Let's open our Bibles to 1 Corinthians
chapter 13. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. But I want to read a couple of
verses here from John chapter 13 first. 34 and 35. A new commandment I've given
to you that you love one another, as I have loved you that you
also love one another. By this shall all know that you
are my disciples if you have love one to another. Chapter
13, 1 Corinthians. Though I speak with tongues of
men and of angels and have not charity, charity is love. I am
become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the
gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains
and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth
long in this kind. Charity envieth not. Charity
blotheth not itself, is not buffed up, doth not believe itself unseemly,
seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth
not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. But whether
there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues,
they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it
shall vanish away. For we know in part, we prophesy
in part. But when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When
I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought
as a child. But when I became a man, I put
away childish things. For now we see through a glass
darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know even, as also I am known. And now by the faith,
hope, charity, these three. But the greatest of these is
charity. In 1 John chapter 4, verse 7
and 8, the Lord says, Beloved, let us love one another, for
love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. And Henry wrote, love is the
evidence of salvation. Faith shall give away to sight,
hope to reality, but love shall only expand. Let us pray. Genesis 21, time of love. Genesis 21, we preached from
here last week, dealt with Abraham having the promised son, the
joy and then the sorrow when Ishmael had to be cast out. Starting in verse 22, And it
came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phicol, the chief
captain of his host, spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with
thee in all that thou doest. Now therefore swear unto me,
hearing by God, that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor
with my son, nor with my son's son. But according to the kindness
that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the
land wherein thou hast soldiered. And Abraham said, I will swear.
And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water which
Abimelech's servants had violently taken away. And Abimelech said,
I want not who had done this thing, neither didst thou tell
me, neither yet heard I of it, but today. And Abraham took sheep
and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech, and both of them made
a covenant. And Abraham set seven new lambs
of the flock by themselves. And Abimelech said unto Abraham,
What mean these seven new lambs which thou hast set by themselves?
And he said, For these seven new lambs thou shalt take of
my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, and that I have digged
this well. Wherefore he called that place
Beersheba, because they both swear of them, and that means
the well of oath. Thus they made a covenant at
Beersheba. Then Abimelech rose up and Phicol, the chief captain
of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.
And Abraham planted a grove, tree, in Beersheba and called
there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. And Abraham
soldiered in the Philistines' land for many days. This is an
ordinary day, one day, in Abraham's life. It was an ordinary day.
It was an ordinary day for him. That's why I titled this message
tonight. An Ordinary Day. An Ordinary Day. The best test
of our characters is not in how we act in a crisis. Most of us,
if we're in a crisis, grace just comes and abounds greatly in
us and the Lord helps us to deal with it. And the best test of
our characters is not how We act in a crisis or in a great
occasion. The best revelation of our true
character is in our everyday, ordinary day that we go through
day in and day out. Nothing special happens, nothing
catastrophic happens, no crisis comes along, but how we live
ordinarily from day to day to day. How we are at home, how
we are in public, just an everyday. That's a test of our true character.
When something big happens, we often face them with some wisdom
and some courage. But it's in the simple, average,
everyday experiences that we reveal our true selves. Just
every day, we reveal our true selves. And we have seen what
Abraham could do in great crisis. He handled them very well. God
gave him grace to deal with things. And here he is in an everyday,
ordinary situation. And how will he act in this ordinary,
everyday situation? Well, we have here in verse 22,
there's Abimelech, he's a king. And there's his chief captain,
that's the fellow that's the general of his armies. And the
first thing he says about Abraham is, now here's, he has this wonderful
testimony. This is a heathen king giving
a testimony to Abraham and what Abraham's like, and just watching
him, just being around him every day. And he says, speak unto
Abraham, saying, God is with thee. God is with thee. He said
God's with you. That's a heathen king. This is
a this is a man didn't know God but he saw Abraham. He saw him
in his daily life. He saw him as he went in and
he saw him as he went out and he saw a genuine witness for
God and this is a heathen king given this testimony and oh my
soul boy wouldn't it be wonderful if people say God is with thee
God is with thee and that's what he said about that he says God's
with you Abraham God's with you it's obvious God's blessed you
it's obvious that you got faith it's obvious that you look to
the Lord Jesus it's obvious that you don't trust yourself it's
obvious that you call on your God it's obvious Abraham it's
obvious that you don't run with the world it's obvious that you
and your family over here call on the Lord it's obvious you
got an altar over here that you go to it's obvious Abraham and
oh my He gave a testimony in his life, a testimony in his
life. Then he made a request to him. Look what he said in
the request. Verse 23. He said, now therefore
swear unto me here by God that will not deal falsely with me,
won't deal with my son nor with my son's sons, my son and my
grandson, but according to the kindness that I've done unto
thee shall thou do unto me in the land wherein I dwell. Now
here he is, he says, since I know God is with you, and he's with
you in all that you do, whatever you put your hand to, God's with
you, God's got his hand on you, God's doing something for you.
he's made him swear says now Abraham says God is with you
and you've got this power with God you've got this testimony
of God and you've you've got this relationship with God he
says now Abraham I've been kind to you I've been good to you
you've been here in my land And what he does is he says, now
treat me good, treat me good. You're a man of faith, you're
a great man. And he says, take a solemn oath.
And you know, an oath is what ends all strife. That's why they,
you know, whenever God said, he said, I could swear by no
greater, I swear by myself. And Paul told the Hebrews, he
says, an oath is the end of all strife. When a man makes an oath,
Ain't no sense arguing about you. Take him at his word, and
that's what Abraham, he says, Abraham, you got, God's with
you, and you're gonna, you got such power, you know what you
could do? You know what you could do? I'm
a king, but you know what you could do? He said, don't deal
falsely with me. Oh, and my son, whenever he comes
up to take the throne, don't deal falsely with him. And then
my grandson, oh my. And he, what he wanted was the
guarantee of Abraham's friendship. Oh Abraham, will you be my friend? And you know, that reminds me
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, if you give as much
as a cup of cold water, a cup of cold water, he said, you'll
receive a prophet's reward. But he also says, woe unto them
that offend. And this is what he wants him
to do. He said, Oh Abraham, since you were with God and God could
do anything, because you know, if you read chapter 20, Abraham
went down there and and and he done what he did when he went
to Egypt He told him says told his wife Sarah said now you you're
such a fair woman you go in there and tell him you're my sister
Well, they got down there and Abimelech took her into his house
and boy when he did that God woke him up one night said I'm
gonna kill you and all the reason I haven't killed you is Because
you haven't done anything to this woman and boy Abimelech
got up the next morning. He said Abraham What have you
done? What in the world have you done to me? Why didn't you
tell me it was your wife? I wouldn't have bothered her
and nobody else in my kingdom would. And then you know what
God said to him? He said, My servant Abraham,
he's a prophet and he'll pray for you and God will heal you. And so that's why he's asking
him this thing. Said, you dealt, you, you, you,
made you think that your wife was your sister. I coulda, and
God, God told Abraham, like, I kept you back from sinning
against me. And that's why he did it, because Abraham went
down there and put this falsehood on there that, yes, this is,
this is my sister. And he says, so don't do that.
Don't do like that anymore. Abraham, come. Tell me everything
that's going on. Tell me everything that's going
on. And then swear to me that you won't deal falsely. Look
what Abraham said. Verse 24, I will swear. Abraham's ready. This is just
in a day's course. I'll swear. He's ready and is
determined to take the oath. And he's doing that, that there
shall be peace between him and Abimelech. He wants peace. He don't want an argument. He
don't want any strife. He don't want anything between
them. He wants peace between him and
Abimelech. And Abraham stands out here. He really stands out here. He
is truly a man of God, truly a man of faith. He shows by his
willingness in meeting the desires and fears of Abimelech. He wasn't
interested in conquest or having any selfish motives in the end. He just wanted peace between
them two. He said, Oh, we know what we
want. I'll swear to you that I'll never deal falsely with
you. I'll be honest with you. I'll treat you right. And I'll
be kind to you. I'll be gracious to you. And
I swear that I'll do that. I swear that I'll do that. But
now look what happens next. Look what happens next. then
Abraham immediately said this to him after they just entered
into this swear to one another Abraham reproved Abimelech because
of a well of water and Abimelech's servants had come and violently
taken it away came and took it away from his Abraham's servants
came and run him off came and abused him came and had a violent
took the well away from him before there's peace between us we got
a problem for what he's saying this covenant for this peace
he said I'll tell you what we got we got a problem here we
got a problem open rebuke is better than secret love and water
water to these people these nomadic people who traveled here and
traveled yonder water was everything to these people to these nomads
wells wells wells was everywhere a Jacob's well with a he dug
and That's where our Lord met the woman at the well, at Jacob's
well. Are you greater than our father
Jacob who dug this well? And oh my, so he reproved him,
said oh my, we've got some trouble here, we got a problem between
us, we got a real problem between us. Oh my, water was everything
and Abimelech's servants had dealt unjustly with that well
and Abraham told him. You know what Abimelech said? He said, I don't know nothing
about this. I didn't know nothing about this. I don't know what
my service has done. Nobody came and told me. And
this is, today's the first time I've heard of it. He was ignorant
of what his service did. And what he's saying was, this
is just a simple misunderstanding. Simple misunderstanding. Why
didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell me? They
cleared this up, this misunderstanding, quickly and easily. Wouldn't
it be wonderful if people would say if they had something and
they just come and reprove you and say well you did this or
you did that and it's offended me and I think you're wrong about
it and just deal with it and get it out in the open and just
like they did and understand and be done just that quick and
that's what Abimelech's doing. Abimelech is sincerely upright,
he's genuine, he's an example of a man's natural goodness but
yet he's without God and yet he's without Christ. There are
men that are naturally inclined to honesty. Naturally inclined
to not wanting any trouble from anybody. Don't want misunderstandings
with anybody. And yet they're without God and
they're without hope. Huh? Without God, without hope.
But I tell you, O Abraham says, now before we can have this covenant,
before we can have this peace between us, your men came and
took a whale away from me. They took a whale away from me.
You remember when Eliezer went to get a bride for Isaac. You
know where he found Isaac's bride? At a well. She was at a well.
And that's where he stopped. He said, you know, that's where
everybody's going to gather. That's where they're going to
feed everything. That's where they're going to pull up water and water everything. And he said, Lord, the woman
that says here, let me water your camels and let me give you
some water. He said, let her be that woman.
So these whales were so important. They came from all over and went
to these whales. And here comes these fellas and
they violently, violently came and took away Abraham's whale
from his servants. And Abraham says, We've got to
deal with this. We've got to deal with it. We're
not going to let this go by. But oh, my. That issue was settled
that quick. That quick. Boy, don't you wish
you could settle things that quick. Just tell what the problem
is. Well, I'm sorry. I didn't know
that. I didn't understand it. I'm sorry that, you know, and
boom, get it fixed just that quick. Oh, my. Well, look what happens
now. And so Abraham, in verse 27,
took sheep and oxen, gave them unto Abimelech, and both of them
made a covenant. These two fellows went into a
covenant just between them two. He gave them to him. And Abraham
set seven ewe lambs, little old tiny lambs, ewe lambs, set them
over there of the flock by themselves. Set them over here by the seven
of them. Seven perfection, seven's complete. oh Abimelech said to
him why are these seven you lambs what does this mean what does
this mean he said why are these set apart and he said Abimelech
these are a special gift these are a special gift this is a
gift and and you know what these seven you lambs going to be in
here that it's going to mean that there is a covenant between
you and me and these seven you lambs is going to be a witness
you're going to witness this and this is what you're going
to witness to that this well right here belongs to me it belongs
to me and i give you seven you will seven you lambs is a witness
unto me that's what he says that they should be a witness unto
me that i have digged this way and then he called that name
place bersheba you know why because they both of them swell there
and it's called the well of the old the well of the old and they
made a covenant between made a covenant between them. But
here, let me show you something else here. Let me show you another
special revelation here. Verse 33. Oh, they made that
covenant and Abimelech went back to the house, him and his army
went back to the house, went back home. And Abraham planted
a tree, planted a grove, some trees and called there on the
name of the everlasting God. He plants a tree there and he
gets, God gives him a revelation. He plants it there as a memorial
of the perfect peace. that he desired between himself,
his God, and his fellow man. If we want peace with us and
God, we want peace with our, follow peace with all men, follow
peace with all men, live honestly with all men as much as possible. And he planted that tree as a
memorial, as a wonderful memorial, and there he called on the name,
what's what it says, the name of the Lord, and here's another
revelation of God that he never had before, the everlasting God.
God gave him a new revelation to him and his relation to him
and he called on the name of the Lord the everlasting God.
It's not a new title of God, but it's a new truth that he
revealed to himself to Abraham about himself. Abraham knew him
as the Most High God, Abraham knew him as Almighty God, but
he had never known him as the everlasting God. And now God
says, I'm the everlasting God, Abraham. I am, I'm the almighty
and I'm the most high God, but now you know that I'm everlasting. I never was, never was a time
that I wasn't, never will be a time that I won't be. Oh my,
God is unchangeable and He's faithful and He knows Him as
the Most High and the Almighty, but God, He gave Him this new
truth. And ain't that, you know, how many times over the years
as we've learned more about God. It's all more about His character,
more about His nature, more about His power, more about His sovereignty,
more about all of His attributes. You know how many attributes
God's got? He's got a bunch of them, ain't he Gary? He's got
a bunch of them. I got a book in there that's
that thick and it ain't nothing but on the attributes of God.
And the first one he starts out with is God's wisdom. You know
how wise God is? He's wise enough that everything
that happens in time is based on his eternal infinite wisdom. He didn't just get up one day
and decide I'm going to do something. Wisdom wisdom, infinite wisdom,
eternal wisdom said this is the way to do things to make it come
out this way and that way and another way and so when men they
start talking about fatalism they leave out the wisdom of
God when you're talking about predestination you leave out
the wisdom of God and all you got just a cold doctrine but
you put the wisdom of God in any of his attributes And then
there's the power of God. There's the long-suffering God,
holiness of God, righteousness of God, faithfulness of God,
the glory of God, compassion of God, on and on and on and
on. I'm gonna write down a list of
them one of these days and get up here and read them to you.
And you'll be surprised at how many they are. There's a lot
of them. And you know wherever one of them's manifested? In
His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. the greatest place that
you'll see the wisdom of God and here's and this is how you
know the gospel if you see the wisdom of God and how he can
be both just and justifier of him that believes in the Lord
Jesus Christ Christ is the wisdom of God. When you look at Him,
you see how God, the wisdom that was in God Himself, that He devised
a way that He could be both man and not cease to be God. And
that as God, He could not die, but as man, He could. As man,
He couldn't satisfy God, but as God, He could satisfy God.
But as man, he could die. And in doing that, God showed
his wisdom how that he could punish sin, punish the sinner,
sentence him to death, and take care of everything that was against
him, and at the same time, put all of his sin away, justify
him, call him righteous, and bring him to himself, and bring
his own son from the dead. Now that's the wisdom of God.
How God can save a sinner like me and stay holy. How God can
save sinners like us and stay just. When He said He will by
no means clear the guilty, that's exactly what He means. We ain't
been cleared of our guilt. We've been punished. God in wisdom
punished us. But where did He punish us at?
In His blessed Son. Where did we deal with sin at?
In His blessed Son. Where did we die at? Crucified
in the Son. Oh, the wisdom of God in the
death and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, my. Oh, that's the most glorious
thing that I've ever heard in my life, and I've been preaching
it for years, and I love to hear it preached, and I still ain't
got over that one truth. the wisdom of God in Jesus Christ. And then not only that, but God
made Christ unto us wisdom. You wanna know God? You wanna
know me? You know my son, and I'll give you the spiritual wisdom
to know me. I'll give you the spiritual sense
to know me. I'll give you the spiritual sense to understand
me. We're at in Christ. What a gospel. All right, but
he goes on here. Let me give you several things.
Look over here. I think it's in Isaiah chapter
40 in verse 30. He had this special revelation,
but look over here in Isaiah chapter 40. I want to look at
something here. There's great, great spiritual
value. Isaiah 40, 31. There's great
spiritual value in our ordinary, everyday life. I mean, we get
up every day, we go about our daily lives, we don't, nothing
special happens. We get up, we drink our coffee,
we eat our breakfast, we go about our lives, go here, yonder, go
to town, do this, that, and the other. It's an ordinary everyday
thing. But our everyday lives are great witnesses and testimonies
to the grace of God and the faithfulness of God and our great need of
Him every day. We acknowledge Him every day.
You see, we can't live in crisis. We can't always live on big events,
but just living will give us all the opportunities for faithfulness
and experience with God. And there's three general experiences
in our life and here in Isaiah 31, three general experiences
of life. It says, but they that wait upon
the Lord, now watch this, shall renew their strength. And you
know, and then first experience we have is great and glorious
communion with God. said they shall mount up with
wings as eagles. We have this great glorious communion
with God. Mount up as wings, eagles with
wings. With wings as an eagle, we get
to go up and fellowship and commune with God. And then there's these
special emergencies that come upon us. They shall run. Oh,
an emergency comes upon us, you know, a crisis comes upon us,
and we run. We run to the Lord. We get excited. We get concerned, and we get
involved in it, and we try to seek the Lord about how to deal
with it. And then the third one's our everyday life, and look what
it says, and they shall walk. Just go, just walk, just walk,
just walk. Oh my, what are you gonna do
tomorrow? Well, I'm gonna, whatever the Lord has for me to do, that's
what I'm gonna do. Just gonna walk, I'm just gonna
live, just gonna live. And I'll tell you what, here's
another spiritual thing that we learned from Abraham here.
There's an ordinary everyday life. Abraham had a true attitude
towards them that are without. He wanted peace, he wanted harmony
between him and Abimelech. He had a true attitude towards
those that are without. He said, Abimelech, I don't want
no trouble. Don't want no trouble. I want peace between us. We'll
enter into this covenant, I swear I will. And that tells us that
we, Colossians 4, 5 says, walk with wisdom toward them that
are without. What does that mean? Walk with
wisdom toward them that are without. When you're out in the world
and you're, I don't care if you're buying a cup of coffee, I don't
care if you're in the grocery store, I don't care if you're
at home. If you get around unbelievers, walk with wisdom, walk with some
grace, walk with some sense. Be kind, be gracious, be tender,
and always, always say something to somebody that waits on you.
Say something good to them. Always say something good to
them. And this is why we got to walk with wisdom for them
that are without. First of all, they're without. They're without
God. They're without Christ. They're
without hope. So if they gonna, if they gonna,
if we, if we treat, and some of you fellas are in business,
oh my, you know, being in business, it gets tough to sit there and
be gracious to somebody that's raking you over the coals and
saying, you know, I want this, I want that, and you didn't do
this right, didn't do that right. And all you just have to sit
there and smile and say, well, I'll make that right. I'll do
like, I'll do like, I'll do like Abimelech said, I'll make this
right. And oh my, and how sad not to be numbered among those
who believe. And I tell you what, it's a walk
with wisdom towards them that are without. And then the blessedness,
here's the third thing. The blessedness of learning more
about God. Abraham began to call on the
name of the Lord, the everlasting God. Oh, to learn more about
Him. More about Jesus would I know.
more of His grace to others show, more of His saving love for me,
and more, well, we'll sing it, we'll sing it. But you know,
that's the, and here's to, you know, you ladies and you men,
you get up every day and you start your day, you go on about
your day, and every one of us in our ordinary day of life,
that's when we really show our true character, just how we live
from day to day. Nothing big happens, nothing
little happens, we just go about our day, go about our lives.
And how many times during your day, your ordinary day, you know,
when something, some crisis comes along, you'll get to call and
say, oh, pray for this one and pray for this, this happened,
and oh my, and everybody gets under the burden and gets involved
in it. But boy, just to get up and do
what you do during the day. And in the day, start it with
God and end it with God. How do you do that? Just walk. Just walk. Just keep walking.
Just walk. Just walk. Go about your life.
Trust Him. Trust Him. That's a wonderful
experience, ain't it? Just to get up and know that
this is the Lord's day. This is my day. And if the Lord
lets me have a peaceful day, an easy day, what a blessed day
it is. Blessed day. All right. Our Father,
in the precious name of Christ Jesus, our Lord, thank you for
meeting with us tonight. Thank you for your precious word.
And oh, Lord, we ask that you'd make us an honest people, a faithful
people, a people ready and willing to forgive, a people ready and
willing to have peace. And oh, Lord, if we have to take
the blame, as Abimelech did, Lord, we're willing to take that
as we can have peace. Oh, Lord, let it be so, for Christ's
sake. Bless these dear children of
God, those that are not with us through providence, those
who are not with us through sickness and affliction. We ask for your
great blessings upon them. Continue to strengthen Marlene
and make her strong in her body. And Lord, we continue to pray
for Peggy. Make her strong. Make her strong. Give her grace,
oh Lord, day in and day out. Thank you for these dear saints
of God who come out and listen to me day in and day out, week
in and week out. Lord, I thank you. You make them
a very gracious people. You've given them abundance of
grace that they'd listen to me, that they'd gather here and hear
what I have to say. Oh, the abundance of grace you
must give them, that they do that. And I thank you for them.
Thank you for your message. Thank you for your grace. Thank
you for our Lord Jesus Christ, in his holy name, amen.