Genesis 20 The Power of God's Grace

All right, let's pray. Father God, we pray that as we study the life of Abraham, his journey of faith, that we would learn to walk by faith, not by sight,

Lord. We pray that we would be like those in Hebrews chapter 11, who were looking for that city with foundations, whose architect and builder is

God. Help us to walk with you all the days of our lives, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Sunday was an amazing day for many reasons. One was, we learned about the power of grace, as Pastor Jeff, led by the

Holy Spirit, taught us. And then the time down the shore, where nine believers proclaimed their faith in the waters of Baptism.

Who was there down the shore? Bunch of us were. I think Candy and Judy followed us all the way from what used to be the

Medford Circle. We couldn't shake you. We tried. We tried.

We tried. I had to break the speed limit. I've seen it, right. And then they got ahead of us, and traffic got in between us, and I wasn't sure where to stop.

I was so happy when I got around that. Anyway, that being said, the time down the shore began at the

Shore Bible Church. Island Bible? Island Bible Church. And I understand from Jeff, who understands from Jew, who barely has firsthand knowledge of it, that there were like 100 of us down there, which completely, we almost blew through the walls.

But we heard testimonies from nine people. And so my question as we get started, if you were there and you heard the testimonies, if you weren't there, you heard other testimonies, what is included in a testimony?

A little history problem. History of the

United States in 1492. No, what do you mean by history? Personal history is as you approach your knowledge of the available salvation in Christ and the experience that you go through, usually how the

Lord touches your heart. Obviously, if you're getting baptized, you've been saved. Usually an experience that people are being baptized.

Isn't that amazing? Because typically that is. So if you look at Ephesians chapter two, and you with he quickened, who are dead in your trespasses and sins, when in time past you walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in time past.

Verse four, but God. That's right, but. But God. What else is in a testimony? Thanks, praise.

Absolutely, for what? Salvation. I'm sorry? For salvation.

For salvation. If you were listening to the testimonies on Sunday and you listen to testimonies very frequently, it tells you exactly what

Bob and Sue have been talking about, but it also then emphasizes, my life is so much different now because of the existence of the

Holy Spirit within me. And if we were to listen to Pastor Jeff's message on Sunday, tie this all together, a testimony is really all about the reality and the power and the impact of grace on a life.

At one end, you're not yet a believer, but grace is carrying you along. And then eventually, for by grace, i .e.

saved through faith and not of yourself. By grace, I could not respond, but by grace, my heart is opened up so that I can respond.

And then as Jeff brought out Sunday, the rest of our walk is enabled by the grace of God.

We're no longer captive to sin, we are now enabled by grace. I wanna give you a testimony that was not part of the testimonies on Sunday.

I grew up in a home that was not necessarily Yahweh -aware.

The fact, we were probably considered idolatry. We worshiped idols and we lived in an agrarian society until one day, there was a message that was given to us.

And we left our home, headed to another land, but we stopped halfway and made home in another land.

Eventually, I got the word directly, it is time for you to go. And you're going to live in a land that I'm going to show you.

So I took my wife and I took my nephew and his family and all that we had, and we headed down to a brand new land we knew nothing about.

And it was while there that we started to walk through this new land that we built altars.

And we actually called for the first time on the name of Yahweh. And life was amazing until one day there was famine in the land.

And although God had told me that he was going to protect us, he was going to make us plentiful and everything else, there was a famine in the land.

So I took it upon myself to take my family and my nephew and we went down to Egypt.

We had heard that they had just opened a new Dunkin' Donuts down there, and they had good coffee. So we headed down to Egypt.

But here's the problem. My wife, although at this time she was in her 70s, she was pretty hot.

And I was afraid that because they, what?

What? They had a big smile over there. Yeah. I was afraid that the

Pharaoh would say, I think this is the woman that I want in my home. And because you're married, you're a dead man.

So tell him you are my sister. And so my wife ends up being in the home of the

Pharaoh, but God protected her. And Pharaoh never had relations with her. In fact, God protected her and protected us.

And as we were leaving, he gave me and my nephew a bunch of cattle and blessings and riches.

And so we headed back to the land that Yahweh told us to go. What? Why did he do that? Because God told him to do that.

This is grace. How about his queen? That was not him. That's the next guy. You're getting ahead of the story.

Okay, so now we get back up into the land, but the problem is that I had so many cattle and my nephew had so many cattle, we couldn't live in the same place.

It wouldn't sustain us. So I said, you go with the way you think is best. And my nephew said, I'll take the valley where the cities are, because that looks really nice.

So I went up into the mountains. But things went bad. There was a war. Five kings, four kings against three kings and my nephew gets taken captive.

So I mushered a bunch of bunch of people and we went down and we fought a battle and rescued our nephew and he was able to go back to the city where he lived.

But as I was returning home, I met this dude who I'd never seen before.

And in fact, he seemed to be the king of Salem. I didn't know of him, but he was also known as the

Prince of the God Most High, the Priest of the God Most High. So I'm in an amazing place right now.

Well, this dude blesses me and I respond by giving him a tenth of everything that I had.

And do you realize that because I gave him a tenth, it's now considered that people should be tithing back to the

Lord. Kind of instituted that one. Anyway, we continue to go on and the next thing

I know, I actually have a direct encounter with Yahweh and he's making all of these promises to me that I would have a son.

But my wife was barren and I had a servant by the name of Eliezer. Surely he can be the heir and Yahweh said, no, not him.

You are going to have your own son. Look to the heavens. See how many stars there are?

So be your offspring. And do you know what? It has been recorded that at that moment,

I believed and it was counted to me for righteousness. I had never understood this before, but the fact that I believed

God and took what his word was without challenge, I believed God, I was considered righteous.

Dude, what did I just do with my wife down in Egypt? But yet it was counted to me as righteousness.

My wife remained barren, even though that promise was there. So she said, you know what?

You have to have a son. Go to my handmaid and have a child and I did.

And I thought surely this was God's answer, but it wasn't because now several years later, it probably 10 to 12 years later, here comes

Yahweh again. He said, I will be the father of many nations and I will possess the land of Canaan and change my name from Abram to Abraham and my wife's name from Sarai to Sarah and I was told that Sarah will conceive and I laughed,

I laughed, can't be, she is so old. Well, it wasn't much later, longer beyond that, that I'm sitting under the oak tree at Mamre outside my tent and here come three dudes.

You know what? One of them was Yahweh and the other two were angels of the Lord. So I made a meal.

I had Sarah help and we make a meal and I sat and watched as they ate and we just had this beautiful time together and once again,

Yahweh said, you are going to have a son by your wife, Sarah. And do you know what?

Inside the tent, this time Sarah laughed. God said, why did she laugh? And then he made these amazing words, is anything too hard for the

Lord? Well, then they told me that Sodom where my son, my nephew lived was gonna be judged and burned down and so I negotiated with God, if there's 50, if there's 10, okay, he won't destroy it if there's 10 but he couldn't even find 10.

And so then God sends the angels down to Sodom and it's just a horrible place.

You can't believe how wicked this place was. The people, the men of the city actually wanted to take these two angels, they just thought they were men and they wanted to take them and have their way upon them and Lot said, no, don't, don't, they're guests in my house, take my daughters, really dude?

Well God protects Lot and he protects his family, Lot was kind of reticent to even leave the city so the angels grabbed him and they take him out along with the daughters and along with their wife, don't turn around, don't look back but his wife couldn't help it and she became a pillar of salt, the deer loved to lick on the pillar of salt.

The daughters are concerned, how are we going to have children? So they conceive a plan to get the father drunk and they sleep with their father.

One of them has a son named Moab, the other has a son named Boname and there becomes the

Moabites and the Ammonites who are the enemies of Israel to this day.

Well my journey continues but I want to read you a story because this is what I want us to understand.

Out of everything that I should have learned, out of everything that I should have experienced and out of everything I've heard him say that is anything too hard for the

Lord, I'm still concerned about my own protection. So we're wandering through the land and what happened to me down in Egypt is about to happen again.

So this is what we're going to look at today. Jeff, I'm going to, you're going to be my

Genesis person. Ah, okay, up there there is a chart.

If you can't see it, I'll tell you what it is. Our friend Mike Jarrell made this chart for us, he actually made it and it looks like a sawtooth going up and up and up and up and basically what it says, there are moments in Abram's life where there seems to be a relationship in a positive direction with God with a line going up as it gets better and better and better but there's always a drop off and a cliff and you can look at from Ur, they were supposed to leave but they stopped at Haran.

They had no business stopping at Haran. They eventually go to Canaan but there's a famine and so they go down to Egypt.

So then they go back up to the land and they're exploring and this is when the battle of the four kings and the five kings in Abram and he meets

Melchizedek and he goes there. Then there's the promise of an Ur and then the covenant is given and it's this point in time where the idea of circumcision comes to be.

Their name is changed and it is commented that Abram believed and counted to him for righteousness and from that time comes the promise of a child and laughter.

Both Abram and Sarah have the same problem in laughing. Blessings are promised and then the time of the biblical act which is where we are right now.

The things that Abram did in Egypt should have been a lesson to him and the message of is anything impossible for the

Lord should have been a strength for him. But what's going to see as this continue goes up and what's consistent throughout all of these episodes whether it's for Abram, Sarah, whether it's for Pharaoh, whether it's going to be for Abimelech is the power of God's grace maintaining his will is going to be done.

And so this upward journey which eventually ends up with the son

Isaac and then Mount Moriah where he's told to sacrifice his son and the story of Abraham will take off from there.

So let's take a look at chapter 20 and Jeff you're going to be my Genesis 20 person and I'm going to let you read just the first two verses and I will speak to them.

This is Abram's failure in response to God's grace. Go ahead. Isn't it amazing that in that chart every time he had a major victory it was followed by a major defeat.

It was up and down even though he's the man of faith. And we were talking about that. We have six pastors and we got together for brunch this morning and we were talking about how amazing it is that Abram, the father of faith, he wasn't perfect and in fact

David, a man after God's own heart and his many failures, these are included in scripture for a reason.

And I think a big part of the reason is they are lessons to us that when we are less than perfect we need to go to 1

John 1 verses 9 and 10 and confess our sins. And he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, cleanse us all from unrighteousness.

So give me the first two verses. From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur and he journeyed in Gerar.

And Abraham said to Sarah his wife, of Sarah his wife, she is my sister.

And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. Abram is going to deny the power of God's grace and his divine protection.

Now what he is doing is actually appropriate. God had told him all this land was going to be his for an inheritance for his generations to come.

And for him to be going through this land, this is not a bad thing. In fact it's a good thing.

And when it says that Abram journeyed toward the territory of the Negev, that actually just means south. Negev is south in the

Hebrew. So from the northern central parts of the wood, he goes down to see more of the land, which he actually probably had seen on his way to Egypt in the first place because you recognize

Kadesh, Kadesh Barnea when the nation came out of, comes out of Egypt eventually they go there.

So that's kind of in the area that we're down there. But there are people in the land, the king of Gerar.

Now Genesis 12 is going to say, when we are in Egypt, tell the king there, you are my sister, a major sin and consequences, but God protected him through it.

Genesis 17, I will bless Sarah and give you a son by her, not Ishmael, I will give you a son by her.

So there should already be a realization by Abraham that this is

God's promise that there would be a son and that son would be by Sarah. Then you would have to think that, well,

God would not be saying this if there was a danger to either Sarah or to Abraham.

But this was a promise and God does not break his promise. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Genesis 18, next year

Sarah will have a son. Is anything too hard for the Lord? So now they're taking a journey and they run across what appears to be danger.

And Adam's response is, tell them you are my sister. Thank you.

What did I say? Adam. Abraham said, is anything, please say that you are my sister.

Abraham is denying the power of God's grace because he sees circumstances of danger and he denies the protection.

Give me Genesis 23 -10. Now Abimelech is the local king.

There is no reason to believe that Abimelech has a relationship with Yahweh.

There is no reason to believe that Abimelech has any faith in Yahweh, that worships

Yahweh. But he is just a local king. And as this local king, he would have the power to do things, to take women into his harem, if you would.

He had all of this ability because he is the king. But as we read this, see how

God protects Abimelech even by his grace in this encounter.

Give me those 3 -10. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.

Okay. I think it's going to get his attention right now. Yeah. Alright. Alright. Does he know that it is

God? There is something about this dream, clearly as we go on this, that impacts

Abraham. But imagine having a dream and having a deity who, I guess at this time it's revealed to him, this is

God. You are a dead man. I think I would be sweating bullets right now and saying, what's up?

Go ahead. Now Abimelech had not approached her. Now this is a problem.

Now here's God's grace again. And we don't know the amount of time that had passed by since Abraham told

Sarah, tell them you are my sister and Sarah is taken into the court of Abimelech.

But apparently there's a period of time because it says here that Abimelech had not taken or had not approached her.

So there was some period of time. And if Sarah is that desirable that it would occur and Abimelech is an all -powerful king and there's a brand new babe in my harem, let's go have our time with her.

But God's grace stops Abimelech from doing what would be the natural thing.

Go ahead. So he said, Lord, will you kill an innocent people? Okay. Abimelech is claiming to not be guilty of anything at this point in time with relation to this event.

It almost sounds, if you remember, how did Abraham, Abram at the time, talk to the

Lord when the Lord said they were going to judge Sodom, would you kill everybody for the sake of 50 innocent people?

It's like negotiating God's righteousness and holiness and fairness and everything else.

And Abimelech seems to have a knowledge of the fact that there is innocence and there is guilt.

And so he begs with the Lord and says, would you do this to an innocent person? Go ahead.

This is my best Geno Jennings, by the way. Did he not himself say to me, she is my sister?

And she herself said, he is my brother. In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands,

I have done this. So there is an explanation that Abimelech has an excuse for what took place.

I was completely innocent of this because they lied to me. They set me up.

And what took place, I was pure in my heart, pure in my intentions. And in innocence,

I have done this. So he pleads with God. Now, again, for a king to be claiming anything other than I'm the king and I have the right to do this, that's kind of how

David got in trouble he did with Bathsheba in the first place. He was the king. Have this lady,

Bathsheba, come into my presence. I'm the king. You can't say no. But he is now invoking the fact that there is a standard of right and wrong, a standard of right and wrong.

It's not something that would be inherent to the king of a land. This, again,

I see as grace. God is giving within the heart of Abimelech an understanding that there is right and that there is wrong.

Go ahead. Then God said to him in the dream, yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was

I who kept you from sinning against me. All right. Now, there it is. That's the power of this passage is this piece in verse 6.

I kept you from sinning against me. Now, take a look at the use of the pronouns there.

God is saying, I, Yahweh, kept you, Abimelech, from sinning against Yahweh.

The sin, if Abimelech had done what he had done, it would have been an abhorrent sin.

He doesn't say that kept you from sinning against Sarah, sinning against Abraham. He puts up as of most significant importance,

I kept you from sinning against Yahweh. That's really good. Again, we're not talking about a believer.

We're talking about just somebody in power within the world, and God's grace restrains the progress of evil, even using ungodly people according to his design.

I kept you from sinning against me. Keep going. Therefore, I did not let you touch her.

Now then, return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live.

But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.

So, he's giving Abimelech the bottom line. I kept you from sinning.

Now, you've got a choice to make. Keep Sarah as your own, which as a king, he can do that.

He's the king of the land. Keep Sarah for yourself, but here's the deal. I've already kept you from sinning up to this point in time.

You've got a decision to make from this point forward. Return her to the husband. He's a prophet.

He'll pray for you. But if you don't, you're going to die. And again,

God's grace speaking into the heart of even an unbeliever, that there is absolute truth, and there is absolute authority, and there is absolute sovereignty on the side of Yahweh, not on the side of the king of Geron.

Keep going. So, Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things, and the men were very much afraid.

Stop there. He had to stop, and he had to get counsel. He had to talk to all of his wise men, his seers, and everything else.

What do you think? What should I do? Maybe that's not what it says. Yeah, Rick. Do we have any indication that Abimelech had a queen or was married?

Well, he had a harem. We don't have that, definitely, in Scripture.

There is the implication that a strange woman from the outside was taken into the king of Gerar.

He took her. But we're not given a direct implication that there was a Queen Esther or something like that or that he actually had a harem.

There is no indication. All we have is that he is the king. Abraham had enough knowledge to know that the king's authority was not going to be questioned.

He was the husband, and so his life would have been in danger. These are things that we perceive, especially after he did the same thing in Egypt.

But even if he didn't have a queen and even if he didn't have a harem in place,

God says, I kept you from sinning. I did not let you touch her. So now do the right thing.

And instead of seeking out the counsel of those around him, the astronomers and everything else, he wakes up in the morning and immediately wakes up early in the morning and calls everybody together and says, this is the deal.

So even though God, even though Abimelech isn't recorded as having a saving knowledge of God, by God's grace he is definitely obeying and doing what

God had to say to him. Go ahead. Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, what have you done to us?

And how have I sinned against you that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.

And Abimelech said to Abraham, what did you see that you did this thing? All right, we're going to get into Abraham in just a minute.

But could you imagine Abraham who has, number one, been told by God, I will make you a great nation and through you all the nations of the world will be blessed.

He is the one that is supposed to be the light. He was the one that is supposed to be the promulgation of the truth of Yahweh to all the nations.

He's already been told that I will give you a son and it's not going to be Eliezer and it's not going to be

Ishmael. It is going to be a son given to you by God through Sarah. Abraham laughed,

Sarah laughed, but God continues to prevail. And Abraham says he believed and it was counted to him as righteousness.

All of this has transpired. And now he falls into another one of those big valleys on that chart.

And in the midst of the big valley, God uses Abimelech, a worldly king, not a godly king.

And through the grace given through him to even an unbeliever, Sarah is protected,

Abraham is protected, and Abimelech is the conveyor of the news to Abraham.

This is the power of God's grace at work in this story. We now want to find out how badly

Abraham fails. Give me 11 to 13. Sandy, you're going to get

Proverbs 3 ready and Matthew 10. Diane, if you would get Matthew 10 ready, it's on the list there.

Proverbs 11, Sue, Bob's Romans 5, 3 to 5, which if you can't remember it from Jeff's sermon a couple of weeks ago, you can actually read it.

Rick, you get Genesis 3 .12. So, give me 11 to 13.

Genesis 20, 11 to 13. Abraham said, I did it because I thought there is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.

Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.

And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, this is the kindness you must do me.

At every place to which we come, say of me, he is my brother. All right, I see four problems here.

And there's probably others, but I see four of them. And the bottom line is, even though Abraham had to know by now the power of God, is anything impossible for the

Lord? Even though he has already seen evidence of God's grace many times over, from protecting him in Egypt to enabling a small band to defeat the kings to rescue his nephew

Lot, to having the ability to even negotiate with God with boldness, and then his nephew is protected.

He has to have seen the working of God's grace, but Abraham is going to do it his own way.

In the beginning of verse 11, it says, and I thought. And I thought.

This is often the beginning of our problems and our falling, our slide down into a sinful habit.

I thought instead of relying on God's promises, Abraham resorts to his own understanding.

Sandy, give me Proverbs 3, 5 to 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. I want you to hold on to those verses, because there are moments where there is difficulty in a relationship, where there's a temptation to do something that seems innocent enough, whether you're in conflict with whatever, and you think that you can figure this out on your own.

Abraham's account here starts out with the concept, I thought. And that was when

Abimelech says, why have you done this thing? And Abraham's response is,

I thought. Lean not on your own understanding, as Sandy read.

Trust in the Lord. Lean not on your own understanding. Continuing to verse 11, it says, I thought.

Because there's no fear of God in this place, they're going to kill me. Because of my wife. Hello. What has

God promised so far to Abraham? In the testimony that I gave you, what has God promised to Abraham so far?

I'm sorry? A child. Keep going. As many stars in the sky.

His descendants be as great as the stars in the sky. What else has he learned? What about the land?

This land will be yours and your generation's forever. God has promised the protection.

He has promised the plenty. He has promised the offspring. And if God made these promises, is he going to be defeated because some king named

Abimelech might have his way, or kill him, or do something to Sarah?

I thought. I've got to fix it, because there's no fear of God in this place. Now, that may very well be true, that this place didn't have the fear of God.

But does that mean that God does not have the power over this place? We've just seen how

God completely changes the direction that Abimelech might have gone. I would not let you sin against me.

I wouldn't let you touch her, put a hand on her. God has already done this. But he was afraid because there was no fear of God in this place.

Okay, that may very well be true. You might be in the workplace, and there's no fear of God in this place.

Stan, you might be on a golf course with a couple of buddies, and one of them refuses to hear the truth of the gospel, and there is no presence of God in it.

That may very well be true, that there's no presence of God in those guys you meet on the golf course.

But is anything too hard for the Lord? So instead of having the thought, I thought that there's no place of God.

Jeff, you made a comment on our way home. I don't know if you remember this. So we're driving from somewhere in Philadelphia north.

I don't know where it was. We actually got lost on the way there. I had to get GPS to get us there. But on the way home,

Jeff is talking about the large group that are going to be going into the Kensington area this afternoon.

And Jeff, do you remember what you said? Yeah, you said, I sure hope I don't take a bullet in the head and leave my wife behind.

I still feel that way. I don't want to take the bullet. I don't dispute that. I definitely don't want you taking a bullet in the head.

Tim and I would be left holding the bag. Just turn your head. That's right.

The Lord will make me tilt my head. There is going to be times of danger, but it is your faith in the

Lord. And what was it you said in Romans 5, 3 to 5? And we're going to get to that in just a minute.

Matthew 10. Who's got that one? Diane? I do. Don't fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul.

Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Aren't two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your father's consent.

But even the hairs of your head have all been counted. So don't be afraid.

You're worth more than many sparrows. You are worth more than many. Don't be afraid.

Be courageous in what you do. I was afraid because there's no God in the place and they're going to kill me.

That was his fear. He saw the fear of worldly danger instead of seeing the power of God's strength.

Verse 11. That's not 11. Now we're in 12. Besides, she is my sister.

Now here's another part of his problem. He told half a truth. The truth is, she is his sister half.

Sister. That is a true statement. But that was a lie. It was definitely a deceit.

Half truth is not the whole truth. Proverbs 11 .3.

Sue. The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.

If you are integrity, it will guide you, but if you are not, that will destroy you. Abraham does not walk in integrity when he tells

Abimelech she is my sister because he knows what he is trying to communicate.

It is a lie. Even though there's a half truth, it is a lie.

When my family came back from the Creation Museum, Jeff was on vacation.

I had the chance to take the pulpit, and I spoke about a guy who spoke about rat poison.

I don't know if you guys remember this. On the side of the box of rat poison, there was an ingredients panel.

This is 99 .99 % pure food. 0 .005

% poison. And that was enough to kill the rats. And you have a box here of $10 ,000 in pennies.

I'm sorry, in nickels. $10 ,000 in nickels. And if I take one out, and that's a bad nickel, that's 0 .005

% of that entire box. The rest of the box is good. One nickel's not.

One nickel's worth of lie is enough for it to be a lie. And Abraham broke that one.

He thought that half a truth was going to be enough. He just played games with the truth. And then it goes on, and it says in verse 13, and where have we heard this one before?

And when God caused me to wander. He's blaming God now.

The woman you gave me. Thank you. That's Genesis chapter 3. The woman you gave me.

It's not his fault, but that's the blame. See, we need to hold on to Jeff's preaching and what he gave us in Romans 5.

So you have Romans 5? Three through five. Not only so, but we also have glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance.

Perseverance character. A character of hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the

Holy Spirit who has been given to us. If you are put in a position of distress, of temptation, of trials, tribulation, is your

God big enough that you believe he's still in control? If you're put in a position of family conflict, is your

God big enough that you believe in the depths of your heart that he is in control?

Or was this an accident that should have never happened? There can never be a time in your life where things go wrong, you slip, you fail, you sin, and you blame

God for it. Rick, I'm going to get you to 1 Corinthians 10 .13.

It's not on this sheet, but I want you to read 1 Corinthians 10 .13 for me. When things go wrong, and it's not if they go wrong because 1

John is going to tell us things will go wrong. When things go wrong, it was not because God did it.

In fact, we would understand from Jeff's teaching Sunday that you are no longer a slave to sin.

You don't have to sin. You accept sin because of the weakness of the flesh.

And we're all stuck with that, Romans 7. That which I don't want to do, that's what I do. But when those temptations come to you, you do not have to slip into it, not by your own strength, but by the power of God.

That's how you get through the temptation. Rick, 1 Corinthians 10 .13. It's that last half of that verse that is so reassuring.

God is faithful, he is not allowed to be tempted but with the temptation, he provides the way of escape.

That you may be able to endure. It's the way of escape, he's not going to escape you from it. He is going to give you the way of escape.

Are you walking on the way that God gives you or are you blaming him? And that's the problem here.

Now God's faithfulness to his promise, Genesis 20, please. Verses 14 to 16.

Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and male servants and female servants and gave them to Abraham and returned

Sarah, his wife, to him. And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before you. Dwell where it pleases you.

To Sarah he said, Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you and before everyone you are vindicated.

The depth of what Abraham has done cannot be underestimated at this point in time.

And it's listed in four pieces. I thought, God is in this place.

They're going to kill me. She's my sister. God, you caused me to wander.

All of these things are so deep in what they are that it is amazing how

God still, still takes care of Abraham. And now he's going to work through Abimelech who he's already had a discussion with and he's going to say,

Give this stuff. Give this stuff. Give this stuff back to Abraham. Give him his wife. Give him oxen.

Look at my land. Dwell where you please. He is going, God is going to bless Abraham beyond which

Abraham could have possibly hoped for. He goes down to the Negev and he runs into this land of Gerar where there is a king and he just falls flat on his face.

But by God's design coming out of this, even through his sin, the grace of God is greater than what is in the world.

1 John 4 .4. Candy, if you would read that for us. Actually, Carol, get

Romans 3 .23 and 24. Candy, you're going to get the one in 1 John 4 .4.

Romans 3 .23 is a verse we know, it's a verse we use in evangelizing.

Putting verse 24 on it makes it such an amazing truth. When you have it, go ahead and read it.

To me or her? You got Romans 3. Romans, okay. Romans 3 .23

and 24. All have sinned. All have fallen short of God's glorious standards.

Yet now God in His gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus who has freed us by taking away our sins.

If God can find it in His love and in His righteous sovereignty to bless

Abraham in light of what Abraham has done, our sin is covered.

All of us sin, but our sin is covered by the blood of Christ on the cross. And through that, by His grace,

He finds forgiveness for us. 1 John 4 .4. Little children, you are from the world.

He who is in you is greater than... There is no reason why Abraham should expect blessings on top of what has just happened, but the grace of God.

And but the grace of God, he is still gonna watch out for Abraham. And even after he has sinned so terribly,

God is still going to, through Abimelech, give blessings to Abraham. Give me 17 and 18.

Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children.

For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

Okay, Judy, I'm gonna ask you to get James 1 .6 ready, and Tim, you're going to get Genesis 12 .3

ready. It says now, after all of this has happened, Abraham prayed to God, and God healed

Abimelech. Abraham's behavior at this point in time does not appear to be

God -honoring. It just doesn't appear to be God -honoring. But it says here that Abraham prayed, and the implication that God healed

Abimelech is that God actually heard his prayer and honored his prayer.

If you go in the beginning of Isaiah, the nation is very wicked at this point in time.

And in Isaiah 1 .15, the prophet is going to be told by God to tell the people, because of your sin, when you pray,

I will not hear your prayers. Just praying is not a guarantee that God is going to hear.

If I take the power of Isaiah 1 .15, you are abiding in sin. You are basically saying no to God.

Even though you pray, the fact that you are ignoring God, why do you think God is going to listen to you?

Here is Abraham. He has sinned. He has sinned terribly. And God listens to him. I have to read between the lines that when

Abimelech challenges Abraham, something happens, and Abraham acknowledges what has happened.

James 1 .6 is my strength. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

Abraham prayed to God, and I think that if Abraham prayed to God with doubt or sin in his heart, that prayer would not have been heard.

It was heard. Abraham prayed, and God healed Abimelech.

Genesis 12 .3, we're going to close pretty quickly here. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you

I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Those who blessed

Abraham, Abimelech and his household, um, okay.

Answer to your question, I guess, right here, Rick, is in verse 18. Apparently Abimelech did have other women, whether it was a wife or women, that in the midst of all this,

God had closed all of their wombs, and Abraham prays, and apparently he prays without doubt, and he prays with sincerity because God hears and heals.

Those who bless you I will bless. Abraham was a man called by the grace of God, promised blessings through the grace of God, and led through life's trials where God's grace would be sufficient to experience victory.

We are promised the same grace and opportunity to approach the throne of God where our

Lord and Savior intercedes for us. Close us in prayer, please.

Father, you have encouraged us today through the words spoken from your word, through Pastor John, thank you,

Lord. Thank you for the example of Abraham and that we also stand in grace. Lord, that you are faithful to your promises even when we are faithless, as we see the ups and downs in Abraham's life.

Help us not to be discouraged when we slip, but to stand, and you will help us to stand and make us to stand.

So we rely on grace, we thank you for grace, thank you that our entire lives are characterized by grace, and we know that we will make it home by grace, in Jesus' name we pray.