All right, if you would, open
your Bibles with me and mark chapter nine. Mark the ninth chapter. Lord
willing, I'll say this again on Sunday, but let me thank you
now for all your hard work, your prayers, everything that went
into our conference this last weekend. I feel like the preaching
was just extraordinarily blessed, hence we were too. I'm very thankful,
I appreciate you. Mark chapter nine, we'll begin
our reading in verse 14. And when he came to his disciples,
he saw a great multitude about them and the scribes questioning
with them. And straightway all the people, when they beheld
him, were greatly amazed and running to him, saluted him.
And he asked the scribes, what question ye with them? And one
of the multitude answered and said, master, I brought unto
thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh
him, he teareth him, and he foameth and gnashes with his teeth, and
pineth away. And I spake to thy disciples
that they should cast him out, and they could not. He answered
him and said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. And they brought
him unto him. And when he saw him, straightway
the spirit tear him, and he fell on the ground, and wallow foaming. And he asked his father, how
long is it to go since this came unto him? And he said, I have
a child. And oftentimes it hath cast him
into the fire and into the waters to destroy him. But if thou canst
do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Jesus said
unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried
out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. When Jesus saw that the people
came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto
him, thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him
and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried and rent
him sore and came out of him. And he was as one dead, insomuch
that many said, he is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand
and lifted him up, and he arose. We'll end our reading there.
All right, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn to song
number 216. 216. Look to the Lamb of God. If you from sin are longing to
be free, look to the Lamb of God. He to redeem you died on
Calvary, look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God, for
He alone is able to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. When sentient aims and doubts
and fears assail, look to the Lamb of God. You in His strength shall over
all prevail. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is able to save
you. Look to the Lamb of God. Are you a weary? Does the way
seem long? Look to the Lamb of God. His joy will cheer and fill your
heart with song. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God, for
He alone is able to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. Fear not when shadows on your
pathway fall. Look to the Lamb of God. In joy or sorrow, Christ is all
in all. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God, for
He alone is able to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. Okay, if you would now turn to
song number 304. 304. Savior more than life to me. Savior, more than life to me,
I am clinging, clinging close to Thee. let thy precious blood apply. Keep me ever, ever near thy side. Every day, every hour, let me
feel thy cleansing power. May thy tender love to me find
me closer, closer, Lord, to thee. Through this changing world below,
lead me gently, gently as I go. I cannot stray. I can never,
never lose my way. Every day, every hour, let me
feel Thy cleansing power. May Thy tender love to me find
me closer, closer, Lord, to Thee. Let me love Thee more and more,
Till this fleeting, fleeting life is o'er, Till my soul is
lost in love In a brighter, brighter world above. ? Every day, every
hour ? Let me feel thy cleansing power ? May thy tender love to
me ? Find me closer, closer, Lord, to thee If you would open your Bibles
now with me to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12. Now the Lord had said unto Abram,
get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy
father's house unto a land that I will show thee. And I will
make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy
name great and thou shalt be a blessing. I'll bless them that
bless thee and curse him that cursed thee. And these shall
all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed as
the Lord had spoken unto him and Lot went with him. And Abram
was 75 years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took
Sarai, his wife and Lot, his brother's son, and all their
substance that they had gathered and the souls that they had gotten
in Haran. And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan.
And into the land of Canaan they came. And Abram passed through
the land under the place of Sycam and the plain of Morah. And the
Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram
and said, under thy seed will I give this land. And there built
he an altar under the Lord who appeared unto him. And he removed
from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched
his tent, having Bethel on the west and Hai on the east. And there he built an altar unto
the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed
going on still toward the South. And there was a famine in the
land. And Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there for the
famine was grievous in the land. And it came to pass when he was
come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife,
behold, now I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon.
Therefore, It shall come to pass when the Egyptians shall see
thee that they shall say, this is his wife and they will kill
me, but they will save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my
sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake and my soul shall
live because of thee. And it came to pass that when
Abram was coming to Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman, that
she was very fair. And the princes also of Pharaoh
saw her and committed her before Pharaoh, And the woman was taken
into Pharaoh's house and he entreated Abram well for her sake. And
he had sheep and oxen and he asses and men servants and made
servants and she asses and camels. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh
and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abraham's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and
said, what is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst
thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou she's my sister?
So I might have taken her to meet a wife. And now therefore
behold thy wife. Take her and go thy way. And
Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away and
his wife and all that he had. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, how thankful we are
that you have given us yet one more opportunity to meet together
and to worship your precious name, to hear the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ preached, to open your word, the word of God,
the word that you've given to me, and to read it and study
it and to seek Christ in it. And Father, I pray you'd bless
us tonight. Bless us with an hour of true worship. Speak to
each heart here this evening by thy spirit. Enable us to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we say with the father
of old whose childhood was possessed with that demon. Lord, we believe. Help thou our unbelief. How thankful
we are that you remember that we're but dust. Thank you for
your mercy and your grace that you Save us always in spite of
ourselves. Father, we're thankful. Father,
we pray you continue to bless this congregation, how richly
you have blessed us over all these many years. Father, we're
so humbled. We're so amazed at your mercy
and your grace to us. We pray that for your great namesake,
that you continue to bless your people, that you continue to
call out your sheep, that you would feed and comfort and edify
and strengthen your sheep by the preaching of Christ our Savior. Father, bless the word preached
for your namesake. Let your greatest glory, your
glory in showing mercy to sinners, shine in this place. Make this
place a lighthouse, a trophy of your mercy and your grace
to your people. And Father, we dare not sin against thee, and
forgetting to pray for your people that you brought in the time
of trouble and trial. Father, we pray you'd comfort
their hearts, that you'd be with them in a special way, as soon
as it could be thy will that you deliver them. And all these
things we ask, and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. All right, I've
titled the message this evening, Our Experience. of faith. Every
believer, from the first one to the last one, they've all
been saved by faith in Christ. Every believer of every generation,
wherever you find them, they all believe on and rest in the
Lord Jesus Christ. They all have faith. Now, it's
not our faith that saves. It's Christ who saves. But that
salvation is received by God-given faith in Christ. Faith that trusts
Christ to be everything that we need. Faith that trusts Him
so much, we don't feel compelled to add our works to it, to make
this thing effectual. Faith in Christ rests in Christ. It trusts Him that He's enough.
He's all we need. And when God gives that faith
to His people, He'll never allow that faith to fail. They'll never
quit believing Christ and start believing on something else.
That's God-given saving faith. That's the faith that God gives
His people. But now our experience of faith, as we walk through
this world here below, our experience tells us that faith is never
perfect faith. Our faith does not consistently
grow stronger and stronger and stronger. Our experience is simply
this. Sometimes our faith is weak.
I mean, sometimes it's so weak it seems non-existent. Sometimes
it's stronger than others. I even hesitate to call it strong.
Sometimes it's stronger than others. Sometimes it's weaker
than others. It's just not perfect, is it?
Now we're beginning to study the life of Abraham here, and
scripture calls Abraham the father of the faithful. Abraham is given
to us as an illustration, an example that salvation is by
faith without our works. But as you read the life of Abraham,
Abraham's also an example of weak, wavering faith. Yet God's still safety. God's
still safety. You know, I don't ever want us
to have the impression that Abraham and many of these other Old Testament,
you know, believers are some sort of religious, you know,
Marvel superhero, you know, that they've got religious superpowers
that us normal, you know, mortals and peons don't have. Abraham
was an ordinary sinful man, just like you and me. But Abraham
was saved. by God's almighty grace. He's
kept by God's almighty grace the same way God saves his people
today. And Abraham's experience of faith
is the same as ours. Abraham often found his faith
weak and wavering. Now I say that, and I feel compelled
to add this to it. You know I'm not saying we have
an excuse to sin. We just say, oh, it doesn't matter
how I live or what I do. There's never an excuse for sin.
There's never an excuse for weak faith. When you consider that
our faith is in Christ, our faith should always be strong, shouldn't
it? It should always be perfect because of his strength and his
perfection. But that's not always the case
with us, is it? And here's comfort for God's people we have weak
wavering faith just like Abraham. God saves us anyway. God saves
us anyway. Now that's the very definition
of grace. In spite of what we've done,
in spite of our failure, in spite of our sin, in spite of our weak
faith, God saves us anyway. That's grace. I want to show
us three points tonight about Abraham's experience of faith.
And I believe, I'm sure of this, every believer will recognize
this and say, that's my experience too. Now, the first thing is
this, Abraham's obedience was not perfect. You know, part of
faith is obedience that we obey God's command to believe on Christ,
to believe him and rest in him. Abraham's obedience was not perfect. Verse one of Genesis chapter
12, Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of my country
and from thy kindred and from my father's house unto a land
that I will show thee. Now you notice that Moses says
here, the Lord had said to Abraham, you know, the Lord first said
that to Abraham and Abraham did not obey or immediately obey
like what we all think he did. Look back at chapter 11 verse
31. And Terah took Abram, his son,
and Lot, the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law,
his son Abram's wife. And they went forth with them
from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan. And
they came unto Haran and dwelt there. Now the Lord told Abraham,
leave your kindred, leave your family, get out of your father's
house and go to a land that God would show you. And when Abraham
left, he took his whole family with him. And he only went partway
to Canaan. Look over here at Acts chapter
7. This is something that Stephen said. He shed some light on this
before he was stoned. Acts chapter 7. Verse 2. And he said, men and brethren
and fathers hearken. The God of glory appeared under
our father, Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he
dwelt in Charon. And said unto him, get thee out
of thy country and from thy kindred and come unto the land which
I shall show thee. Then came he out of the land
of the Chaldeans and he dwelt in Charon. And from thence, when
his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein you
now dwell. Now Abraham left the Ur of the
Chaldees but he left with his whole family. God said, leave
your kindred, but he went with his whole family. He didn't go
all the way to Canaan. He stopped in Cairn. He lived
there with his family. Now that's not what God told
Abraham to do, but that's what he did. He took his kindred and
he just went part of the way. And he stayed there for five
years. He stayed there in that land
of Cairn. And it's not recorded that God spoke to Abraham one
time during those five years. He didn't go, he didn't obey
immediately. Abraham's obedience was not perfect
at all, was it? No far from it. But the Lord
did not allow Abraham's disobedience to stop God's covenant purpose
in sending the Messiah through Abraham. That through Abraham,
all nations of the earth would be blessed because God's covenant
of grace was gonna be fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, who
would come from Abraham. And after those five years, Stephen
says, God removed Abraham. He removed him from Heron and
took him to Canaan. You know how God removed him?
Killed his father. When his father died, that's
how God removed him and sent him into the land that God told
him to go to five years ago. Now look back here in our text,
Genesis chapter 12. This is in verse four. So Abram departed as the Lord
had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was
75 years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took
Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their
substance that they had gathered and the souls that they had gotten
in Haran. And I'll touch on this more here
just a little bit. Those five years he was in Haran,
Abraham's wealth increased. He got more servants and more
flocks and more, you know, he became, he was enriched. And
he took all that, and they went forth to go to the land of Canaan.
And into the land of Canaan they came. Now you see, Abraham had
weak faith here, didn't he? He didn't obey God perfectly.
But Abraham's weak faith did not stop God's covenant of grace. God had a covenant of grace.
He's gonna save his people through this Messiah that's coming through
Abraham. And Abraham's weak faith did
not stop God's purpose. Here's the thing about salvation.
Believers are saved by Christ's obedience, not ours. By Christ's
obedience to the law. And believers, they trust Christ's
obedience. We don't trust ourselves. We
don't trust anything we do or we think we can do. No, we just
trust Christ. And I'm telling you, that's good
news. It's good news that salvation is received just by trusting
Christ, isn't it? That's the only way a sinner can be saved.
That's the only way a sinner can have any obedience, isn't
it? if we trust Christ. Now look over Hebrews chapter
11. Abraham had weak faith. He did not immediately obey God.
But when the writer to the Hebrews talks about this Abraham coming
into the land of Canaan, the writer makes no mention of Abraham's
little detour down there to Haran. Hebrews 11 verse eight. By faith,
Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he
should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out not knowing
whether he went. Now the writer of the Hebrews
makes it sound like Abraham immediately obeyed, didn't he? He immediately
left his family and he immediately went to the land that God showed
him. And that's not what happened. Now, why doesn't he mention this
little detour? Why didn't he mention this delay
in Abraham's obedience? It's because the writer to the
Hebrews shows us how Abraham and every believer is seen in
Christ. We're not seen in ourselves.
We're not seen in our own actions, our own obedience. This is how
we're seen in Christ. In Christ, every believer is
seen as perfect because Christ is perfect. In Christ, we're
seen with perfect faith because Christ has perfect faith. In
Christ we're seen with perfect obedience, we're seen as holy
and righteous because Christ had perfect obedience, because
he is our holiness and he is our righteousness. That's how
fully God's people are saved in Christ. We are what Christ
is. It's not like we are what Christ
is because of our union with Christ, we are what Christ is. And as I said a moment ago, we
should always Have perfect faith. Don't you always want perfect
faith? Just believe God fully. Just obey Him fully. Just trust
Him fully. We should have perfect faith.
And I'm sure you're like me. You strive for it. But here's
our comfort. When we find that our faith is
weak, we're not saved by the power of our faith. We're saved
by the power and faithfulness of Christ our Savior, just like
Abraham. Abraham had weak faith, but this
I know from reading scripture about Abraham. Abraham's in glory. If you believe Christ as weak
as you may find your faith to be from time to time, you're
gonna wind up there too. Because salvation is based on
Christ's obedience, not ours. All right, here's the second
thing. Abraham's trust in God was not perfect. Look back here
at our text, Genesis chapter 12, verse six. And Abram passed through the
land into the place of Sycam under the plane of Mora. And
the Canaanite was then in the lane and the Lord appeared under
Abram and said, under thy seed, will I give this land? And there,
build it. He an altar under the Lord who
appeared unto him. Abraham came into the land that
God showed him and God spoke again to him. And the very first
thing Abraham did is built an altar and he worshiped God through
a blood sacrifice. Now that's what saving faith
is. The only way God can be worshiped is through a blood sacrifice.
It's got to be the blood of Christ. True God-given faith will only
ever approach God and will only ever attempt to worship God through
the blood sacrifice, through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's just what Abraham did here. He came in the land,
he built an altar, and he worshiped God because he had genuine faith. genuine God-given faith. Now
verse 8, And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the
east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent, having Bethel on the
west and Haii on the east. And there he moved to this new
place, and there he built an altar unto the Lord and called
upon the name of the Lord. Now this is the real experience
of faith in the life of every believer. This is what we live.
Abraham pitched his tent between these two cities, these two places,
Bethel and Hai. Now I bet everybody here knows
what Bethel is. Bethel, the name Bethel means
the house of God. Whenever I think about Bethel,
I think about the life of Jacob. In all Jacob's wandering, all
the things that he did, you find Jacob constantly coming back
to Bethel. coming back to Bethel. Bethel
was where God first revealed himself to Jacob, and Jacob's
constantly coming back to Bethel, constantly coming back to the
house of the Lord. And that's just exactly what every believer
does. We believe God, we trust him, and we keep coming back
to Bethel. We keep coming back to the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the house of God. This is where God dwells,
in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is where we
worship. This is who we worship. the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're constantly coming back
to Bethel, aren't we? This is where God reveals himself to
us. Well, that was on one side, but Hai was on the other side.
And Hai means heap of ruin, heap of ruins. And that's what we
are in Adam, aren't we? We're ruined, ruined by the fall. Our nature is ruined. Now when
something's ruined, it can't be fixed up. you know, something,
you know, you think, well, it can be repaired or it can be
patched up and it's still useful. That's not our nature. Our nature
is ruined. It's beyond repair. It can't
be fixed up. The only thing it's good for is throwing it away.
We're ruined in sin. Sin is just, is completely corrupted
our flesh. It can never be fixed up. Even
when God saves his people, he doesn't fix up the flesh. No,
God creates a new nature. that's born in holiness and righteousness,
that's born into the hearts of his people by the Holy Spirit.
So this is where Abraham was living. He was living between
the house of God and a heap of ruins. He was there worshiping God by
faith. He built an altar, he was calling
upon the name of the Lord between the house of God and a heap of
ruins. You see the picture there, don't you? That's the two natures
a believer has to constantly live with. a holy nature that
can never sin, and a sinful nature that can never do anything right,
never do anything holy. Abraham was living by faith right
exactly where every believer lives, between the house of God
and a heap of ruins. But even though we're in this
body of flesh, it's ruined by sin, we still have that nature
God caused to be born in us, and we live with these two natures,
worshiping God, through the blood sacrifice of Christ. The sacrifice
that he offered on the altar of his humanity. And there we
call upon the name of the Lord. Even though we're living with
a body that's a heap of ruins, that's the experience of faith
that every believer lives with. And the fact that we have this
hay eye, that we live with this heap of ruins, sometimes we find
ourselves going places we ought not go. Look at verse nine. In
Abram, journey going on still toward the South. There was a
famine in the land. Abram went down into Egypt to
sojourn there for the famine was grievous in the land. Now,
all the commentators that I read on this were pretty rough on
old Abraham saying Abraham never should have gone down into Egypt.
And I can't say that I disagree with him at all. I mean, I do
agree with that. God had promised He'd give the land of Canaan
to Abraham's descendants. He promised. He promised, Abraham,
I'll bless you there. Whoever blesses you, I'll bless.
Whoever curses you, I'll curse. He promised he'd bless Abraham
in that land. But this famine came up and there's
food down in Egypt. And Abraham went down there so
he'd have something to eat. Now, all of us understand Abraham
should have done that. He should have stayed in the
land God told him to go to. But you also have to admit this.
If we were in Abraham's shoes, every last one of us would have
done the same thing. If we didn't have anything to eat and there's
food somewhere, that's where we'd have gone. We'd live, have
something to eat. And I'll tell you why we'd have
done the same thing Abraham did. We got the same flesh Abraham
did. We're still living between Bethel
and Hai. And the first little bit of difficulty
comes up, we quit trusting God and we rely on the arm of the
flesh and go down there and get something to eat. That's exactly
what we do. So Abraham went to Egypt. And
Egypt in scripture always is a picture of the bondage that
man has, the bondage of man's religion, the bondage of a legalistic
free will works religion. Abram, that's where he went.
Many years later, Abraham's descendants are going down there too, aren't
they? Going down there for the same reason, there's a famine
in the land, I need something to eat. And they went down there
to Egypt and they became slaves there. They lived in bondage
there 400 years. They had to make bricks without
straw. I mean, they were slaves. They were in bondage. They had
absolutely no rights. They had absolutely no way they
could set themselves free. They were just work, work, work,
work, work, and it was never enough. That's the bondage of
free will works religion. It demands work, but it'll never
be enough. It demands work. It demands you
make bricks without straw, but it never gives life. It never
gives freedom. And that's what Egypt represents
all through scripture. This religion is bondage to the
law. And this shows you how dead our
flesh is. This is the religion our flesh loves. Bondage. Bondage to the law. Thinking,
I can do it. Nobody else everybody have to
but I can do it I can keep the law well enough and I live well
enough that I can please God and I want to put myself in bondage
to do it Our flesh is constantly trying to get us to go back to
Egypt to go back to bondage because our flesh loves works religion
and Working like that Attempting to approach God like that by
our works by our obedience by our morality by what we do Will
never make us live by faith Never, ever, ever. Verse 11. And it
came to pass when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that
he said unto Sarai his wife, behold now, I know that thou
art a fair woman to look upon. Therefore, it shall come to pass
when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, this
is his wife and they'll kill me, but they'll save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my
sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake, And my soul
shall live because of thee. And it came to pass that when
Abram was coming to Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman, that
she was very fair. And the princes also of Pharaoh
saw her and committed her before Pharaoh. And the woman was taken
into Pharaoh's house. Now poor old Abram, you see what
he's doing. Sarah, his wife's a beautiful
woman, and he's afraid. I'm going down there to Egypt,
going down there where I ought not be going. And Pharaoh's gonna
see Sarah as a beautiful woman. He's gonna want her to be part
of his harem. But now she's my wife, so he'll
kill me so he can have her to be his wife. So Abraham shows
he's got Adam's nature just exactly like you and I do. What did he
do? He threw his wife under the bus.
Same way Adam did. Adam sinned against God and God
comes to him and he says, well, the woman you gave me, she did,
he threw his wife under the bus. Abraham's got Adam's nature,
he did the same thing. He told Sarah, now you just become
part of Pharaoh's harem and he won't kill me. Now, you know,
there may be some times that's miserable for you, but eventually,
you know, maybe we'll figure a way to get out of this and
we'll get out of Egypt together, you know, sometime later. Now think
about this. God had spoken to Abraham at
least twice. He spoke to Abraham, told him,
Abraham, the Messiah is coming through you. You're going to
have a son. The Messiah is coming through
you. I'm going to bless you. All the nations of the earth
are going to be blessed because of you. Anybody curses you, I'll
curse them. I mean, Abraham, you've got no
problems here. Anybody that curses you, anybody
that comes up with evil intent against you, I'm going to curse
them. Anybody blesses you, I'll bless them. But Abraham's going
down there to Egypt, and this has to be what he's thinking.
Well, God made this promise, but we're in this famine. I don't
see how God's promise is gonna come to pass unless I help God
out and make his will come to pass. See, this is the way the
flesh thinks. The flesh thinks, well, God made
this promise. He's gonna give me a son, and
he's gonna bless me, and all the nations of the earth are
gonna be blessed because of me. But now, I'm going to die. So I better
rely upon the arm of the flesh instead of trusting on the Lord.
Instead of just relying on the Lord, the Lord made this promise,
the Lord can keep His promise. He can make His will come to
pass, but instead of doing that, I'm going to rely on the arm
of the flesh. I've come up with this cockamamie plan, you know,
that's going to help God out, help Him accomplish His will
by keeping me alive this way. And that's what our flesh constantly
does to us. especially when we go down there
to Egypt. We've gone to Egypt and we're
putting ourselves in bondage to the law. We put ourselves
in bondage to our works, saying now if you're a believer, you
do this and you'd never do this. Oh, yeah. I thought the evidence of being
a believer was having faith in Christ. See, we go down there
to Egypt, put ourselves in bondage, our thinking gets all twisted.
Our flesh is constantly telling us, you've got to do your part
to help God fulfill his will. That's what our flesh is constantly
telling us. And as long as we're in this flesh, that'll never
stop. It won't stop for us, just like it didn't stop for Abraham.
Years later, Abraham's going to do this exact same thing.
He and Sarah get tired of waiting on God to keep his promise and
give him a son. And at this time, Well, and I'll
show you this here in just a second. At this time when Abraham was
in Egypt, this is probably the time he got Hagar as a maid servant. This is probably where he picked
up Hagar and took her back to Canaan. Well, Abraham and Sarah
think, well, they think again, we better help God out. God promised
to give us a son, but he must mean for us to do our part. So
Abraham, you take Hagar as your second wife and you marry her
and then you have a son by her. You have a child with her by
the arm and strength of the flesh. You know why Abraham and Sarah
did that? Their flesh is still telling the same thing. You've
got to do your part. You've got to help God out now so he can
keep his promise and so God can perform his will. Now you remember
this. Any religion, any preaching that
tells you you've got to do your part, in order to be saved, or
you gotta do your part in order to keep your salvation, is a
lie that'll damn your soul if you believe it. Don't believe
it. The only salvation that'll save
a sinner is salvation that is of the Lord. And by of the Lord,
I mean this, that the Lord does it all. He has to do it all. He has to purpose it, he has
to carry it out, he has to keep it, and he has to perfect it
and bring it to glory. If the Lord does it all, that's
a salvation that saves a sinner. That's a salvation and a savior
you can trust. But if you got to do your part,
anywhere along the way, it's a lie. And Abraham thinks I've
got to save my own skin to help God keep his promise. And look
where this leads, verse 16. And he, Pharaoh, entreated Abram
well for her sake. And he had sheep and oxen and
he asses and men servants and maid servants, probably including
Hagar, and she asses and camels. Now, Pharaoh was well pleased
with Sarah, and Abraham got rich. Pharaoh was giving him these
gifts, I guess kind of like a dowry. He was giving him these gifts
because Pharaoh thought Sarah is Abraham's sister. And he's
giving him these gifts because he's given his sister to Pharaoh
to be his wife. Can you imagine? laying in bed
at night, thinking, Pharaoh just keeps giving me all these riches,
all these servants, all these animals, all these riches, and
thinking about that, thinking, well, Sarah's up there at the
big house. Can you imagine what went through his mind? Well,
thankfully, God delivers His people. He delivers us from our
sins. and he delivers us from our weak
faith too. Look at verse 17. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh
and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abraham's wife. Now some plague, whatever it
was, started spreading all through Pharaoh's house and all through
Pharaoh's court. And they've got this awful plague
and they're trying to figure out where did this thing start? Who's patient zero? Where did
this start? And how's it spreading? And apparently,
from what I read, this is what they say. They start looking
around, and the only person in Pharaoh's house and Pharaoh's
court that didn't have this plague was Sarah. And it finally dawned
on them, all this is happening because of Sarah. They figured
out what Abraham and Sarah had done. And Pharaoh is beside himself. He just can't believe Abraham's
done this to him. Verse 18. And Pharaoh called
Abram and said, what is this thou hast done unto me? Why didst
thou not tell me she was thy wife? Why saidst thou she's my
sister? So I might have taken her to
me to wife. Now therefore behold thy wife,
take her and go thy way. Get out of here. That's very
interesting. The heathen in this story is
the one who knew this was wrong. And you'll notice he knew it
was wrong. centuries before God gave the law to Moses. The law,
God's law, is written on our heart. People are born knowing
adultery's wrong, just like they're born knowing lying's wrong and
stealing's wrong and killing's wrong. Pharaoh never seen the
law of God. The law of God wasn't even written
yet, but he knew this is wrong. And the heathen is scolding the
believer. That's pretty shameful, isn't
it? It's so shameful, Abraham, had
nothing to say in his defense. He just had to take Sarah and
slink out of town in shame. See, Abraham's weak faith, it
caused him a lot of problems, didn't it? It brought shame on
him. It brought shame on the gospel that he believed. But
the writer to the Hebrews, when he's talking about Abraham, says
Abraham was strong in faith. Now how can he say that Abraham
was strong? How can he say Abraham was strong in faith? Well, because
remember the writer to the Hebrews is describing Abraham as he's
seen in Christ. In Christ, all of God's people
are strong in the faith because our Savior had strong, perfect
faith. He always believed the Father
would do what he said he'd do. He always believed he's gonna
ratify that covenant of grace in his blood And his father will
save everybody for whom Christ died. He always had perfect faith. And joined to Christ, that's
exactly what you and I are. We have perfect faith in him. And that's the one and only way
any believer can be strong in faith, is by being joined to
Christ. So Abraham's obedience, it wasn't
perfect. His trust wasn't perfect. But
here's the third thing. God blessed Abraham anyway. Verse
20, Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him and they sent
him away and his wife and all that he had. Now when Abraham
left Egypt, Pharaoh said, I've given him this dowry. I didn't
get a wife out of it, but I gave him the dowry. Let him keep it.
Just tell him, get out of here. Just get out and let him keep
everything he did. Abraham didn't do one blessed
thing right. I mean, not one thing right. Yet, Abraham comes
out of this thing smelling like a rose. He comes out of this
thing much richer than before he went down in their adventure.
And what does that sound like? Tell you what, to me, it sounds
like salvation in Christ. You and I can't do one blessed
thing. Everything we do is sin. Everything we do brings shame
upon us. Yet we come out of this thing
smelling like a rose. We come out spotless and perfect
and holy and righteous. We come out of this thing smelling
like a rose. No stench of sin at all. We come
out of this thing made just like Christ, even though the only
thing we ever did was sin. The only thing we ever contributed
to this matter of salvation was our sin. And Christ came and
saved us from it. He washed us free from all the
filth and corruption of our sin. All we ever did was sin, and
Christ saved us anyway. That's the very foundation of
the grace that we preach and believe. God saved me anyway. If you want to talk about earthly
blessings, all those come to us the very same way. It's for
Christ's sake. Isn't that because we've done
anything to deserve them? It's all for Christ's sake. Everything
we have has been a free gift of God's grace. And I'm telling
you, I'm thankful, aren't you? Aren't you thankful that salvation
does not depend on your works? Aren't you thankful salvation
doesn't depend, you keeping it, depend on the strength of your
faith? Aren't you thankful salvation, you keeping that salvation, you
arriving safe in glory, Doesn't it depend on you not stumbling
and falling sometimes? Now salvation is God fulfilling
His purpose, fulfilling His covenant of grace, and in spite of all
of our sin, in spite of all of our weak faith, in spite of all
of our failures, saving us anyway. God gives His people faith. And
if God saved you, He's given you a new heart, He's given you
a new nature, He showed you how He saved you anyway. He showed
you how He saved you by paying for your sin, by slaughtering
His only begotten Son. For you, as your sacrifice, as
your substitute, He gave His Son what you deserve. Now when
God reveals that to a person, you love God. You want perfect
faith. You want to honor Him, don't
you? And we find The strength of our
faith is always disappointing to us. Well, here's our comfort. One last scripture, 2 Timothy
2. Salvation does not depend upon the strength of our faith.
Salvation depends upon the faithfulness and the character of God. 2 Timothy
2, verse 13. If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful. He abideth faithful. He cannot
deny himself. You know, in the life of every
believer, there's a time we believe not, that we have zero faith. We hear the gospel and don't
believe it. We hear the gospel, we won't have it. We hear the
gospel, it says bow, repent, bow to the Lord Jesus Christ,
bow, trust him, put trust in your works, bow and beg him for
mercy, and we won't have it. We believe not. But God's got
to elect people. He chose them. He chose to save
them. He sent his son to die for them.
That's just what he did. Now here's this person hearing
the gospel and refusing to believe on Christ. God's not gonna cast
him off. God remains faithful. He cannot
deny himself. He cannot deny his purpose. He
cannot deny his will. See what God does? He gives that
sinner faith to believe. He gives them faith to believe
because God's faithful. He's faithful to his promise.
He's faithful to his covenant. And then we find ourself with
weak faith. So weak we think, I believe not. And God doesn't cast out his
sheep. He didn't cast out the people with which he chose, which
Christ died for. No, you know, they don't remain
faithful, but he does. He does. He brings them safely
through all the way to glory. See that salvation in spite of
us. In spite of everything that we
are, God saves us anyway. Anyway. And I'll tell you, that
comforts the hearts of God's people. You don't wake up in
the morning thinking how you're going to sin. You wake up in
the morning thinking, I'm not going to sin today. I'm just
not going to do that. And when you sin anyway, this is our comfort. God saves us anyway. That's his
grace. He saves us anyway. When we strive
for strong faith, we end up with weak faith. This is our comfort. Grace means God saves us anyway. It's always for Christ's sake
and never what we do. Now that's the experience. That's
the believer's experience of faith. And that's the way God's
people love it. Don't you love it that way? We'd
have no good news to preach if God didn't save us anyway. We'd
just have no good news. All right, let's bow together.
Our Father, how we thank you for your word. how we thank you
for this teaching of your word that teaches us salvation is
by grace, that you save your people anyway, never because
of what we do, always for Christ's sake. And Father, for Christ's
sake, for his glory, I pray that you'd bless this word as it's
been preached, bless it to your glory, bless it to the hearts
of your people that we might see the glory of Christ our Savior,
believing, to believing for the first time or believing for the
one millionth time, and to rest in him, to find in him everything
that we need. It's in his precious name, for
his sake we pray, amen. All right, Shawn, you lead us
in the closing psalm. Okay, if you would, stand and
sing and turn to song number 511. 511, Face to Face. Face to face with Christ my Savior, face to
face what will it be? When with rapture I behold Him,
Jesus Christ, who died for me. Face to face I shall behold Him,
far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all His glory, I shall see Him by and by. Only faintly now I see Him, With
the darkling veil between. But a blessed day is coming,
When His glory shall be seen, Face to face I shall behold Him,
far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see Him by and by. one rejoicing in His presence
when our banished grief and pain, when the crooked ways are straightened
and the dark is Face to face I shall behold Him
Far beyond the starry sky Face to face in all His glory I shall
see Him by and by Face to face a blissful moment Face to face
to see and know. Face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ, who loves me so. Face to face I shall behold Him,
far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all his glory,
I shall see him by and by.