Abraham - The Christian and Sin - Part 2

Gracious Father, we always need the work of the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, or else the word of God does not come alive to us as it should. And so help us today, fill with Your Spirit. Beyond the sacred page we seek Thee, Lord; our spirits pant for Thee, Thou living Word. Nurture us and challenge us and convict us and cleanse us as we open Your Word, I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Genesis 20 tells us about a sin in the life of Abraham. And as we look at this chapter, we are examining some important facts about sin in the life of the believer. Fact number one, believers do sin. Fact number two, when believers sin, they suffer. Fact number three, sinning believers can be forgiven. When a believer sins, there is forgiveness available. And 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 we've already looked at fact number one, believers do sin. Abraham journeyed toward the south. He's moving toward Egypt. That's a dangerous thing to do. He travels some oh 50 or 60 miles from Hebron. Hebron means fellowship. And I think that Abraham is moving away from his altar and away from the place of blessing. Going down to the borderland. You know, some of the saints like to live on the borderland. They want to be just close enough to Egypt to have what they think is a good time, but they want to keep in the promised land so that God won't forsake them or discipline them. 

But Abraham got himself into trouble. He told the same lie he had told in Egypt. She is my sister. And as a result, Abimelech, the king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah and added Sarah to his harem. Now had Abraham said she is my wife, they would have killed Abraham and taken her. But they would not have taken her away if she were a married woman. They would have gotten rid of the husband. Abraham was out trying to save his own skin, wasn't he? 

Well, God comes to Abimelech and says you are a dead man. The woman you've taken is another man's wife. I like what Abimelech says in Genesis 20:4. Lord, will you slay a righteous nation also? I wonder if he's not referring there to Sodom. You condemned that unrighteous nation over there at Sodom and Gomorrah, but we are a righteous nation. Did he not say to me she is my sister? And she, even she herself said he is my brother. Now Sarah is lying about the situation. In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this. 

By the way, unsaved people, even pagan people, can have integrity. Integrity simply means you're living up to the light that you have. He said I did not know any different. In the integrity of my heart, in the innocence of my hands, I've done this thing. By the way, it would be difficult to say which of these two is the believer. If you didn't know the story and you didn't know who Abraham was, you might think that Abimelech was the believer and Abraham was the unbeliever. The Bible always tells the truth about God's children. 

Well, God says you better restore the man's wife. He is a prophet. 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. Now God had brought a plague upon Abimelech and his household. Genesis 20:18, for the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. Believers do sin, don't they? And when they sin, they cause trouble. When believers sin, they suffer and they cause other people to suffer. 

Jonah sinned and a storm came, and a whole shipload full of people almost went down into the depths because of a believer who was out of fellowship with God. David got out of fellowship with God. 70,000 Israelites died because David got out of fellowship with God and numbered the people. You see, an unsaved person lives out of the will of God, no matter how much integrity he may have, he lives out of the will of God. When a believer gets out of the will of God, he ceases to be a blessing and he becomes a judgment. When the child of God is walking in the will of God, he is a channel, she is a channel for blessing. But when a child of God gets out of the will of God, he or she becomes a channel for discipline and judgment. 

Well, Abimelech calls him in in Genesis 20:9 and says, 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. Isn't that interesting when an unsaved person rebukes publicly a saved person? Now sometimes this is good for us to be rebuked like this. Paul wrote to Timothy and said, those who sin, rebuke before all. He's talking about the leaders in the church. Here is Abraham standing ashamed. If ever you were scolded in school publicly in front of the whole class, you know what that feels like. Or perhaps when you were in the military, the sergeant chewed you out because of something you had done. You know how you feel. 

What did you have in view that you have done this thing? In other words, why would you lie like this? 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. He was walking by sight and not by faith. He was walking in fear and not in confidence. What a tragedy. God had said to him, you are Abraham, the father of a multitude. You are the one I'm going to use to bring ultimately the Savior into the world. Now Abraham should have said God can take care of us, God can protect us. In the first place, Abraham shouldn't have been there. In the second place, if he was there, he should have trusted God to keep him. Then he should have turned around and gone back where he belonged. Perhaps some of us need to do the same thing. 

Well, he said 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. It was something they had dragged in from the old life. They had been making provision for the flesh. They were plotting, they were scheming. Faith is living without scheming. And here's a husband and wife keeping a little sin between themselves, and oh how it cost them. 

Believers do sin. When believers sin, they suffer. He lost his character, he lost his testimony, he lost his fellowship with God, he lost the privilege of being a blessing. He brought judgment instead of blessing. He almost lost Sarah. He almost lost Isaac. And sad to say, a few years later his son Isaac repeated the very same sin in Genesis 26. That's one of the tragedies that we parents see. Sometimes God chastens us by our children repeating what we have done wrong. Oh what a tragedy it is. It's bad enough that Abraham lies, bad enough that Sarah lies, but later on Isaac lies just as they did. 

Believers do sin. When believers sin, they suffer. Now thirdly, sinning believers can be forgiven. We get the impression that God forgave Abraham. He confessed his sin because in Genesis 20:17, so Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his maidservants then they bore children. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But God did hear Abraham and so I assume that Abraham confessed his sin to the Lord and it was forgiven. 

You see, when a believer sins, it does not affect his standing, it affects his state. You must make a distinction between justification and sanctification. Justification is our standing before God. God declares that we are righteous in Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1 says this grace in which we stand. Abraham was justified by faith. Romans 4 tells us that. And he believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness, says Genesis 15:6. So justification is my standing before God. Sanctification is my state, my walk. We're talking here about standing and walking.

Now my standing before God doesn't change. It is eternal, it is declared, it is fixed, it never changes. My state does change. My walk does change. My stand is that which God has done for me. My walk is that which God and I do together as I yield to him. Justification means that righteousness is imputed, put to my account. And Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, and you find that in Genesis 15:6. God wrote on Abraham's book, righteous in Jesus Christ. That's righteousness imputed. Sanctification is righteousness imparted. Justification means I am accepted in Christ. Sanctification means I am acceptable through Christ. Justification means that God is faithful and my standing will never change. Sanctification has to do with our faithfulness, and that does change from hour to hour sometimes. It should not, from day to day. 

Sinning believers can be forgiven. God did not reject Abraham because he had sinned. In fact, in Psalm 105:15 we read these words, saying, do not touch my anointed ones and do my prophets no harm. You see, in Psalm 105:14 we read, He, God, permitted no one to do them wrong. Yes, He reproved kings for their sakes, saying, do not touch my anointed ones and do my prophets no harm. Did God approve of Abraham's sin? No. Did God enjoy seeing Abraham sin? Of course not. Did God reject Abraham? No he did not. He protected him, he protected Sarah for Isaac's sake, for Jesus' sake. After all, if something happened to Sarah, Isaac could not be born. If Isaac was not born, Jacob couldn't be born. If Jacob wasn't born, the twelve tribes of Israel could not be constituted. And if we have no twelve tribes of Israel, we cannot have the birth of the Savior. Why did Abraham enjoy the providential protection and the gracious forgiveness of God? For Jesus' sake. That's the same reason that God is kind and good and patient and forgiving to us, for Jesus' sake. Abraham did not have to earn his forgiveness. I'm sure he just confessed his sin. 1 John 1:9 had not been written yet, but the fact of it was still there. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Sinning believers can be forgiven. 

Now you'll notice that God said that Abraham was a prophet. He is a prophet and he will pray for you. He didn't say he used to be a prophet, he ought to be a prophet. He is a prophet. A backslidden prophet, but he's a prophet nonetheless. And Abraham was restored to his original ministry and he was restored and he was able to pray and God answered prayer. Well, believers do sin. When believers sin, they suffer for it. Sinning believers can be forgiven. 

Finally, a sinning believer is still better off than a sinning unbeliever. Now you say, I'd rather be Abimelech than be Abraham. I wouldn't. But Abimelech was an honest man. Abraham lied. That's right. Abimelech had innocency of his hands and integrity of his heart. That's true. Abimelech didn't do anything wrong. That's right. But Abimelech did not have a righteous standing before God as did Abraham. Now this does not excuse sin. There is no excuse for sin. All that we have in the word of God, all that we have in Christ, would keep us from sinning against the Lord. Why anybody would deliberately want to disobey God we don't know, but we do it. We do it. Abraham did it, David did it, Jonah did it, Peter did it. We sin against the Lord. This is no excuse for sin. But notice please, there is no excuse for sin in unbelievers. You see, an unbeliever comes to the Bible. He opens to Genesis 20 and says, look, look, you want me to be a Christian. Here's Abraham, he sinned. 

Now I have one question I want to ask that unbeliever. You believe what the Bible says about Abraham? Yes, I do. You believe what the Bible says about Abimelech? I certainly do. Do you believe what the Bible says about you? Ah, there's a different story, isn't it? You see, we want to reach into the Bible, don't we, and find excuses. But we don't want to look into the Bible and find the principles and the truths that God wants us to have for our own lives. If you accept what Genesis 20 says about Abraham and Abimelech, you'd better accept what Genesis 20 has to say about you. You say, what does it say about me? Abraham was alive by faith. Abimelech was a dead man, Genesis 20:3. You are a dead man. Genesis 20:4, he claims to be a righteous nation. God says I know about your integrity, but your integrity doesn't save you. In Genesis 20:7, what have you done? How have I offended you? You've committed a great sin. 

Abraham was alive by faith, but Abimelech was dead in sin. Now Abraham was chastened. God spanks His children when they disobey Him. We've had the privilege of raising four children. They are now raising their own children. And children have to be chastened. When our children disobeyed, they didn't cease to be our children nor did we throw them out of the house; we chastened them. Abraham was chastened, but Abimelech was condemned. Abraham was accepted, but Abimelech was rejected. And Abimelech's ignorance and innocence and integrity and sincerity could not save him. There are multitudes of people just like Abimelech. Multitudes of them. They're honest, they have integrity, they run their business with a proper standard of conduct. They're ethical, they're moral, but they aren't saved. And Abraham was a saved man who sinned, and Abimelech was a sinner who needed to be saved. 

You see, here's the weakest saint helping an unbeliever. That's often the case. Here's Lot. Lot was as weak as you can get, and yet when he went into Zoar, that little city, and tried to escape, God did not destroy the people in Zoar because of Lot. Now Lot was not the strongest person in the world. Unsaved people ought to be thankful that Christians, even weak Christians, yes even sinning Christians, are in this world. When we are gone, you'd better watch out. Lot was able to save the people in Zoar even though he was a weak, backslidden believer. Abraham was able to save Abimelech. Notice now, because of Abraham, God restrained Abimelech from sinning. Because of Abraham, God revealed His truth to Abimelech. Because of Abraham, God held back His judgment from Abimelech. Because of Abraham, Abimelech had his blessings restored to him. In other words, it's Abraham even in his unbelief and disobedience who ultimately is ministering to Abimelech. 

Now I'm not excusing Abraham. I'm not saying we should sin that good might come from it. Absolutely not. All I'm saying is that you unsaved friends ought not to point your finger at backslidden Christians and say, yeah look what he did, he told a lie or he did this or he did that. You point that finger right at yourself. The same God who chastens His own children is going to condemn you. In fact, if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, you are condemned already. A sinning believer is still better off than a sinning unbeliever. 

Well, Abimelech took sheep and oxen and servants and gave them to Abraham. It was sort of an atonement gift. Genesis 20:16, he says, this vindicates you before all who are with you and before all others. Thus she was reproved; even Sarah got scolded for what she did. And so Abraham prayed and God opened the wombs of the women in Abimelech's household. Well, the lesson we get from all of this is, don't wander away from your altar. Don't get away from Hebron, which means fellowship. Stay close to the Lord. Don't wander down where you're not supposed to be. Otherwise, you may find yourself disobeying the Lord and bringing judgment instead of blessing. 

Sinning believers can be forgiven. Don't despair. Satan may tell you it's all over with, it's done for. You confess that sin to the Lord and let the Lord turn you into a blessing and make you a channel of blessing to others. 

And now our Father, apply this word to our hearts. Help us to walk by faith. Help us not to wander down to the borderland area. Help us to stay in Your will. Forgive us, Lord, when we have sinned. I pray that You'll help us to be a blessing to other people. Give us wisdom. Help us to walk in wisdom toward those who are without. Give us that tact and that grace that we need that we might be good witnesses to others. I pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.