Abraham - The Christian and Sin - Part 1

Yes, we Christians do sin. When we Christians sin, we suffer for it, but thank God we've trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree; we're not going to face eternal judgment.

Genesis 20. And Abraham journeyed from there to the south and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur and sojourned in Gerar. Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, "She is my sister." And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, "Indeed you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife." But Abimelech had not come near her and he said, "Lord, will you slay a righteous nation also?" Perhaps he was referring there to the destruction of the cities of the plain, the unrighteous cities. "Did he not say to me, 'She is my sister'? And she, even she herself said, 'He is my brother.' In the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this." And God said to him in a dream, "Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart, for I also withheld you from sinning against me; therefore I did not let you touch her. Now therefore restore the man's wife, for he is a prophet and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours."

So Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants and told all these things in their hearing and the men were very afraid. And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, "What have you done to us? How have I offended you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done." Then Abimelech said to Abraham, "What did you have in view that you have done this thing?" And Abraham said, "Because I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place and they will kill me on account of my wife. But indeed she is truly my sister, she's the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother and she became my wife. It came to pass when God caused me to wander from my father's house that I said to her, 'This is your kindness that you should do for me: in every place wherever we go say of me, He is my brother.'"

Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and male and female servants and gave them to Abraham and he restored Sarah his wife to him. And Abimelech said, "See, my land is before you, dwell where it pleases you." Then to Sarah he said, "Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; indeed this vindicates you before all who are with you and before all others." Thus she was reproved. So Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his maidservants, then they bore children. For the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

Now if you had never heard that story before and did not know it was from the Bible, which of these two men would you choose as the believer? Here's Abimelech; he told the truth. He had integrity. He was open and honest. He was a pagan king. As far as we know, he was not a believer in the same sense as Abraham was a believer. When he heard about this sin, he was horrified. He was instantly obedient and after it was all over, he was generous and forgiving. Didn't even chase Abraham out of his land. I would have said, "Abraham, get out of here, you're a troublemaker." But he said, "No, my whole land is before you, dwell where it pleases you." Now Abimelech is acting like a believer. Here's Abraham: he lies, he's deceitful, he's disobedient, he's selfish, he's taking care of me first. He brings judgment, not blessing. He creates problems for people. He doesn't look very much like a believer, does he?

You know, so often we have to admit that sometimes believers do not act like believers and sometimes unbelievers do act like believers. Now if you're an unsaved person, I'm not going to give you any ammunition to criticize the church or to reject the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible is very honest when it talks about believers and unbelievers. The Bible tells us that Noah got drunk. That Lot committed incest and got drunk. The Bible tells us that Moses lost his temper and forfeited a trip to the Holy Land. That Jacob was a schemer. That David committed adultery, made a man drunk, and had the man killed. That Peter denied the Lord. That Paul sometimes got a little bit enthusiastic, especially when he talked to Peter about Peter's disobedience of the Word of God. The truth about God's people is given in the Scripture.

Now the unsaved like to use this for ammunition. They say, "Well, you know, if Abraham told lies, it's all right for me to tell lies and you're telling me I should get saved and yet look how God's people live." Well, why do you find the worst example? Dear unsaved friend, when you stand before the Lord, He's not going to ask you, "Were you like David? Were you like Abraham? Were you like Noah?" He's going to say, "Were you like my Son, the Lord Jesus?" God never said I was to imitate Abraham in his sins; I'm to imitate Abraham in his faith.

Well, these failures that we read about in the Bible can teach us some important lessons and keep us from failing. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Before you point your finger at Abraham, let's examine our own lives. Let's look at Abraham and learn some important facts about the Christian life and sin. Now there are four facts I'm going to share with you. Today we're going to look at two of them and the Lord willing, we'll continue and finish this series tomorrow.

Fact number one: Believers do sin. Fact number two: When believers sin, they suffer. Fact number three: Sinning believers can be forgiven. Fact number four: A sinning believer is still better off than a sinning unbeliever. Now let me repeat these four facts. I want you to remember them. You might be able to use them in your witnessing. Believers do sin; that's fact number one. Fact number two: When believers sin, they suffer. Fact number three: Sinning believers can be forgiven. Fact number four: A sinning believer is still better off than a sinning unbeliever.

Now let's take fact number one: Believers do sin. Abraham was a believer. Genesis 15:6 and Abraham believed God and God put it to his account for righteousness. Abraham was a believer. He'd been given a new name from Abram to Abraham, just like with Simon: Simon was his old name, Peter was his new name. And you and I have been given a new name; we are Christians. But we still have the old nature. The fact that Abraham had a new name, a new relationship with God, was no proof that he did not have an old nature. This nature of ours is prone to sin. We sing in one of our hymns: "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love."

Now Abraham sinned because he had a sinful nature and you and I have a sinful nature. You can define it any way you want to; there are those who say, "No, there's only one nature in the child of God." Well, I don't know about that. There's something in me that makes me want to do evil and I've got to be very, very careful and so do you. Abraham sinned because he had a sinful nature. Abraham sinned because he got careless; he did not watch and pray. We don't read about his altar. We don't read about him worshipping God. At the end of the chapter, he prays and God answers. Abraham journeys and he's going toward Egypt.

If you'll check your map, you'll find he's headed toward the border land of Egypt. Now he had been in Hebron. Hebron means fellowship. He had been in Hebron. I suppose perhaps the overthrowing of the cities of the plain had said to him, "Well look, you better get out of here, let's go someplace else." Abraham moves away from Hebron, from the altar, perhaps as a reaction to Sodom, I don't know. But he's moving into enemy territory. He travels some fifty or sixty miles going south, going toward Egypt. He gets as far as Gerar where Abimelech is the king.

Now Sarah must have really experienced the miracle power of God because at the age of 89, she is still attractive. It was the law that the king could have any woman he wanted, provided she was not married. Well, when Abraham lied about his wife, the king assumed Sarah was not married and therefore he took her into his harem. She must have been an attractive woman for this pagan king to want her.

Abraham got careless and he started working and walking in unbelief. You see, God had said to him, "Don't be afraid, I am your shield, I am your reward." Genesis 15:1. He had said, "You're going to be the father of a multitude, now don't be afraid." He shouldn't have been there to begin with, that's the first thing. But even after getting there, he should have said, "Well, the Lord is able to take care of us." However, instead of trusting, he starts scheming. He starts looking at the circumstances around him. He starts looking at the feelings within him and he got afraid. He said, "I was afraid. I thought the fear of God is not in this place." Actually, Abimelech had more of the fear of God in his heart at that time than did Abraham.

Well, the problem was that Abraham and Sarah had in their lives a sin that had not been judged. It had been confessed but not judged. They had committed this same sin down in Egypt. Genesis 12. When the famine came into the land, Abraham and Sarah went down to Egypt and they lied. And Pharaoh took Sarah and God had to deal with Pharaoh and with Abraham. You see, it's easy to confess a sin and not judge it. What's the difference? When I confess my sin, I say, "Lord, I have sinned and I want you to forgive me." When I judge that sin, I say, "Lord, this sin is abominable in your sight. You hate it. Now take it out of my life." They nurtured this thing from their old life. Verse 13: "It came to pass when God caused me to wander from my father's house..." You see, when God called Abraham and Sarah, they said, "Well, we've got to protect ourselves, you know God can't do it, and so we'll tell this little lie." And she agreed to it; in fact, in verse 5, "she, even she herself said, 'He is my brother.'" We don't read in Genesis 12 that Sarah lied about it in Egypt, but here she lied about it in Gerar.

Don't hold onto anything from the old life; that's dangerous. You know once a year, the Jewish people had to have Passover and that meant house cleaning. They went through the house and got rid of all the leaven. No yeast in the house. Wherever they found yeast, out it went and for one whole week they ate nothing but unleavened bread. It's a picture to us to get rid of the things that are a part of the old life, the old habits, sometimes the old job, the old associations. We have been put into a new relationship with God and we dare not drag into the new life that which belongs to the old life. Believers do sin. Why? Well, we have a sinful nature. We get careless and don't watch and pray. We get fearful and don't trust God. We move into enemy territory. We exercise unbelief instead of faith and we have things in our lives that we have not judged. However, I would rather be a believer than an unbeliever because unbelievers are dead in sin. They are not just sinning, they are dead in sin. Verse 3: "You are a dead man."

God said to Abimelech and his family, "Watch out, judgment's coming." And that judgment would have fallen had it not been for the intercession of Abraham. Even a sinning believer is better off—now he should not sin—but even a sinning believer is better off than an unbeliever, for unbelievers are dead in trespasses and sins.

Fact number two: When believers sin, they suffer. There are no little sins; there are no little lies. God hates lying. In Proverbs 6 we read about some of the things that God hates. Verse 17: "A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans." That sounds like Abraham and Sarah. "Feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies." That sounds like them. God hates a lying tongue. Satan is the liar; God is the God of truth. Throughout the Word of God, God warns us about lying. Proverbs 12:22: "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are His delight." Proverbs 19:5: "A false witness will not go unpunished and he who speaks lies will not escape."

What happened to Abraham because he lied? Well, number one, he lost his character. Every time we lie, we lose character. He was not asking what is right, he was asking what is safe. And when you and I start asking, "Well, what is safe?" then we're going to head into trouble. He lost character, he lost his testimony. He didn't have any testimony before Abimelech. It's true that Abraham prayed and God answered his prayers, but Abraham lost his testimony. We are to walk in wisdom toward those who are without. Those who are without Christ, those who are outside the fellowship. We must be very, very careful how we relate to them. 1 Thessalonians 4:12: "That you may walk properly toward those who are outside." Oh, how careful we have to be when we're working with or being with unsaved people. You know, the bad example of one good man can do an awful lot of damage. Good people are not bothered by the bad example of a bad man, but good people are bothered by the bad example of a good man. And many a Christian has gone off into a detour because of the bad example of a good person, even a Christian.

Well, he lost his testimony, he lost his fellowship. He was not being a blessing anymore. God said, "You will be a blessing." He wasn't a blessing, he brought judgment upon them. God had closed up the wombs. Abraham had been there a long time and they noticed after a year or so, no babies were being born. Let me spiritualize this for just a moment and make an application. I wonder if in some of our churches today there are no spiritual babies being born because Christians are out of fellowship with God. Why should new Christians come into the fellowship and be polluted? I wonder if God wouldn't send revival and send babies to be born into the fellowship, born again into the family of God, if God's people would confess their sins and repent and start walking with the Lord.

Well, he lost his fellowship, he almost lost Sarah, which would mean he almost lost Isaac. Isaac is about to come on the scene, the promise is going to be fulfilled. Oh, what a price you pay when you disobey the Lord. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. Sir Walter Scott said that and he was absolutely right. Of course, another tragedy here is that Isaac repeated the same sin in Genesis 26. He lied about his wife and he just learned that from his father. I think one of the greatest judgments that can come to our lives is to see our sins repeated in the lives of our children. We know what our sins have done to us and now we have to watch the same thing happen to our children. What a tragedy, we reap what we sow.

Well, when believers sin, they suffer. However, and let me make this very clear, however, I would rather be a believer than an unbeliever because unbelievers are going to suffer eternally. There is a place called hell. Jesus compared it to a furnace of fire and John called it a lake of fire. Yes, we Christians do sin. When we Christians sin, we suffer for it. There's no such thing as getting away with anything; we suffer for it. But thank God we've trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree; we're not going to face eternal judgment. I wonder, are you a believer or an unbeliever? If you're an unbeliever, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't use weak Christians as your excuse. You trust in Jesus Christ and you be saved. And if you're a believer in sin, confess that sin and let the Lord restore you and make you a blessing.

[Interview]

Up next, Warren Wiersbe answers a few questions from Back to the Bible CEO Arnie Cole.

Warren, in your book Be Obedient, you write that as you progress in the school of faith, you will face three special tests. What are those tests?

Well, test number one can be circumstances. It's a difficult thing with circumstances and people and things to see them as tools that God uses to make us what we ought to be. Abraham had to learn to wait; waited 25 years for his son to be born. Abraham had conflict with people; twice he went down to Egypt and lied about his wife and he had some neighbor problems. And then things: he no sooner got to the land that God gave him than they had a famine. Isn't that wonderful? I'm obeying God and now we've got a famine. And yet he was able to handle it, except he made the big mistake of running off to Egypt. Now all of us are going to be tested by things. I need a new car or I need a better this or that or my body is not what it ought to be. I once heard a very famous preacher say churches are churches and people are people but God is God. And that encouraged me. So he was obedient to God in spite of famines, circumstances, people, people down in Egypt especially, and things.

So Warren, twice Abraham was caught in a lie about Sarah being his sister rather than his wife. Why didn't he learn his lesson about lying after the first time?

Because Abraham is very much like you and me. He's human. I think that we have to remember that all of us are made of clay and we do repeat ourselves. I have a book in my library entitled Why Smart People Do Dumb Things. But it's a fact in the Bible you're going to find a lot of smart people doing very dumb things. But you know God forgives. One of the most wonderful things is the forgiveness of my Father.