Main Idea: Do battle with old sins by trusting God’s eternal grace
Application
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Well, good morning, brothers and sisters and guests, it's good to see you this morning. Happy Father's Day, dads, a little a little surprise. In in shopping for men's clothes, there are more styles than flannel for dad's shirts, floral. Floral is a style all of those who wore flannel. Dads, raise your hands. What's yours? Roy, is yours. Even flannel. What is that? Checkers, I don't know if you you're flannel. Raise your hands. Dads, how about the florals? Any floral guys? They were all first hour. There were a lot of us first hour. Apparently we're more springy first hour. Dad joke, trying. Oh, that's horrible. I should just quit. Move on. It is good to have you here. If you're visiting with your kids dads, it's good to see you. And we're we're glad to be gathered on a Lord's day. We're gonna pray for situations in the Middle East and in Ukraine and Russia. We're gonna pray for that as well as the other things that are going on. You got the Living Faith Magazine on the way in, and you know, if you want to pop to the very middle of that section, or when you get it on the way out, this is a good snapshot of all the kinds of ministries that are happening. God's at work. We just finished our strategic elder planning retreat this last week, and we're thinking about the coming year and then years after that, and we're so thankful for the men and women trained up and serving each other. It's really, really encouraging. One of the things that you see is all the different ways God is at work here, and that's that is so encouraging. And God has been providing, if you turn to the last of this, there's a money update, a stewardship update, that I need to brought, bring to your attention. It's the end of our third quarter, and the end of our third quarter giving, and we base next year's budget on the third quarter giving, because the fourth quarter is the summer. And so this is next year's budget. If you look at that, we're down about three, between three and 4% in our budget, and three and 4% doesn't sound like a lot, unless you think that it's a $2 million budget. That means it's 60 to $80,000 behind, if it keeps it that. And that's not as I love to say, or I don't love to say, that's not paper clips and staples like it's that's a significant thing. We have cash on hand, and we're watching our spending, but we would have to budget differently. So I would just ask this, if you see God at work in the ministries and you can give, I would encourage you give to those God's at work. God's using the ministries of the church, from the people that facilitate the ministry to the building. We would encourage you that we could finish out our summer on budget. We can make appropriate plans for the coming year. And we're, we're very thankful for what God has given us, but there's a real need, and when, when I pray, let's pray that God would help us provide for that, as well as other other issues that are going on in the life of the church. All right, let's, let's transition to Genesis, chapter 20. And Genesis chapter 20, we find Abimelech and Abraham stand with me for the reading of God's Word. There are three firsts in the chapter. It's remember Genesis a book of the beginning. So you see a lot of beginning things. This is the first time we find a prophet. This is the first time we find a Gentile who has who responds to God in faith. And it's the first time that a Gentile tells a Jew, come on, you should believe. Like it's the first time, not the last time. Like there's going to be many of those in the scriptures, a lot of firsts here that God is doing. Let's read the story. We will pray, and then dive into what is often a very puzzling passage that we'll look at. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, Say to the People a bit sorry, I'm in. I should get I should get out of Leviticus. It's a bad day already. Thing I need at 57 is new glasses. Let's try that. Let's try that. From there, Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and sure and he sojourned in gerar. And 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, Behold, you are a dead man. Be. Because of the woman whom you have taken for. She is a man's wife. Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 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. 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. 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 to her, know that you shall surely die, you and all of you who are yours. 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. 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? 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 indeed is my sister and the daughter of my father, although 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 to me at every place to which we come say of me, he is my brother. Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, male servants, 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 1000 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. Then Abraham prayed to God. 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. This is the word of the Lord God. We thank you and praise you. You are good and gracious to us. We see here Abraham falling into an old pattern of sin, and we are grateful that you have grace and mercy to your according to your promises, in this case, both to Abimelech and to Abraham, and we want to see your grace at work in us. We want to see your grace in moving us to repentance and faith and trust and obedience, father. We look around our world and we see much strife, turmoil. We pray that you would be at work across the Middle East, between Iran and Israel. We pray that all those who name you would be bold in proclaiming the gospel the ongoing and enduring war that's going on in between Ukraine and Russia. We pray that you would bring peace, that you would bring wisdom, bring wisdom to our our country's leaders as they interact, and we pray that you would be working powerfully through your gospel in these times. We also pray that you would be at work in our church. Thank you for helping Doug this week. Doug yountis, he had a real setback, a real health issue, and I pray that you would bring healing to him and recovery. Thank you for preserving his life. We pray that you would be at work across our church in the various trials and difficulties and sufferings, and as this passage is going to bring up old sins, I pray that You would help us be a people who seek to put them to death. Use your spirit and your word powerfully in us. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen, you may be seated. Old men and old women carry old sins, but God's grace carries promises. Older still, this morning, I want to talk about how the gospel addresses old sins. There's an old Negro spiritual I love listening to jubilant Sykes sing it. It's called How I got over. And the refrain goes, my soul looks back in wonder, how did I make it over? And if you cross the finish line of death and enter the bliss of the Savior King, you will wonder at the grace of Christ. You're going to wonder at it. You'll look at Genesis, chapter 20, and it's a little bit of the feeling about getting Abraham through the various state. Ages of his life, and it's a wonder how he moves forward.
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Have you ever wondered why God chose Abraham? Well, it was not because Abraham was a good guy. He was a moon worshiper in what we would now call Babylon Ur of the Chaldees. It's not because he would become a good guy. Like there's often this kind of thinking around that God chooses people based on what their future choices will be for good No, you look at chapter 20, and you realize God didn't even choose Abraham because he would become a good guy. God chooses and works based on His mercy and His grace all alone. It's based on his grace. On the surface, Genesis 20 is puzzling. Abraham the liar becomes Abraham the prophet, and you should ask yourself, What's up with that? That that's a puzzle. But if we simply slow down and we think through our heart issues and the grace and promises of God to our hearts, we will stretch to marvel at God's gracious promises all the more, don't you have old sins? What do I mean by old sins? I don't mean you committed a sin when you were young, you trusted Christ, you've asked for forgiveness, and it's still there. I don't mean that. I mean sin patterns, sinful tendencies, what the Apostle Paul calls I do what I don't want to do, and I don't want to do what I do. We would call it in some Christianese, besetting sins. We all have them. One commentator titled his chapter on this passage old sins. And it seems so appropriate. As we look at this, 25 years earlier, Abraham was committing the same old sin with Sarah, and yet God continued forward in his plan to use Abraham to carry the line and promise all the way to Jesus Christ. You don't have to be 99 you don't have to be 89 like Sarah and Abraham to have old sins. You could be nine with old sins, old tendencies, some remain steady. You know that these are things that could get you at any time, and you have to do something in your life to ensure that you keep them at bay. Sometimes you get a handle on them for a while, and suddenly you find yourself back in a sin that you thought you had conquered years ago. And here's a question, What might your old sins be? What might they be? What might your old tendencies be? This passage gives us a real help. We're going to talk about how the gospel of Jesus Christ helps us address old sins. I might summarize this out of the context of Genesis that we do battle with old sins by believing God's eternal grace, or, as the title is, old sins and older grace, we do battle with old sins by believing God's eternal grace. Let's review so we can kind of marvel at this, expand our hearts, at the wonder of God's grace. In the immediate context, chapter 19 we looked at last week was very sobering. We saw the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, God had sent grace to the cities back in chapter 14, when Abraham rescued their captive kings, they persisted in their sin, even though they had had exposure to God, their Savior. Lot served as the Prophet, warning them, and they still pursued wickedness, but the angels tell lot to get out of the city immediately, but lot lingers. He stalls. He barely gets out alive, and even as he gets out, his materialistic wife, according to Jesus, looks back regretting leaving the city, and she has turned into a pillar of salt. Sodom and Gomorrah are in the same area that's now the Dead Sea, where there are sulfur deposits and obviously the Great Salt Sea that is the Dead Sea, lot's daughters at the end of 19 seem as corrupt. Not as the sodomites.
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I chose to allow the parents to note the best timing to read the story of lot's daughters with their children. Otherwise that would have been today's Father's Day message. I Hmm, I'm not afraid of the text. I just want to respect the parents and their kids. Lot's daughters are corrupt, but their sons become the founders of the nations of Ammon and Moab. And particularly Moab is important. The line of Jesus also flows through Moab, through Ruth. Why does God do that? Because God is faithful to His promises to Abraham. All those who are a blessing to him. All those who are in him get a blessing. They end up being founders of nations.
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Looking forward, Israel is going to need this story as they cross into the Promised Land, they're going to need to remember that they can fear and trust the Lord no matter what the other nations are doing, they would look and see Abraham's failure and learn to deal with their old sins, just like Abraham needed to deal with his before trouble springs up. So what do we do about old sins? Well, we do battle with old sins by believing God's eternal grace or older grace. We're gonna do that in three ways. We're gonna keep watch on old sins. We're gonna listen to the message that comes to us about our sins and salvation, and we're gonna follow the pattern. We're gonna unfold these for us this morning, doing battle with old sins by believing God's eternal grace. So number one, keep watch on old sins. Keep watch on old sins. Despite having experienced many instances of God's grace and hearing many times God's righteous commands, we can all too easily succumb to old sins. And God's going to orchestrate events in our lives. God's going to orchestrate situations or consequences in our lives to bring attention and help us deal with them. He does this for Abraham and Abimelech here, verse one, from there, Sodom and Gomorrah, not Sodom and Gora Hebron, overlooking Sodom and Gomorrah. From there, Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negev south toward Egypt, and they lived between Kadesh and sure, which is about a few miles from the Egyptian border today, he sojourned in gerar. He remember, Abraham has promised to get the land, but doesn't really get the land. Until his resurrection. He hasn't gotten his land. He's always been a sojourner there. So he sojourned in gerar. He was a stranger there, and as a result, he's feeling vulnerable. Abraham said of his wife, she is my sister. That means he didn't say to his wife, he said of his wife, meaning as they went through and journeyed, as they stopped in the capital city as they stopped in the markets, he starts referring to her as their shopping sister, and he's referring to him as brother. Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah. This is a repeat of the same sin of chapter 12. Abraham went to Egypt with Sarah during a famine. He lied. Asked Sarah to lie by covering up the truth that she was his wife to escape any attack on his life. Pharaoh took Sarah into his harem. God sent a plague on Pharaoh. When Pharaoh learned the cause, he returned. Sarah drove Abraham out of the country. Here's a repeat. This is why you have to watch. And there's five sins in this one phrase. This one phrase, Abraham said, of Sarah, his wife, she is my sister. First Abraham is willing to prostitute his wife to save his life. That's pretty punchy statement. Read it from John Calvin. He Dishonored her and failed to protect her. Isn't that one of the fundamental commitments in a marriage? Love, honor, protect, cherish, nurture, no protection. Here he's protecting his own life. Second he was a controlling husband. Instead of relying on God, he attempted to control the circumstances through his wife essentially saying to her, if you. If I will suffer great harm, unless you do this for me, it's a classic manipulator move. I mean, how many young men when a young woman no longer wants to be dating them? Oh, I'll kill myself if I don't have you. It's a classic manipulator move. This is the kind of thing he's he's a controller of circumstances, and so he uses manipulative techniques. She has on a side note, some reason, also to go with the lie. If Abraham is killed, she may not be brought into a harem. She might be treated much worse. She has selfish motivation to go along with it as well. She's not trusting the Lord. The third thing we see is that he's he covers, he covers up the truth. He lies by covering up the truth. What do we mean? He said she's my sister, which she may be in their culture at their time. We'll see the explanation of that later, but he's doing it so he doesn't have to say she's my wife. The truth is, she's my wife. So he lies by covering up the truth. Fourth, he fails to rely on God for help. There's no prayer, just like in chapter 12, there's no prayer. There's no courage. There's no courage, like with the rescue of Lot, Abraham has shown courage before. When lot got captured by the kings of the north, he mounted his soldiers, made a surprise attack, and God aided him. He wasn't afraid for his life then, but now, he was fearful. And fifth in the root of all of it, he feared what men could do to him more than he feared and trusted God. What's the consequence? This is a serious situation. Just after being told in chapter 18, within a year, you're gonna have your son, Isaac. What's the Congress consequence? Well, God's promise is threatened. I Abraham testimony to Abraham's testimony is destroyed. Real Consequences. Abraham is supposed to have a son through Sarah. Now, Sarah is in Abimelech harem, this is what you have to ask about old sins. What are the consequences for you? What are the consequences for you? One of my team had this, I thought, really interesting insight, old sins are almost always at the top or near the top of the list for why I doubt my salvation or God's steadfast love. How could God keep loving me when I keep failing him in spite of the abundant blessings he's given me? How can I claim Christ's name when I keep backsliding? That's one of the consequences you could probably think of other consequences of not dealing with old sins. These Old Testament stories, according to the apostle Paul in First Corinthians, are meant as examples for us to learn from, usually negative examples, like, don't be like sinful so and so. And in the middle of that section in First Corinthians, chapter 10, he says, No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Go to him, go to his means and his word. There are ways for you to do battle with sin. You are not inevitably forced to fall to your old sins. God has given a way to deal with them. I'd say, put them on a watch list like you should probably know yourself well enough to say here are the half a dozen things, and I am most likely to fall prey to they should be on a watch list so that when I pray, lead me not into temptation, I know what I'm thinking about, and instead believe in God's eternal grace. So first, watch out for old sins. Second, listen to God's gracious intervention. So if you're gonna do battle with old sins by relying on or trusting older grace, you're gonna have to listen to God's gracious intervention. And this is what we see happen in the narrative. God intervenes in many ways to expose sin for Abimelech and. And Abraham, God does that today. If we were to say, how does that look in light of the rest of the Old Testament? There's a statement in the beginning of Hebrews. At many times, in many ways, God spoke through our fathers, but in these last days, he has spoken to us through His Son. He has spoken to us with Christ, and He has spoken to us with this word, and his aim is to restore and bless. God's aim in dealing with your old sins is to restore you and bless you, to use you. I want to say it again. God's aim in dealing with old sins is to restore you, to bless you and use you so you want to listen and repent. We see it both for Abimelech and Abraham. So there's two here, two here. Abimelech represents the gentile or the unbeliever who is going to believe to a certain extent. And we have Abraham, the believer. God came to Abimelech first in a dream to tell him that he was committing adultery by taking Sarah. It says this verse three, behold, you are a dead man
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because of the woman you have taken for she is a man's wife, even in the Philistine culture, Abimelech means father, my father, the king. It was a title for the king of Gerar, probably a title of the king of the Philistines, the ancient Philistines, and even there, adultery was a grievous sin. It's going to be called a great sin later. But Abimelech maintains his innocence. He says, Did he not himself say to me, she is my sister, and she herself said he is my brother. I mean, this is what they told me. Then God said to him in a 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. I mean, there's an interesting take on how God's sovereignty works. He did not act because God had intervened. How many times have you narrowly escaped a real serious sin because God intervened before you could do it. Oh, that's a common thing for many of us. He says, Therefore I did not let you touch her. Now, why is he still guilty at a level? I would say, culturally, this was a system, the harem system, where a king would organize his trade partners. He would exercise his dominance over some lesser, but still important band of people. That's what he does with Abraham. If Abraham doesn't go along with it, it could be a threat to his life. The whole system sets up women as slaves, so to speak, adding to that, the polygamous system, and if Sarah didn't go along with it, she could have her husband killed. She could be a widow with no resources, with no son to take care of her. She was in a very vulnerable system. So the whole harem system of ties between nations was corrupt. Abraham was vulnerable. Abimelech was part of a sinful system. Now God recognizes this. I know you didn't intend adultery. That's why I spared you, but he tells him how to repent. Here it is, verse seven, now then return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you and you shall live this interesting thing that still the faithless man is still the Prophet here, but he is a prophet, nonetheless, 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 now just underline that you shall surely die. Where have we heard that before? If you've been tracking with us? We heard that in Genesis two, when Adam and Eve were told that they could eat from every tree of the garden but the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and if they ate it that day, they would surely die. So Abimelech has attractive 89 year old, attractive 89 year old, Sarah, as for. Bitten fruit, and he does something different than Adam and Eve. He doesn't touch her. He doesn't touch her. There's obviously something supernatural going on with Sarah Ian. She can't have children. She's too old to have children. That time has come and gone, yet she is still a catch or a collector's item for Abraham's or for Abimelech harem. I love God's humor in so much of the Bible gives us a little lightness to some of the stories. So he repents, he responds, he listens. That's the that's the point here. God comes, speaks to him, he listens. So Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants and told them all these things, and the men were very much afraid. God has a prophet. We're all threatened to die. We better do something about that. Abimelech will follow through. We'll watch it in just a second. Let's contrast this or compare, because actually something's going to happen with Abraham too. Abimelech called Abraham. So Abimelech goes to Abraham. What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought on Me in My Kingdom a great sin. So even in the Philistine idolatrous system, adultery was still a great evil. I you have done to me things that ought not to be done, and the Gentile, Abimelech becomes the prophet to the Prophet. Here's the irony. It's the first time we see in the Bible, but it won't be the last how a Gentile has more faith than the believer. In this case, the Jews. Rahab, the prostitute in Joshua, when the spies went protected the spies, she has more faith than many in Israel, Ruth, the moabitess tied to last chapters. Moab she has more faith than her mother in law, Naomi, the Jew. She's actually included in the line of Jesus, Roman centurion, Canaanite women, tax collectors and prostitutes in the New Testament under Jesus' ministry often demonstrate much more faith, or faith at all, compared to the quote, unquote, believers or Jews of the day. God uses grace in surprising ways. He's essentially saying, Abraham, you've sinned against us. Verse 10, he says, What did you see that you did this thing? And this question forces Abraham's sin into the light, for he himself to admit to everybody, for us to see it come to the light. What did you see that you did this thing? 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. Abraham assumes that gerar is like Sodom and Gomorrah. He just assumes that without checking it out, Moses wants to make Abimelech innocence emphatic. Both by what he said and how he responds in repentance, ironically, who has no fear of God? Who's the person who has no fear of God here? Abraham. Abraham, I recently listened through j, c, Rals book called thoughts for young men, and Lynn and I read it together. We could say it's actually thoughts for old and young women too. He talks a bit about this, about the fear of man and pleasing God, and He quotes Matthew 1028 let me read you this excerpt out of it. Thoughts for young men, you can find it free on Audible fear not those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. He's quoting Matthew 1028 he says this, try only to please God, and He will soon make others pleased with you. When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at good peace with Him. Proverbs, 16, seven young men, be of good courage. Don't worry about what the world says or thinks. You will not always be with the world. So can a man save your soul? No, will, will man be your judge in the great and dreadful day of judgment? No, can man give you a good conscience in this life, a good hope in death, a good answer in the morning of resurrection? No, no, no man can do nothing of the sort. End. Quote, The primary issue. We could just preach this whole thing on the fear of man, because that's the exact issue that's at play for Abraham. Men can hurt and help, but only temporarily. God can hurt and help eternally. Notice this, his long pattern of distrust in God has comes out. In fact, he's going to, he's going to blame God for his situation. Verse 12 says, besides, she indeed is my sister, the daughter of my father, though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. He's rationalizing here. The longer he speaks, the more sin He reveals, blaming God. Verse 13, when God caused me to wonder from my father's house, this is God's doing.
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How many times have people fallen into sin and said, Well, God put me in this situation. It's not my fault. When God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, this is the kindness you must do to me at every place to which we come. Save me. He is my brother every place. This is what he said we were going to do the whole time. Abraham was dominated by fear. In chapter 12, he was dominated by fear at the beginning of chapter 15 too, where he was really worried, even after he had won a military victory, God had answered him and said, I'll be with you. I'm going to bless you. And again, this issue comes back up here in chapter 20, did he have long periods of time where it looks like he has victory over his fear? Yes, but the same old sin came back every place they traveled was their plan, and it took Abimelech questions to get to get Abraham to confess out loud what had been a secret between he and Sarah, this is so important. Abraham is forced to bring all of his conniving into the light. We have to bring our heart issues into the light. We don't see a confession, a prayer confession, like David, Psalm 32 or Psalm 51 but we do see a change, because back in chapter 17, when God said he's going to make a covenant with Abraham, he says he's going to be blameless, and we forget that God, part of God's gracious work is to make us blameless. We get right standing. But then he transforms the Christian word for it is, sanctifies us, makes us steadily more and more. And it's time to deal with Abraham's fear of man. It's time to deal with that, and God allows the situation, orchestrates the situation, so that he would grow. We do see a change. You know it especially in chapter 22 just two chapters away, Abraham will trust God with the life of Isaac, his only son that he loves, or his beloved son. So we do battle with old sins by believing eternal grace or old sins older Grace first by putting those old sins on a watch list. Second by listening. Third by walking in God's gracious promises. The promises have not been rejected. Abraham needs to walk in the promises. Abimelech needs to start walking in the promises. And this is based on the greater context. If you flick back to Genesis chapter 12, these initial promises to Abraham after he is called out of his idolatry. 12 three says, I will bless those who bless you and Him who dishonors you, I will curse. That's what's going on to Abimelech right now he dishonors Abraham in this harem and power control structure, Abraham is Dishonored, and so God starts a curse on him. But God also intervenes because there was no intent of adultery. Somehow, Abimelech is understanding that this man is a prophet. Prophet, and is special by God. But as we look back at this, 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. He understands immediately that the prophet is here. This is God's man, and this is how I share in the blessing I
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Abimelech responded in repentance when God confronted him. And we have to recognize that repentance and faith are marks of God's gracious work going on. God is at work producing it. Verse 14, then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham. He now takes that promise, I will bless those who bless you. He goes to bless Abraham. He returned Sarah, his wife, to him. Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before you dwell where it pleases you. And this is new to the storyline. Pharaoh drove Abraham out like the last thing I want is this guy around. But Abimelech says, If this is God's prophet, I want to be near God's prophet. Abraham, just pick any part you want live in my land. It's a great sign of faith for Abimelech. Abimelech pays a great sum to make sure everyone knows that Sarah is undefiled, which was very important their culture so true repentance makes sure all things are set right. Abraham gets 1000 pieces of silver as the token or the sign that I never touched your wife. I life. He walks in the grace of that blessing, that Genesis, 12 blessing, and Abraham resumes his role to be a blessing. You shall be a blessing Abraham. Abraham prays for Abimelech and for all the people God answers and opens the wombs of all of the women in gerar enough time had elapsed that they realized the girls aren't getting pregnant, the wives aren't getting pregnant, and we're doomed if we don't have any children. Ian, amen, God heals as a result of Abraham's prayer, the curse is lifted. This is all because of the Genesis 12 promised grace and blessing. But there is another promise earlier in Genesis, that Genesis 12 is based on in Genesis 315, after Adam and Eve sinned, after the serpent has deceived, God promises that there would be an offspring, one of the seed who would destroy Satan, sin and death, that great Head Crusher. He will crush your head. This is what he says to Satan, and you will bite his heel. Through Jesus, death, victory would be won. Older grace. Why has this story come out with Abraham as a prophet, older grace, older promises. Now it's not the oldest of the promises. We jump to the New Testament to talk about the oldest of the promises at the opening of this letter to Titus, this little letter and in Paul's writings, one of the last things he wrote, he writes to Titus to set and order the churches. And he opens the letter with this, talking about our hope of eternal life. Then says this, which God, who never lies, unlike Abraham, promised before the ages began and at the proper time, manifested in His Word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God, our Savior. This little phrase promised before the ages began, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit in counsel in eternity past, before anything was ever created, any response was ever given, determined to make a people, to allow sin and to send a savior so he could make a redeemed people for himself. Eternally in the past, God has made a promise to give grace. That's why Abimelech lives, that's why Abraham lives. That's why you live and if you trust Jesus Christ, that's why it's happened. There is older grace, eternal grace.
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We need to walk in eternal Grace if we fast forward the Bible to the landing place of the promises of Abraham. Am comes to Jesus Christ. My seven year old granddaughter and I were having lunch at McDonald's. We were talking about what we were reading in the Bible. And she was reading Genesis one and Matthew one, and she just had read the first two verses of each, which I thought was pretty good for seven talking about Jesus Christ, Son of David, son of Abraham. I said I am talking about Abraham this week. Remy Abraham, the promise comes through Abraham. I want to talk to the abimelechs. In the room, there's two kinds of people in this room. There are abimelechs and there's Abrahams. I want to talk to the Abimelech you often want to do the right thing. You realize you have bought into sinful patterns in your culture and your time, but you are generally what society calls a good person. School teachers in in with kids in the classroom often have an unbelieving kid, but he's a good kid. We call him a good kid. You might be the good kid, but you know that you have old sins and you still need to deal with them. The apostle Peter gives Cornelius, one of the first Gentiles in Acts, a gospel message. He says this in Acts 1043, Abimelech is in the room. This is what you need to listen to to Him, Jesus, all the prophets, including Abraham, bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. You need to stop trusting whatever you're trusting, and you need to start trusting Jesus Christ. You need to repent of your sins, even though all of culture says they're okay, you need to repent of those, and you need to turn to Jesus Christ, bow to His Lordship, give him rule over your life. Believers in the room with old sins, I put a little tool here. First a watch list. How do you deal with old sins? Like look at the bottom of your notes. We got four things first watch if you put your old sins on a watch list, like the FBI puts pictures of the Most Wanted up in various places you would be, you would be rescued before they could strike again. You'd be rescued before they'd strike again if you put those old sins up on a watch list. In other words, take the five or six that you know are your steady trouble, and you put them up on a list when you go through the daily Lord's Prayer, lead us not into temptation. You're like I know this situation. I know me. Watch me, help me. And when you fail, because old sins crept up on Abraham, when you fail, you can confess them all the more quickly. Oh, I did it again. God, I'm falling prey to the same thing. Forgive me. Help me so people, pleasing man, fearing, making everybody do what you want, minimizing your sins by relabeling them. I think parents often talk about frustration and impair and impatience. Pray for me because I'm impatient with my kids, or I'm frustrated like just call it what it is. You're angry that your children got in the way of your agenda. That's what happens to all of us. When are you frustrated? When are you impatient? Often it's because you're angry because somebody gets in the way of your agenda, lying to cover up who you really are. Last week's chapter old men with old lust problems were in Sodom and Gomorrah. I mean, there's a phrase for Old Men with lust problems. They're called Dirty old men, singles, you could have the same old despair problem, or the blame God for my situation problems. I mean lots of people with lots of situations can can do that. Remember, you have a loving father, not a harsh father. And every single and every married person, every parent, every grandparent, has something unique. Addicts. We could have said this at the beginning. I mean, the definition of an addiction is an old sin that you just can't get rid of. Might be pleasure, might be excitement, might be substance, might be lust, might be self harm. Put them on your watch list and then follow the follow steps. Listen to the verses and resources that get to the heart, that go to the Gospel. And we have a counseling ministry that gives compassionate help for people with old sins. In fact, our counseling ministry exists 90% Percent to help you with old sins that you just can't seem to get around. 10% is to help suffering people, but most of it is to deal with old sins. All of our growth group leaders have training to help people with old sins, and they battle their own. We have the discipleship toolbox with all kinds of tools and helps to deal with old sins. Another of my recent favorite reads, John Flavel. John Flavel, some people are asking the question to Tom dudenhoffer Tom's coming to me, what was the book you referenced? This one? John Flavel, keeping the heart. Keeping the heart. There's a modern English version that you could read or download. 13 ways to guard your heart during various seasons of life. So helpful. Prayer, lead me not into temptation. Prayer, confess your sins, plant you need to do something positive in the situation. So busy yourself with what God has called you to do to be a blessing. That's what happened to Abraham. He leaves Hebron. He goes down to the Negev. He goes to gerar. Instead of praying that God would do saving work or blessing work, he turns it into fear and selfishness, and so he is called back to his role you busy yourself with speaking the gospel, doing good, praying at his plant like do something productive, old women and old men have old sins. So do young men and young women. We do battle with old sins by seeking Jesus older grace. Let's celebrate the Lord's Supper. Connected to that right now, Father, we look at this passage, it is such a good passage to counsel our souls. We thank you that you're a loving Father who wants to purify ourselves, purify us from our sin, and so we want to participate. We want to repent and eagerly please you, how much better and smoother is our life with the people that we love, when fears don't rule us, but pleasing you rules our hearts. I pray that that would be so and for those who are here who have not yet trusted Christ, this is the call Abimelech found his salvation. Those of us who have trusted you, help us keep up the battle Christ's name. Amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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