The God Who Protects the Elect

Christians, when have you been overwhelmed by circumstances to the point that you doubted God's presence and His promises? Notice the question isn't an if. When have you been so overwhelmed with trials and temptations, with circumstances beyond your own control, that you doubted God's presence and His promises? See, our experiences, our immediate senses, They're immediate. They're honest. Our senses, what we experience in this world, the pain and suffering, they oftentimes ring louder than our faith and our hope. Our fear and our pain can ring louder than the hope God has given us. When was the last time that you were burdened by your circumstances and you had to ask God, where are you? This is an OK question to ask. If you look throughout the Psalms, that's what the psalmist are asking in the midst of trial, in the midst of despair. God, where are you? What are you doing? It's OK to ask this question, because when we ask this question, God reveals Himself. He reveals His purpose. It may not be the immediate answer we long for, but as we look at the Psalms in the midst of those trials, We always see that asking this question leads to great praise. This morning, we will see how God continues to bless His people in the midst of trials and tests. We're going to see how God cares for His people in the midst of difficult circumstances. He even cares for us in the midst of the problems that we cause for ourselves. God blesses His people even in the midst of their own sin. This morning, we will see that God is trustworthy at all times and in all places. God protects his people. His purpose for us is not compromised by our sin or circumstances. Now, we're looking at Genesis 26, and this is an interesting story for the most part, because we've kind of heard the same story two times already. We're going to look at the story where God reveals his promise to Isaac in the midst of a famine. Isaac goes down to a place, he lies about his wife and trouble begins and then God delivers. It's the third time we've heard this story, if you've been with us. We first saw it in Genesis 12 when Abraham went down to Egypt and lied to Pharaoh about his wife. Then we saw Abraham lie again to Abimelech. In Genesis 20, in here we see Isaac going to lie as well to Abimelech in Gerar. Now, the first thing I want to point out is that this isn't the same story just repeated. This is actually a different event that intentionally sounds like the same story. Three different times a patriarch goes into a foreign city and lies. Now, could this possibly be just someone taking the Abimelech story of Abraham and imposing it upon Isaac? I don't think so. It's the word of God. It is true. This happened. Well, how come there's similar titles? How come? What are the chances of the same king being in Gerar? Well, if we look at Abimelech, the name means my father is king. I think this is probably a title that's taken upon himself, the name, kind of like Caesar. It's a title that claims something very much like Pharaoh or Caesar does. The title means my daddy was king. That means I get to be king. Kings were produced by lineage. And so having another king named my daddy was king is just a claim that most of the kings would have had. This would have been his name from a title. What about the similar lie? Well, Isaac probably learned this trick from Abraham. Abraham lived with Isaac for many years. I'm sure Abraham, the great father of faith, told stories after stories about how God was good to him in the midst of his sin. The purpose being to build up the faith of Isaac. But no doubt, Abraham told Isaac about the time he lied about his wife being a sister. And instead of that producing in Isaac a faith in God, It gives him a trick to use up his sleeve when he wants to lie. His children being chosen. We saw that last week. Isaac is in the emphasis of the first story. Isaac's children is the emphasis. Jacob and Esau. The next episode is also about Esau and Jacob. Isaac blessing them. Which one is going to get the blessing? This story is the only real story about Isaac. Now, I wouldn't be flattered if I were Isaac about the way I'm recorded in history. He's really a secondary character in all the good stories. And then the one story that focuses on him, he lies, he sins and he fails. The point here is, I think Moses intentionally wrote about Isaac to emphasize he's not the primary promise child. Yes, he is going to be the promised child through whom the final promised child is going to come. But it's his child that's so significant. Not just Isaac. It's now his child that's so significant. And then a child much later. We have this story to show that Isaac is just like his father. He's a sinner. He can't be the savior. He can't be the one who reverses the curse because he's a liar. Because he doesn't trust God. The real savior, he will be perfect. So let's look, and I first want to just contrast this story, because we're supposed to see this in light of the other two lives. We're supposed to see this episode with Isaac in light of the two times Abraham goes down. Now, let's first compare how all three are alike. In each situation, the patriarch does not trust God. If we look at Genesis 12, Genesis 20, Genesis 26, the patriarch doesn't trust God. He lies about his wife being a sister. He trusts God to send him, or even in Abraham's account, he just flees from the famine, but he doesn't trust God to protect them. In all three accounts, God delivers and blesses his people, the first two very directly and the last one indirectly. In each account, the pagan king shows more fear of God than the patriarchs themselves. And then finally, in each situation, the husband puts his wife and the promised child in danger. In each one of these stories where the patriarch goes down and lies about his wife, he puts himself above his wife, he puts himself above the promise, and he doesn't trust God. Now, let's compare and contrast how they are somewhat different. Really, we're playing the game two are alike, one is different. The first and second accounts, with Abraham, Genesis 12 and Genesis 20, are different from the account with Isaac, mainly because Sarah wasn't taken, or Sarah was taken and Rebekah was not. In the first two accounts with Abraham, his wife was actually taken by the king. In this account, Rebekah was not. Also, in the first two accounts, God directly intercedes. He brings a curse, or he reveals himself in a dream. In this case, it's actually Abimelech himself who makes an observation. In this one, it's different from the first two because Abimelech sees Isaac and Rebekah laughing. We'll talk about that. They're not laughing. That's putting it nicely. He sees them doing something only a married couple should do, and he realizes this is his wife. The second and third account are not like the first in the fact that, well, they're in Gerar, not Egypt. And we also see in the first account, Abraham was cast out immediately. Now, I think this probably has something to do with the fact that Egyptians are very suspicious people. When Abraham goes down to Egypt and Pharaoh found out what's going on, he cast him out immediately because Egyptians, they're suspicious. We're going to see that, especially with the Joseph narrative coming up. But in Gerard, they actually want to make a covenant with him. They're able to stay. All right, the ones that I really want to focus on here are how are the first and the third account alike and the second one different? How is the first account of Abraham lying like this third account of lying with Isaac? It's most interesting. First, a famine is the cause. With Abraham's first account of this lying episode and Isaac's only account, a famine is what stirs it. A famine is what begins it. Most importantly, the Patriots go down and lie after hearing their first word from God. That's not a coincidence. Abraham, Genesis 12, as soon as he's called out to leave his family and trust God and be the promised father for the promised covenant family, to bring about the reverse of the curse, as soon as he hears that first call of God, I will bless you and multiply you, he then flees in the midst of a famine and lies about his sister. As soon as he hears his first calling from God, he doesn't trust God afterwards. Isaac is the same way. In chapter 26, it's the first time God directly speaks to Isaac. Now, Isaac had heard God speak before when he was tied to the sticks about to be sacrificed. Isaac had heard God say, I have provided a lamb. But he wasn't speaking to Isaac. This is the first time Isaac has actually heard the covenant and the promise for himself directly. They parallel in that way. What we see here is that both patriarchs respond to the word of God, but then fail to trust it fully. All three of these stories are combined and relate to one another. The first one shows us that Abraham is still a sinful man and God is still faithful to his promise, even though Abraham is sinful. The second story shows that Abraham has been carried by God, but he's still a sinful man and God is still faithful to his promise. The third story shows that Isaac is a sinful man and God is still faithful to his promise. Repetition is a brilliant tool teaching us God's word. These stories are supposed to repeat over and over again. When we fail, God is faithful. We will fail and God will still be faithful. God is faithful to a faithless people. He keeps his elect. He protects his promise. Now, let's look at the story itself, Genesis 26. One side issue is we're not sure when this story took place chronologically. This story could be placed here anachronistically, which means it's placed outside of the time frame in which it would have occurred. What makes some people think that is the fact that the boys aren't mentioned yet. If they've gone down into Garar, where's Jacob and Esau? How does Abimelech not see the children and say, oh, the red hairy one, he belongs to you, obviously. So there's some question about if this event took place after the birth of Jacob and Esau. Now, I don't know if we necessarily believe it has to happen before or after. It doesn't necessarily have to be chronological. The Hebrews, they didn't write history as chronological as we do. They often wrote with a more theological purpose than a chronological purpose. One reason it may be out of chronological order is to book in Isaac's whole life by emphasizing Jacob being chosen over Esau, and then Jacob being chosen over Esau, and in the middle, well, Isaac fails. If it was taking that of chronological order, that's why. It's to pack in the whole story of Isaac. It's about Jacob being chosen. It's about Jacob being chosen. Isaac wasn't the chosen one. Isaac was the promised child, but he is not going to be the deliverer. Verses 1 through 5. Here we see that God blesses in the midst of turmoil. Let's look at chapter 26, verses 1 through 5. Now, there was a famine in the land. Besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham, another reason that it's clear this is not the same story. It's a different story, a different event. And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech, king of the Philistines. And the Lord appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt. Dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands. And I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven. and will give to your offspring all the lands, and in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." Again, this is the first time Isaac has heard these words directly. And it's a repeat of all the different promises that God had made to Abraham before. There's the multiplication of a seed. There's the blessing. There's the fact that you're going to be used to bless all the other nations. Let's walk through here and look at all of these different blessings, the word that he gives them. First, he says, do not go to Egypt. Now, this isn't giving a lot of direction. But it's telling him where you're not going to go. Do not be tempted by the brat of Egypt. Do not be tempted to go where your father first went. Oftentimes, getting a negative direction is really as good as getting a positive mark. You are being protected. This is why many of God's words to us are in the negative. Do not lie. That's a good direction for us. It's telling us all the different ways we can use our words. It's setting apart the way you cannot. You can say anything you want to as long as it's not a lie. Or the command, do not steal. God speaks in the negative to free you. He says you can have all that you want unless somebody else already owns it. Do not steal. Do not lie. The negative is helpful. Do not go to Egypt. Isaac must have either had a temptation or it was an obvious place to retreat to. But God is protecting him, saying, do not go there. Instead, he says, go where I will lead you. He's saying, I called you out. I created you special. I gave a special conception. You shouldn't even exist, Isaac. But I made you exist. I gave you life. Trust me. Trust me. Follow me. Rely upon me to guide and direct your steps. And Isaac should have trusted God. He should have gone and trusted Him wholeheartedly because he could go back and look at how God had given success to the effort to find him a wife. God provided success when Eleazar, or the servant, went to find Isaac, his wife. He could also look back at that time that he was supposed to be sacrificed, and God provided success. God provided the sacrificial lamb. He should be able to look back upon his own experiences and the stories of his father and know that God's Word is reliable and faithful. So, God is able to say, go where I will lead you. And Isaac should go. And Isaac should trust. Finally, there in verse 3, he says, sojourn there. Don't make this your permanent boat. This is not your place. Your place is elsewhere. This isn't a permanent dwelling place for you. I really want to focus here on verse three, where God gives a great promise that we're just going to camp out for a little while. He says, sojourn this land. Don't make it a permanent dwelling place. But then he says, I will be with you. I will be with you. Those few little words, those few words are sweet and precious. If we double click on them, if we really think about what God is saying, I will be with you. First, the basis of this promise is God's omnipresence. He is not spatially bound. He is not a deity of a local region. He is not just the God of the Mesopotamia or the God of the Middle East. He is God of all creation. He can reign and He is sovereign in all places at all times. He is everywhere. He is infinite and He is spiritual. He is not spatially bound. More so, his omnipresence isn't just speaking of spatial limits, it's speaking of how he has personal presence with his people. He isn't bound spatially, but he's also committed to being with his people. It's not just a presence, it is a love, and a care, and a concern, and a commitment that he gives us. He is everywhere we are, but most importantly, he is with us. everywhere we are in a special, loving, committed way. All of God is always with us. All of God is always with us. His love, His power, His glory, His holiness, His grace, His care. All of God is always with us. We may not experience it all the time, but that's because of our own failure, not God's. I will be with you. If you are an Israelite in the Exodus, reading Moses' words, when you hear, I will be with you, you immediately think of the covenant formula that defines Israel and now defines the church. The covenant formula is this. I will be your God. You will be my people. It is repeated throughout Scripture. I will be your God. You will be my people. This is God saying, you're my treasured possession. I am your Lord. I will provide everything you need. I am all that you need. I am committed to being with you. It is a covenant formula that God himself makes and keeps. This is what defined Israel then, and it's what defines the church now. More so, I will be with you. We should hear that great covenant name, Emmanuel. I am with you. Christ is Emmanuel. Christ is God who has come to become like us and partake in our life in a unique and special committed way. In Christ, we are God's people. In Christ, we experience, I will be with you. God has truly come and pitched his tent and taken on flesh. God himself became a man. And in Christ, we receive forgiveness. Reconciliation, redemption, sanctification, new life, eternal life, grace. In Christ, God with us, we receive every blessing from God. So when we hear the promise, I will be with you, we immediately think of Christ, because it's in Christ God is with us. In Christ, God took on flesh. In Christ, God took on sin. In Jesus Christ, God Himself died as a human being. In Jesus Christ, God Himself experienced the wrath. The Son of the Father experienced the wrath that we should get. In Christ, God has shown that He is with us in a unique, loving, special way so that we can be forgiven. See, it's an amazing commitment that God makes to us. He's the creator. We're the creature. We don't deserve it just on that level alone. But we're not just creatures who don't deserve this kind of commitment. We're creatures who are spitting and fighting and hating against God. We are rebellious creatures. And yet God still says, I will be with you. And he is with us in Christ to the point of death so that he can deliver us. from our own sin. He can deliver us from our rebellion. He can deliver us from death. His commitment is best manifested in Christ. But we see it all the way back in Genesis. The way God especially created this world. The way God breathed life into human beings. It was a special, intimate creation. And then as soon as we sin, God committed Himself to reverse the curse. He said, I will send a promised seed The commitment is manifested in Jesus Christ, but He has always been committed to us. Friends, now God is with us by His Spirit. God is with us internally. The very same power that rose Christ in the grave lives inside of us if we were His redeemed people. The Spirit indwells us. God is with us intimately and personally. God is with us corporately and congregationally. Whoever two or three are gathered, God is with us. Now, yes, that verse is speaking of God giving the authority of the church to excommunicate and discipline. But it is clear that when God's people meet together, God is with them. Here's the challenge, friends, as we come today to hear from God. Did we come with another purpose? Did you come today to hear a word from God or did you come thinking about something else? Is there something you are more concerned about today than hearing and experiencing God who is with us? You see, the fact that he is with us means he is here to be pursued. Being with us means we need to pursue him and experience him. As we come together for corporate worship, are we pursuing anything other than God? Have we come with a secondary agenda? Are we bothered by trivial or secondary matters? You see, as a church, we're about one thing. There's one thing that we are gathering for, and it's the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are gathering to be loved by God, to experience the forgiveness of God, to be encouraged in the forgiveness of God, to submit to the headship of Christ, to be built up as the saints by the Holy Spirit. One thing, the gospel. We can easily come and have lots of opinions, lots of personal convictions, and if we ever let our opinions and our personal convictions become the one thing we're gathering for, we're no longer the church. We're a social organization. The church is built up and focused upon and pursuing the gospel. Friends, we have to make sure we identify opinions as opinions and convictions as convictions and make sure the doctrines of the gospel are what we are about. Have we come here to experience God? Have you come today prepared to hear God, to be corrected by God, to be built up by God, to be encouraged by God? Friends, have we prepared our hearts properly? There's only one thing we can do here, and it's talk about the Gospel. It's the only reason we should ever gather together. It's the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's why he says, I will be with you, and I will bless you. When God is with us, he blesses us. When God is with us, he pours out his good gifts upon his children because that is what he is. He is good to us. We look at verse four, the promises continue. I will multiply you. He's opening the closed room. He is reversing the curse by giving more children. And hopefully it will be the child. And then interesting in verse five, he says that I am going to be with you and I'm going to do all these things because Abraham was obedient. Now, this doesn't mean that children can receive promises because their parents are obedient. You're not born into the covenant. You're not you don't receive grace secondarily. No, you have to have your own faith. But it's interesting here that God is committed to his people and he's committed to Isaac because Abraham's faith. If Abraham had not obeyed and had not believed, well, God would have chosen a different person. These promises are repeated in verses 24 and 25. Let's look here real quick at the fact that there was a famine that caused this. The context of this promise is important because we find it in the midst of troubled times. There's a famine and the famine is what really is the root cause and the foundation in the context of these trials and temptations. And I think it's interesting that this is where God's word comes and this is where Isaac experiences God. That's because trouble is where we find God trustworthy. Trouble is usually the context in which we experience God the most. And that doesn't mean that God isn't with us in our victories and our prosperity. It means we're probably so focused on our prosperity, we're not thinking about God. God is blessing you in the midst of your peace and your prosperity. The problem isn't God's presence being not there. The problem is you not pursuing God's presence in the midst of peace and prosperity. It does seem that in most situations, God reveals himself most clearly, or we see God most clearly in the midst of troubled times. I was recently reading Solzhenitsyn's memoirs from the Gulag. Yeah, good transition. Speaking of war, and he gave just a brief commentary, one paragraph, and he just makes a very general observation. He says that defeat is more of a blessing for the people than victory. He says defeat is more of a blessing for the people than victory, and his reasoning is this. He gives a rationale. Whenever a nation has victory, they have to keep going to war and have more victories. This is enslaving the people more to war. It's fairly logical in that way. Whenever a nation tastes victory, they have to have more victories and more victories, especially if you think of that great war machine, the Red Army. They had to keep going after more and more victories. And this was more of a curse for the people of Russia. So he says defeat is a blessing. Defeat is more of a blessing for the people because in defeat, people long for and usually attain freedom. In defeat, people usually long for and attain freedom. It causes people to contemplate life and purpose and the end of which they were made. He likens defeat and war to human suffering and he says this, human suffering should cause a deepening of the inner life and generate a spiritual upsurge. That's what caught my attention, a spiritual upsurge. Here's a man who suffered greatly, and he has contemplated and thought deeply in the midst of his defeat, and he's realized that in the midst of the suffering, he has understood himself more. Now, we as Christians, we don't pursue our inward strength. We don't look to tie up our boots and buckle down in the midst of trouble. No, we should look inside and see that there's sin, that we're untrustworthy, and then look up to see God. We should look up and pursue God and see that he is higher than we could possibly imagine. But he is still so present. He is exalted and glorious in the midst of our trouble. It is an opportunity for us to stop and listen, stop and pursue God in the midst of the trouble is when we contemplate and typically experience the truth of God. Most of us fail to look to God when life is fun, fast and fruitful. But God is still there. God is blessing that fun, fast and fruitful life. We just don't see it. It's when we look outside of ourselves and we look in the midst of pain and suffering, that's when we typically experience God. God is blessing all the time, but we typically experience it in that suffering. Let's look at our Next section, verses 6-11. We let the fear of man overcome our fear of God. Here we will see that we let the fear of man overcome our fear of God. So, Isaac settled in Gerard. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, She is my sister. For he feared to say, My wife, thinking, lest the men of this place should kill me because of Rebekah, because she was attractive in appearance. When he had been there a long time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah, his wife. So Abimelech called Isaac and said, Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say she is my sister? Isaac said to him, Because I thought, lest I die because of her. Abimelech said, What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife and you would have brought guilt upon us. So Bimlech warned all the people, saying, whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. Here we see that Isaac allows his fear of man to overcome his fear of God. Isaac, like his father, he lies about his wife being a sister. I do believe he probably learned this trick from his father. He doesn't trust God. Instead, out of a fear for how evil these people are, he practices evil. He is so fearful of these evil people that he says, I've got to practice evil. In order to beat these guys, I've got to lie. There's a great irony there. Because he doesn't trust them, he lies. He himself is untrustworthy. He teaches we don't fight fire with fire. We don't fight evil with evil. Our ends do not justify the means. He had just received the word of God. Remember this. He just received the promises to him directly, and then he goes down and he lies. It's so obvious to see Isaac, your bad boy, you failure, you liar. How can you claim to be a man of God? How can you hear the Word of God and yet then turn around and lie about your sister? Well, as we can see that this is so absolutely wrong, We need to make sure we use this opportunity to look in the mirror. We need to make sure we consider ourselves as sinful. We should look at ourselves and think about all the promises we have received and how often we turn around and sin. How often do we take matters in our own hands because our circumstances are too hard? How often do we get so overwhelmed with our pain, our trouble, our problems? That we try to fix things our way instead of trusting God. Now, we may not have lied, but how often in our own trouble have we maybe stretched the truth? How often in our own trouble have we grumbled? How often in our trouble have we stopped? Do we have a fear of man or a fear of God? Do we have a fear of man like Isaac here, or do we have a fear of God like his father does at the end of his life? See, a fear of man is short-sighted. It's not focused on the reliable promise of God. When we are overwhelmed with our experiences, do we trust God or do we run in the midst of fear? It's rare for someone to have a natural inclination to trust God. This isn't an intuition we have because our experiences, what we taste, smell, experience with fear, that's usually so immediate. Our experience is one of the most reliable sources we have and what we have to realize is that our natural inclination is to run in the midst of fear. Our natural inclination is to deny and try to figure out what to do to fix the problem. It's rare for someone to have the natural inclination to trust God. It's something that has to be built up. It's something that has to be worked upon. In the midst of a trial, we may say, if only I had more faith, I would be reliable. That's foolishness. God has not tempted you with more than you can handle. In the midst of every trial, you have to say, God is good. God is trustworthy. He has not given me more than I can handle. If you want more faith, that temptation, that trial, that's God's way of giving you more faith. The way you get more faith, the way you build your faith up is to remain steadfast in the midst of trials. Are we going to fear God? Are we going to fear our circumstances? In the midst of those trials, we don't just hunker down. No, we pursue the means of grace. You have to actively pursue God in the midst of trials and persecutions and sufferings. You have to pursue God in the midst of these things. You can't just sit there and think God's going to fix it all. You pray. You pursue God to give you comfort. You pursue God to give you direction. You read His Word. You look for wisdom from God's Word. You look at how He's been so faithful to so many failures throughout history and you know God will be faithful to you as well. You pursue fellowship. Get wisdom and care and build up, be built up by other brothers, meditate upon his word with other friends. Fast. In the midst of your most difficult times. Be self-sacrificing, deny yourself and let God reveal himself to you. In the midst of those difficult times, we should look to exercise our faith, not wish for more. In the midst of those difficult times, build yourself up on God's word with God's people by prayer. Fasting should be a clear option because it is there when we're denying ourselves that God will give us great comfort. Now, faith is a gift. That's why it is not our natural inclination to trust God in all circumstances. We naturally wonder where God is when we do not see Him evidently. Faith is a gift. And just like every other gift we have, it must be exercised. If you have large muscles by nature, if you're a well-built individual who has muscles, you still have to exercise them. You still have to grow them. You still have to nurture them. If you have an intellect, you still have to nurture that brain. You have to nurture that intellect. If you have faith, you still have to build up that faith. Having faith isn't passive. Having faith is active. We must pursue God, and in so we are pursuing faith. Now, let's look at this act of lying. We're going to see the importance of telling the truth. Many Christian groups have said that lying is the greatest sin. The reason for this, the rationale, is that what was called the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, it was a lie. When Jesus taught on the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, what that sin was in the context, it must have been lying about the Word of God and giving credit to Satan. It's saying that when God does something, it's actually Satan doing it. It's not giving God the glory and the credit for His work. It's lying about what God is doing. Lying also could be seen as the greatest sin because The lie is what began the whole problem. Satan perverting the Word of God, perverting God's good gifts, that is what caused all the problems. Lying is misrepresenting the truth and God is truth. God's Word is what we should be trusting and lying is corrupting and perverting it. I'm not sure if it's the greatest sin, but it's one that should give us great caution. We have to realize that our words are extremely powerful. Our words are extremely powerful. What we say can guide and direct people in every situation, in every possible way. Our words should be held in high regard by us, so they are held in high regard by others. We cannot lie. and declare the truth of God. If we are called out by God, our primary purpose is to proclaim his praise, proclaim his glory, proclaim his gospel, encourage one another. We cannot lie with the same tongue that sets itself aside for proclaiming God's truth. And we look at swearing falsely. This is making a promise in the name of God and not keeping it. Swearing falsely at the most basic level is saying, I'm going to do something in the name of God and then not doing it. And what you're doing is bringing shame upon the name of God. To that pagan that you do business with, if you make a promise in the name of Christ and you do not keep that promise, you're defaming the name of Christ. You are connected to the reputation of Christ because you're his child. We have to realize that when we go out of this place or when we're in this place, what we say matters because God is with us. When God is with us, we are necessarily representing Him. Do we use our words to build up, to tell the truth? We shouldn't just desire a good reputation because we tell the truth. We should desire to glorify God because we tell the truth. Children. Lying is a sin that is habit forming. Lying is a sin that is habit forming. Lying will usually create a cycle of lying. You need more lies to cover up your other lies. And what you do is you create a pattern of how you speak to your other siblings or your parents. Be careful about your words. Be careful about creating in yourself a pattern where you are twisting the truth. Let's think about trust here in the midst of this concept of lying. Trust is a precious thing. We talked about early on a long time ago how innocence is so valuable. Once you lose your innocence, it's gone. It's that thing that should be personally precious to you. Trust is the social equivalent to innocence. Trust is how others view you. Trust is how others see you. Trust is the basis for deep friendships. Trust is a great treasure. You need to keep others trusting you. You need to keep your word so that people trust you. We cannot stop trusting other people. Many of us adults, we become cynical. We've been lied to. And so the fruit of that is that we think, well, everyone's a liar. When we can become a cynic, we can't let that happen. That's a corruption of our own hearts that grows from bitterness. For instance, as we look at trust, as we look at lying, we have to realize our words are precious. Our words are powerful. Our words should be used to proclaim the good news of Christ. And when we use them to lie, that undermines what we proclaim about Christ. One last meditation on this, and it's coming from the evangel that I wrote a while back, and that there's a difference between forgiving and trusting people again. Once you lose trust, it's a long, hard road to gain it back. Once you lose someone's trust, it is difficult and you may never get the same trust back. And we need to make sure we're not keeping ourselves from forgiving other people, even though we may not trust them. Forgiveness means we no longer hold the offense of the sin against the person. But that does not mean every consequence of the sin is removed. Forgiving someone is saying, I am no longer holding that offense against you. I'm going to forgive you. I'm not going to let hatred or bitterness or envy be between us. And when you forgive someone, that doesn't mean you have to trust them again. These two concepts are too intertwined, I think, in most of our minds. To forgive someone isn't to trust them again. Let me give some examples. You can forgive a friend for lying to you, but that does not mean you trust them again with the most precious details of your life. You can forgive your spouse for looking at pornography, but that does not mean you need to trust them again with the computer alone. You can forgive someone for betraying your trust when you confide in them, but that does not mean you trust them with your personal burdens. You can forgive someone for lying to you, but that doesn't mean you take what they say at face value every time. There's a difference there. You can forgive and not hold that offense to them, but that doesn't mean you give them the keys to the kingdom again. That doesn't mean you give them your most precious trust again. As we look at the episode, we see that this one is different because God doesn't reveal to King Abimelech what happened. King Abimelech uses his own observation. He looks out and he sees them laughing. Now, this is interesting. It's not laughing. It's probably better translated as caressing. They're participating in a relationship and a way of relating to one another that is only met for marriage. What they're doing is so obvious that is obviously revealing to Abimelech that they're married. So Abimelech comes to him, has fear of being guilt, having guilt upon himself. He says, why have you lied? And then he corrects him. Now, Isaac then begins to live in the land. Isaac begins to be blessed by God. Here we see the world should see evidence of grace in God's people. The final point is that the world should see evidence of grace in God's people. I'll read verses 12 through 16 and 26 through 33. And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him and the man became rich and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him. Now the Philistines had stopped and filled the earth, filled with earth all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abram's father. And Abimelech said to Isaac, go away from us, for you are much mightier than we are. Let's get down to verse 26. When Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzath, his advisor in Phicol, the commander of the army, Isaac said to them, Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you? They said, We see plainly that the Lord has been with you. So we said, Let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord. So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths, and Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug, and said to him, We have found water. He called it Sheba. Therefore, the name of the city of Beersheba to this day. When Esau... Sorry, I'm going to stop there. We'll get to Esau next week. What we see here is the people of Gerar, they see the evidence of God's blessing in God's people. God blessed Isaac, and it was obvious to the other people, to the point where Abimelech himself, he first casts him out because he gets too big, but then he says, I need to make a covenant with you. Because God is with you, I don't want to be against you. Now, as I meditate upon this, the first question that came to my mind Is God's work in me so obvious to others that they see it? Is there evidence of God's grace to the point that other people see God's work in me? Do others see God's work in you? Will those outside of the church, will those people that you work with, that you interact with on a regular basis in the midst of the trials and tribulations of business life, do they see God's blessing in you? in either patience or truth telling or trust or humility? Are you more caring and kind than your co-workers? Are the fruits of the Spirit evident at home and at work? What is your reputation? Now, I hope that's a challenging remark for you to make sure you are showing the blessing and the evidence of grace of God at work, but let's just bring it right home. What is your reputation here at Jefferson Baptist Church? We need to make sure we're thinking about how we love one another and grow in godliness here before we think about how we're loving others and growing in grace out there. If we can't get along and love one another here, you shouldn't be trying it out there. We are children of God. We should be loving one another as Christ has loved us. So where's the reputation here? We've been talking about lying. Let's keep thinking about the mouth and the use of words. What do people hear coming off your lips? What is your reputation here? Are you someone that people say they're an encouragement? They're building up the body. They speak the Word of God well. They encourage me in the gospel. What comes off of our lips amongst one another? Now, one of the problems that can happen in a church is that you get so used to people, you just speak to them without watching what you say. This is why we're usually most hurtful to those people we love and spend the most time with, because we get so used to them that we speak to them without guarding our mouth, without guarding our tongue, without making sure that every word that comes from our mouth is seasoned with grace and love. So if you think about how you speak to others, what kind of words come out? Are you a grumbler or someone who's full of grace? Is more grumbling coming out of your mouth or is more grace coming out? Are you known for forgiveness or for fighting? Are you known for complaining or for comforting? Are you known for encouraging others in their gifts or for envying others in their gifts? Are you known for confronting sin with the gospel of love or for condemnation? Friends, I hope those are weighty challenges. I hope you pray about what kind of words come out of your mouth if you're building up or tearing down, because what we say reveals what's in our heart. Our heart needs to be built upon the gospel. Our heart needs to be built upon the word of God. What we say reveals our heart. And if you are challenged and convicted about what you say. Well, ask forgiveness for what you say, but let's start pursuing the heart and where these words are coming from. As we end. Simple question, do you believe God is with you? God has said, I am with you, God revealed, I am with you to the point of death in Jesus Christ. God has said the Holy Spirit is with you. Do you believe? God is with you. What is the evidence that God is with you? How does your faith that God is with you produce endurance and patience and obedience? His word forgives us in our failures. Praise God for that. It establishes us in His grace and sets us back on the narrow path during the race. Friends, God is with you. Persevere in His presence. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You, Lord, for the constant reminder that we are sinners. I pray that You would show us more and more the sinfulness of our own hearts and our own actions. Help us, Lord, to be a church that is pursuing our sin so that we can repent of it properly in the gospel. Help us, Lord, not to adopt a woe-is-me mentality, but a praise you, O God, for you are great and you are mighty that you have loved sinners such as us. Help us, Lord, to be a church that doesn't get bogged down with secondary trivial matters. Help us, Lord, to be a church that is committed wholly and fully to your gospel that reveals our sins and reveals your glory and your grace in the midst of them. Lord, help us. Help us to know how to tame our tongues. Help us, Lord, to know how to not use this great instrument, this powerful instrument, to curse. Help us, Lord, to use it to build up and to show Your grace. Help us, Lord, to proclaim only things that are true. Lord, that means we'll be proclaiming mostly things about You, our glorious Holy God. Let me pray. Amen.