stan. He wasn't going to marry her. Integrity? If he had any integrity, all
it was was the restraining grace of God. Because if you look at
what God says in verse 6, God said unto him in a dream, Yea,
I know that thou didst this in integrity that I heard, because
I withheld thee from sinning against me. Therefore, suffer
not, I dare you not to touch her. And all your integrity is
my grace. And a lot of people out there
mistake restraining grace for personal holiness, don't they?
Well, I've never done this, never done that. The only reason you
haven't is because God didn't allow you to do it. I tell you this thing, by the
grace of God, we are what we are. By the grace of God, we
do what we do. By the grace of God, we don't
do what we don't do. It's called restraining grace,
keeping grace, keeping us from things. It's called constraining
grace. We do anything worth the plug
nickels because God constrained us to do it. Caused us to do
it. Constraining grace. Caused it. It's all grace. It's either restraining
grace or it's constraining grace. So we get no credit, you see.
This whole thing's all about, salvation is all about God getting
110% of the glory. We're not going to share it with
us. But Lord, don't you remember
the time I did? No. It's all grace. But I accepted
Jesus. I accepted you and the beloved.
But I believe I gave you that faith. Nobody's going to say
but anyway. None of God's people are ever
going to stand before God and plead anything they've ever done.
Never. Never. It's going to be some
hypocrites who do that, but we did this, we did that in Jesus'
name. I don't know you, you glory seekers. I'm going to get all the glory.
Grace, grace, God's grace, marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, freely
bestowed on all who believe. Ah, grace. Verse 7 says, Now
therefore restore the man his wife. He's a prophet. For he doesn't look like much,
Lord. He is. I like this saying. I like this
part. He's a prophet. He's a what? But, but he's a prophet. And he's going to pray for you
and you're going to live. If you don't restore, I'll kill
you. Lord killeth, the Lord maketh.
He's a prophet. Though all the world, listen to me, though all
the world sees God's peoples as mere men and women, Debra,
they've seen you, the people you work with, they've seen you
fall, haven't they? They've seen you in a bad time. They've seen
you, they may have heard you say who knows what. My daughter one time said she
heard my wife say the S.H. word. And she was about three
years old, and we both went, huh? She said, yes. She said,
shut up. And we both went, phew. We used to tell her, don't say
shut up. If that's all she said growing
up, Sam, we'll be fine. I mean, they may have heard you
say, the real answer is Deborah Wright, and they think, is she
a Christian? I thought she was a Christian.
I wish I could tell that, what that preacher did. Ask me in
private. I got to tell somebody that.
I don't want it to go right on tape. His wife was an unbeliever,
and he mashed his thumb, and he said something, and oh, it
was good. which is not fit for public ears.
Well, God, the world sees men, God's people, men and women,
as just men and women for what they are, just sinners. But God
says, they're my people. They're my anointed. They're
my righteous servants. Why? Because they're more righteous
than other people? No. Because they're righteous
in Jesus Christ. Because of the covenant. And I thought of this verse,
John, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availed much.
Because Abraham, God said, he's my prophet. Though he's just
sinful, though we're just sinful men and women, the world knows
it, yet we can say, listen, we can say, and later on Abraham
prayed for this man and God healed him and so forth. Though we're
just sinful men and women, and the world knows it and they see
it, yet we can say with full confidence, like Paul said, except
you abide with us in the ship, in the ark, you'll all perish. Except you hear and believe the
gospel we hear and believe, you're going to perish. Right? Abraham was a sinner,
a miserable sinner. But he could say, unless you
believe the God I believe, you're going to die. Well, let's read on, and I'll
quit, all right? Verses 9 and 10, and Abimelech
called Abraham and said, Why have you done this? What have
you done? What have I done to offend thee? Oh, my. Verse 10, and Abimelech said,
What made you do this? Verse 11, Abraham said, Isn't
this what always gets us in trouble? His answer here, I thought That old black preacher preached
one time a message, the title of it was, It Ain't Like You
Thought It Was. My thoughts, you see, are not
God's thoughts. My ways are not God's ways. You'd
think Abraham learned by now that he shouldn't lean on the
arm of the flesh for his own understanding, but God was seeing
him all the way through this thing, but he didn't, and we
haven't learned it fully, and we'll do the same thing again.
Well, I thought, I said, I thought I'd do this and do that. He failed
miserably. And he justifies it, too, doesn't
he? Verse 11, he says, verse 12,
he says, she is my sister. But she is my sister. What a
miserable man this is. Oh, great Abraham. Everybody
brags on Abraham, doesn't they? The only greatness Abraham
had was the greatness God gave him. The only faith he displayed
was the faith God gave him. That's just the way it is. That's
just the way it is. There are no great men and women.
There are men and women who have a great God, who allow them to
do great things. Isn't that what he said to the
disciples, Nancy? Those miserable fishermen? Boy,
they were a sad lot, weren't they? Eh? What was it my pastor
preached a message one time? And the king and his motley crew. What a crew he had. Oh, what
a crew. Well, one time Christ said to
them, he said, greater things you'll do than what I've done. Greater things than these you'll
do. I bet they're joking. Us? Us? We haven't done anything up to
now but fail. How were they going to do greater
things? through the Lord Jesus Christ, through his Spirit. Well,
he justified himself, didn't he? But she is my sister. And
we do the same thing. Verse 14 through 16, that Abimelech
took sheep and oxen and gave them, and he reproved Sarah. Verse 16, he reproved her. He
said, Here, take your brother and get out of here. So she was rebuked. You know
Sarah, I'm talking about Abraham, Sarah was just as guilty. She
was in on this thing too. Scripture talks about men. Every
man at his best state, including you too, Wilma. Every woman at
her best state is altogether banished. Every woman is a harlot
in the making. except for the restraining grace
of God. Right? Right, Nathan? How could Sarah do this? Well, she did. Well, Abraham
interceded. Verse 17 and 18, Abraham prayed
unto God. God healed Abimelech and his
wife, his maidservants, and their children. And the Lord had shut
up the wounds because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. And I just want
you to turn over the numbers, and we'll read this in closing.
Numbers twenty-three. Now, you know the story. Numbers
twenty-three. This is after the exodus, or
during the exodus, what this is. The children of Israel. You know all their murmurings
and complainings and failings and sins against God. You know
how the children of Israel were. Israel. You know what miserable
people they were. Sons of Jacob were sinners, no
good sinners, iniquitous people, don't you? Well, here's this false prophet,
Balaam. Listen to what he says here.
Numbers 23, verse 19. He spoke the truth here. He said,
God is not a man that he should lie, neither the Son of that
he should repent. In other words, what God says,
he means it. And what God says, he'll not
take it back. It's done. Hath he said, shall
he not do it? Yes. Everything he said. Hath
he spoken, shall he not make it good? Yes, he will. Behold,
verse 20, I have received commandment to bless, because God hath blessed. I can't reverse it. Oh, I like
this. Read on, it's better. God hath
not beheld iniquity in Jacob. He doesn't see any sin in Jacob,
neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. In that bunch, he
doesn't see it. Oh, boy, all Abimelech saw in
Abraham. What do you think Abimelech thought
of Abraham? Well, he's a miserable fellow.
He's a cheat and a liar and a thief. He wouldn't have traded horses
with him. He wouldn't. He wouldn't have bought a dog
off of him, would he, Stan? Couldn't trust him as far as
he could throw him. What's God think about Abraham? Righteous. There is therefore now no condemnation. Folks, Romans 8-1 is just shouting
ground, isn't it? There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Jesus Christ. And that's all our hope. That's
all any sinner's hope is. It sure is. That's all Abraham's
was. Covenants. Mercies. Right? I'll never leave thee, nor forsake
thee. Because I've given you to my
Son, and you're accepted in Him. Now know why. Say, Jerry, come up. Let's sing
and close in. We've got to sing this. And only
a sinner. What number is that? 199? Or what foot is it? You know? Only a sinner. Yeah, I wasn't even close. 474. 474. I was singing this
earlier in life, this message, and we've got to sing. We've
got to sing one verse. All right, let's stand. We'll
sing just the first verse. That'll be it. Naught have I
gotten but what I receive Grace has bestowed it since I have
believed I. It is better. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.