Compromised Faith

What is faith?

Faith is something real.

Faith isn’t a feeling, or an emotion, it’s knowing something, it’s trusting something.

And within Christianity, it’s trusting in Someone.

So you are talking to someone, and he says he has faith in God.

How do you know that’s true?

It’s when you see that faith, that trust, demonstrated in their life.

says it this way, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead.”

What we will see today, is an instance, when Abraham’s faith was compromised, you might even say he didn’t have any.

Let’s open our Bibles to

Read .

“10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. 17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. “

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God made a promise to Abraham, and in our text, we see that this promise was on the line, it was put to the test.

God had promised 3 things to Abraham.

He promised that He would:

Receive a land.

Become the father of a great nation.

And that God would bless him.

God had just physically appeared to Abraham, and promised to take care of him.

God Himself had promised Abraham he would bless him and do certain things for him.

It’s one thing to say that you believe that, but when those words are put to the test, it’s a different story.

Today, we will not only see that Abraham’s faith was tested, but we will see that these promises were almost sabotaged by Abraham, by his own sin.

If you’ve ever wondered about sin and it’s cost, and it’s danger, and it’s sneakiness; this is a great example of just how deadly it is, and how hard it is to manage.

The foundation of Abraham’s sin was fear.

It’s fear, but not of God, but that God won’t do what He’s said He will do.

It’s a fear that God can’t be trusted.

It’s a fear that God won’t be faithful

It’s a fear that God will fail.

It’s a fear of anxiety, filled with worry.

This is exactly why Jesus told us not to worry.

Because when we worry, we doubt that God is truly God, and able to provide.

And when we doubt like that what does it say about God?

It says God is weak.

It says God is not to be trusted.

And worry, opens the door to sinning, because we decide to take matters into our own hand.

And so, Abraham is living in the Promised Land.

A land that is later said to be flowing with milk and honey ().

We learn at the very beginning of our text, “Now there was a famine in the land.”

Now remember, God has already said He’s going to take care of Abraham.

But out of fear that they would starve, and without consulting God, Abraham took his family and left the Promised Land, Canaan, and went to down into Egypt.

There’s a lot of foreshadowing in this text.

It’s not going to be the last time that God’s people go to Egypt because of a famine.

As is often the case, sins aren’t alone, they don’t come just as one single sin.

They multiply.

Sin leads to more sin.

God promised Abraham that he would multiply, grow and be blessed.

But as Abraham enters Egypt, he doubts the promise that God would grow Him.

What I mean, is he doubts God’s ability to protect him, keep him alive, so that he will grow.

He looks at his beautiful wife and he sees a problem.

By now, she’s at least 65 years old, close to it.

But she looks like she’s only 35 years old.

She beautiful.

He thinks, that the Egyptians will see her beauty, and want her for themselves.

His fear is that God will not be able to protect them Himself, and thinks that the Egyptians will kill him, and take his wife.

Rather than trust God that He will do what He says, Abraham comes up with a lie.

Just as Abraham was about to enter Egypt

He sins in an attempt to preserve God’s promise.

He sins, thinking that his sin will keep the promise of God alive, as if God needs our help.

Sadly, this isn’t the last time he will do something like this.

One sin, adds to another.

Abraham, doubts God’s providence in the Promised Land and leaves it, and then as they enter Egypt, Abraham again doubts God’s security.

He lies.

He causes his wife to lie.

And in the end, compromises even his wife’s safety.

If there ever was a picture of the vileness of sin, here it is.

Men are to love their wives.

We are to treasure them.

We are to protect them.

We are to care for them with the same love and sacrifice that Christ did His own church.

But what did Abraham do?

Men, imagine you were in a similar situation.

You are scared.

Your life could be in danger.

What did Abraham do?

Abraham, sold his wife as a lie, to save his own skin.

To spare his life, he gave her to the Egyptians.

His life may have been spared, but now her’s was in danger.

In fact, this scene looks to be about as bad as it can get.

Because later in Genesis, something like this again happens, only then the text specifically says that she was not touched.

Here, Pharaoh says he made her his wife.

As if to say, the marriage was consummated, he touched her.

This all started with a lack of faith in God.

Worry and anxiety set off the mousetrap of sin in Abraham’s life.

And it climaxed, with him giving his wife away to another man, so that he would live.

It’s gross.

And yet, at the same time, we see Christ’s actions in Sarah’s life.

Abraham sinned, and who suffered?

Sarah suffered for his sin.

Her suffering, her affliction, was to save him.

I am terribly offended at the very idea of what Abraham did.

I think of my own wife, and if I did to her, what he did to Sarah, I’d be ashamed of myself.

And yet, do you ever stop to think about your sin in this light?

Who suffered for your sin?

Who stood in your place?

Who was condemned?

Who was afflicted because of your sin?

Who suffered and received the eternal consequences of your sin?

Jesus.

Just as Sarah was pushed into a compromising position, and handed off, like a sex object, to spare her husband; Christ, put on our sin to spare us.

says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Your sin, was no simple mistake.

It was just as offensive, as a husband selling his bride for his skin.

Abraham’s sin against his wife, becomes a picture of our own sin upon Jesus.

And may your sin break your heart, the way Abraham’s breaks mine.

Abraham’s lack of faith, his sin, put the promise on the line.

The story of the Bible is one of how God saves, and Abraham’s trouble in Egypt is no different.

Abraham doubted God’s ability to provide.

Then Abraham doubted God’s ability to protect.

And in doing so, the mother of Abraham’s offspring was in danger.

Pharaoh takes Sarai to be his wife.

And what happens next, should remind us of God’s faithfulness to his promises.

He curses Egypt.

In what again has to be a bit of foreshadowing for what will happen in the future, Egypt suffers great plagues.

Genesis doesn’t tell us what the great plagues were, but in the first half of Exodus, we see some pretty spectacular plagues in Egypt, 10 of them, so I can get an idea there what they were like.

We also learn of God’s hatred of sin.

God hates all sin.

Even unintentional sin.

And this was unintentional.

Pharaoh was lied to.

He didn’t know that Sarah was really Abraham’s wife.

He didn’t know he was going to commit adultery.

But yet, God hates all sin, even unintentional sin.

And God will bring to judgment all sin, even the one we didn’t know were sins.

This is always a convicting thing.

This is always a convicting thing.

As you mature in your walk, do you ever discover that you had been doing things that you didn’t know were sins?

Your knowledge of sin, isn’t what makes it a sin.

My family used to have a friend who was from South Africa.

So I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt that she wasn’t from the US.

One time she was driving on the 91, and allegedly, she got pulled over for going about 90.

When the CHP officer asked why she was going so fast, she naively responded that she thought the speed limit was 91, because that’s what the signs said.

Well … she got a ticket.

Because it’s not a matter of what she thought the speed limit was.

There is a limit and she passed it.

The same goes for sin.

Sin exists, whether or not we know about.

Our knowledge of sin, and what we believe is sin isn’t what dictates whether it’s a sin or not.

God establishes what is sin.

He hates it regardless of how you feel about.

As you mature, sins will be exposed.

These might have been things you didn’t know were wrong.

But they were sins nonetheless.

And if you are a believer, they are part of why Christ was on the Cross.

As these sins are brought out in your life, you respond like you do with any other sin, by repenting, and responding with thanksgiving to what Jesus did.

This pattern of confessing is something that continues throughout our life.

And so may you continue to evaluate, and examine yourself.

The Reformers had a saying that was semper reformanda, always reforming.

Meaning we always are pursuing holiness and examining our lives.

Back to Egypt, and back to God cursing Egypt, this affirms God’s promise to Abraham.

We see Abraham’s un-faithfulness, but we see God’s faithfulness, even when Abraham is faithless.

Back in God’s promise to Abraham, in , God said, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse ...”

Isn’t that what we see here?

Pharaoh has brought dishonor onto Abraham, and his wife, and now he is cursed.

Egypt’s been cursed, and Pharaoh is somehow able to figure out why they’ve been cursed.

The text doesn’t tell us how he found out, but in verse 18, he says, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?”

He gets to the bottom of it.

The plagues are because he took Abraham’s wife as his own, and God is punishing him.

He was lied to.

And he returns Sarah back to her husband Abraham.

God had promised Abraham that would become a great nation.

With his wife gone, that promise was in jeopardy.

Now that she’s returned it’s a possibility again.

God also promised Abraham a land.

Unfortunately, because of a famine, and lack of faith, Abraham left that land.

But look what happens at the very end of our text and into chapter 13.

Starting in and on into chapter 13, “And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.”

Abraham is kicked out of Egypt, and sent away.

Again, not the last time that God’s people would be hastily removed from Egypt after a series of plagues.

Where does Abraham go?

To Negeb.

That’s the southern part of the Promised Land.

An area that would later be given to Judah.

The promise was definitely on the line.

Abraham was told he would become a nation.

He gave his wife away.

What did God do?

God cursed Pharaoh, so that Sarah was given back.

Abraham was told to go to Canaan, to what is later called the Promised Land.

Where did Abraham go?

To Egypt.

What did God do?

God cursed Pharaoh, made Abraham and his people a curse, and he was driven out of Egypt, back to the very land that was promised to Abraham.

What do we come away with from this text?

First, God’s promises require action from us.

Here’s what I mean by that.

says, “… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling ...”

There is to be evidence that you have faith.

God expects us to obey.

There are some, who claim to believe God, but in reality, their actions say otherwise.

begins by saying, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

We see obedience in that first verse.

But then it continues, verse 23 says, “And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

We have not been called to remain how we were.

God expects obedience.

I’ll read it again, says, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Some of you need to hear that.

Some of you need to hear, that it is time to obey.

To pursue holiness.

To pursue maturity.

At the same time, we fail.

We fail like Abraham.

In a moment of weakness, we revert to our old ways, no matter how unnatural that is.

says, “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.”

And you’ve come today, with the taste of dog vomit in your mouth.

You’ve reverted to your old ways.

Your sin disgusts you.

And you wonder how Jesus could ever love you.

The good news is that God sustains us.

Don’t you see that in the text.

Abraham wasn’t a shining light of perfection, nor was he someone I’d like to imitate.

It was God who carried him through it.

In fact, I would say, the promises were upheld, not because of Abraham, but despite Abraham.

And what does that mean … to God goes the glory.

It means that the commands given to Abraham, and the promises given to Abraham, were ultimately fulfilled by God.

And the same for you.

You who come here today, frustrated, bitter, angry, know that if you are Christ’s, He will keep you.

says, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

You’re hope, isn’t in your own ability, your hope is in God’s ability to hold you.

echoes this, “so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Who sustains you? Who keeps you saved?

It’s not you.

It’s Christ who will sustain you to the end.

When your heart is heavy, and the enemy mocks you.

He mocks you.

Your salvation is questioned.

You look in the mirror and see a hypocrite.

You feel like the fraud.

Then you need to remember, it’s Christ who sustains you.

says, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

Christ is in the throne room of God.

He sees your sin.

Satan laughs.

Calls you a fraud.

Calls out for your death.

Calls out for your judgment.

Demands that you be thrown into the pit, reserved for him.

And Christ, seated at the right had of God, says, “I died for that one.”

Isn’t it good to know, that you don’t keep yourself saved.

, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

Today isn’t a text that says, “Be like Abraham.”

Rather, it’s a comfort, that when you are like Abraham, He’s faithful to keep you.

Why?

Because God has promised to keep you.

This promise was made before the world began.

Second, because there is one who died to secure you.

And third, because the Spirit regenerated you, a work has been applied to you already.

As you go, battle with sin.

Be offended at it.

Be grossed out by it.

May this sermon give you rest.

Yet, at the same time, in your horror and moments of sorrow, be reminded that it’s Christ who holds you, and keeps you to the end.

He is faithful.

And therefore you can go in rest.