I've titled this sermon, Two Royal Sinners. Two Royal Sinners. You'll get this as we move along. There's really no mystery of it at all. So we're going to be in the 20th chapter of Genesis. And I'm going to read all 18 verses of the 20th chapter. And in this chapter we have more the narrator who is ultimately the Holy Spirit moving through the author, Moses, telling the narrative of the patriarch here, primarily of Abraham. So we've been learning a lot about Abraham. And then we kind of shifted scenes and moved to Lot, Abraham's nephew. We had a couple of chapters of that disastrous activity in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God, we saw God's mercy and His grace, His rescuing, His saving. The scene is now going to shift back to Abraham and Abraham is going to be on the move again. Abraham is a sojourner. Abraham is a pilgrim traveling through the land that God has promised to him and to his descendants. Yet Abraham is no property owner. He's no home owner. tent dweller, he's a nomad, he is a traveler, a sojourner. That's the language of the Bible. And so if you've made way there to the 20th chapter, I'm going to read verses 1 through 18, and in just a moment I'm going to invite you to stand with me for the reading of the Word, and in doing so I'll invite you to instruct me by saying, give us the book. Then when I'm done reading the text I'll say, this is the Word of God, and there I'll invite you to say, and we believe it. So if you're in that 20th chapter of Genesis, will you stand with me for the reading of the word? I will. This is verse 1. Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. Then he sojourned in Gerar. Abraham said of Sarah his wife she is my sister so Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah and God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night and said to him behold you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken for she is married now Abimelech had not come near her and he said Lord Will you slay a nation even though blameless? 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, see, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this. and I also kept you from sinning against Me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. Now therefore, restore the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all of yours." Verse 8, Now Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants And he told all these things in their hearing, and the men were greatly frightened. 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 all of my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done. And Abimelech said to Abraham, What have you encountered? that you have done this thing. So Abraham said, because I thought surely there is no fear of God in this place and they will kill me because of my wife. Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother. And she became my wife. And it came about when God caused me to wander from my father's house And I said to her, this is the kindness which you have shown to me. Everywhere I go, say of me, he is my brother. Abimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female servants and gave them to Abraham and restored his wife Sarah to him. Abimelech said, behold, my land is before you. Settle wherever you please. To Sarah he said, Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, it is your vindication before all who are with you, and before all men you are cleared. Abimelech prayed to God, and God, or Abraham, verse 17, Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children. And the Lord For the Lord had closed fast all the wounds of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. This is the word of God. And we believe it. Amen. Heavenly Father, what a narrative here. And we will trust you that you have designed before the foundations of the world for our hearts to receive your word today and to apply it, to lay it upon our own lives this day. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Well, do you believe this is the word of God? I'm going to take your half-hearted, yes, I do, as a wholehearted, full-throated amen. That's how I'm going to interpret it today. because I know you do. I know you believe the Word of God. What a peculiar and yet what a familiar narrative, right? You remember this back in chapter say chapter 12? Abraham has traveled, he's already traveled through this region and he traveled as far south as Egypt and remember when he gets there he encounters Pharaoh. And what does he instruct Sarah about they're going to do, I'm going to tell everybody you're my sister. Because we don't know what the Pharaoh's gonna do. You know, he may look at you and listen, everything that we should understand about Sarah is that she was a strikingly beautiful woman. And there's no way I think I could properly and and in a helpful way describe the kind of beauty. Her name itself, if you recall, whenever we were in that 12th and 13th chapters of Genesis, her name literally means princess, beautiful princess. So the name itself that she's carried all these years as a barren woman, unable to bear children, And yet don't forget just a few chapters ago, remember we had the messengers on their way to Sodom and Gomorrah to announce the destruction, to see if the reports were true about how wicked the city was. When they're on their way to Sodom, the Lord himself tells Abraham that this time next year when they return on their journey, that Sarah will have a child, a boy, a son. And so this is fresh on their minds. This is just happening. Now there's about a 20 year gap between chapter 12 and chapter 20 in the narrative. A lot has happened in this time. And yet, here is almost the exact same kind of scenario. Now, first things first. Anytime we have a fifth Sunday, in a month, we're devoting that Sunday night to question and answer time. And it's really just to ask whatever you want to ask. And one of the questions that I received last, well, two weeks ago, but I didn't see it until I got home. Unfortunately, I would have loved to have addressed that that Sunday night. And then and then look, I get to address it on a Sunday morning. And that question was about was Abraham and Sarah brother and sister? Well, I mean I don't know that you can get any clearer than Genesis chapter 20 in trying to get an answer for that. Now there's definitely, and here's a risky thing to do with scripture, we don't want to spend our time nuancing every minute possibility. But you know this, that there are things in the Bible that need to be nuanced, but very carefully. and exercised within the weight of all and the totality of all of Scripture. So to say that Abraham and Sarah were brother and sister could mean the possibility of one, two, or three possibilities. One is, they could just be full-blown brother and sister, the same father, the same mother. The Bible makes that pretty clear to us. That is not the case. Sarah is the offspring, the child of a different woman than Abraham's father, Terah. Abraham's father, Terah, is the father of Abraham and the father of Sarah. This much is clear, right? This is how we're seeing it. Now, we get into this piece of, OK, now, is this a half brother and sister, which is where I land? There is still yet one more possibility. They could be first cousins. And this would be in the language of how people talk about families, that cousins would be considered brothers and sisters of the patriarch. In this case, it would be the patriarch Tara. if we're looking at the family tree. And so that possibility could be, however, I'm going to wait on the clearer interpretation of the text, which we get right here in Genesis chapter 20, is that Sarah is the daughter of Terah and Terah's, another wife of Terah. And Abraham is the son of Terah and Abraham's mother. The Bible helps us with that, gives us some clarity. It doesn't take any of the awkwardness away from it, but it gives clarity. Was Abraham speaking truthfully when he says that Sarah is my sister? In all three cases, we could say, yes, he's speaking truthfully. And then we also have to realize that as we think of this, as we consider this, what are we to do with this? Well, first of all, before we pick apart any other piece of the narrative here, let's make this clear on the front end. Because it's in the text is not permission to do this. So to the listening ear right now, you may have already got this settled. Okay, this is not right that brother and sister are married as husband and wife. It is part of the biblical narrative. The good news is that the authors of the Bible didn't try to clean up the awkward pieces and remove this piece of the story. We have it all. We have the good, the bad, and the extremely awkward, which can be described as ugly, perhaps. So this is not permission to do this. As a matter of fact, we have recorded scripture that forbids this. Leviticus chapter 18, Leviticus chapter 20, Deuteronomy 27. Those are just three places where we see that's very clear who is permitted to marry who and who's not permitted to marry who. There's no mistaking. Now because you and I are reading the Bible post script, we know that the law is given after this occasion. But let me make the argument here from the narrative of chapter 20 is that the law was already common among mankind. Otherwise, why is Abimelech satisfied to take Abraham's sister, but yet the moment he learns that she is actually and technically his wife, does he say, whoa, wait a minute. I'm not doing that. I'm not taking another man's wife. I'll take his sister, but I'm not taking his wife. So there's already a cultural agreement. There's already culturally acceptable and permittable ways in which individuals could see. Okay, listen, this is permittable. Now, I know this doesn't answer all the questions that just start to get traffic jammed in our head, does it? So remembering here, this is recorded in the Bible. And and this is in the book of beginnings. So we we our minds can't help but then even go back to. OK, so listen, if if they're if this is a culturally acceptable thing, then what about Adam and Eve and all their offspring? There's there's no other way for there to be other offspring unless there is marrying of brother and sister. And this is not even being half brother or sister or first cousins. This has to be full-blooded brother and sister. Well, again, we've already stated it this morning. This is the Word of God, and we believe it. It's not like, aha, I gotcha. This is just like, hey, we've got to accept every piece of it. And that it is acceptable by God in the creation narrative that that's happening. Listen, this is what happens with the fallen nature. is that in a fallen nature, the closer one's relationship to kinship is, begins to bring about a breakdown of the gene pool. There begins to be problems. So this isn't God saying, oh, I don't know how to fix that. This is God saying, because of the fall, I'm telling you, don't do this. And then we have the narrative of Scripture that they did this. And so we say, well, okay, and not only just once, but Abraham was willing to do this twice. One, they did this, they married brother and sister. And then two, that Abraham and Sarah are involved in a telling of this true statement that she's my sister, that he's my brother, rather than she's my wife or he's my husband. But as we ask God to help us and ease our minds through this, we're just going to say, blessed be the name of the Lord. And we can understand that, and we can respect this, that it is part of the biblical narrative. Now, the naysayers, they love to use these kinds of passages. And may I even argue that not only the naysayers love to use this, But also do the perverted in life love to use this to say, listen, who are you to say to me I can't do what I feel like I want to do? More of that in just a moment. So for now, even in our own state of Idaho, state law forbids these kinds of marriages. brothers and sisters. Even the state laws of Idaho, a secular state, to some level of argument, meaning that the law is in agreement with God here. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And by the way, this is not the only place that the law is in agreement with God. There are places now that the law is in disagreement with God and that's increasing, but by and large historically the laws of states and the laws of our nation have been in agreement with the law of God. This is changing. And unless and until there is a revival of God's church and an awakening in the land, this reversal will continue to move. So the laws of marriage Maybe weren't as clear here in Genesis chapter 20, but yet we will mark through the narrative here, obviously there was some kind of an understanding that brothers and sisters didn't marry. They already knew that there was problems with this, not just physically, but even ethnically. There's going to be ethically, morally, There's problematic pieces in this, in a fallen condition on this side of the garden. So mark my word here, this too will always be a problem for a falling society unless the state repents of her current sins. More sins will be legalized. Right now, most of the sins that are being called legal in our state are only decisions that are made in the courthouse. Few of them are made at the legislative body, which is where the laws ought to be made. But as soon as you get a culture that's comfortable with quote-unquote legalized sin or legalized actions that are against and opposed to the nature of God and the Word of God, it will be an easy pass someday when the legislative branch says, well, let's go ahead and make it legal. The argument will be, well, it's already legal because the Supreme Court is the supreme law of the land. Well, listen how little understanding that people have. The Supreme Court is not the final, the Supreme Court is not the supreme law of the land. In our culture, in our national and in our state culture, who is the lawmaker? The lawmakers are the highest law of the land, the legislative branch. The duty of the judicial is to determine How does it fit inside of the constitutional framework? Well, this isn't a civics class this morning. And when I look across the landscape of this congregation, I think the vast majority of you already have this in place. We've already settled these kinds of issues. So this is not a political stump speech for you, but if you're not registered to vote, I don't know why you're waiting. Well, part of it might be because the courthouse is closed today. But you'll need to get yourself registered as quickly as possible. And I'm just saying that in a passing moment here, while I've stepped out of the narrative of the text and looking at the legality piece that's just in a civil government piece, and you and I live in a land where our engagement at that level is not only permittable, but it's expected that God's people could, would, and should engage themselves in that, especially that which is the legislative branch of our governments. Alright, so we have this case study before us. Now part of the case study here is that as you follow your way through the narrative, this is almost taken off the pages of chapter 12, chapter 12 and chapter 13. Abraham goes into Egypt He permits, he allows his wife to be taken by the king, by the ruler of that land and praise be to God before a sin can be committed by Pharaoh against God, by that being against Abraham. Soon as he finds out, in fear, Pharaoh gives Sarah back to Abraham and enormous wealth He packs him up with camels and sheep and cattle. He gives him people to go with him. Abraham comes out of that debacle a rich man. He was probably already a rich man. He comes out of it a wealthy rich man. You saw this is happening here as well. Abraham is journeying now. He's moved away from that predominant place where he's been While Lot has settled in Sodom and Gomorrah, in the area of the Oak of Mamre, now as he's moved along and traveling again, the news of this wealthy patriarch is widespread. Respect of him is widespread. And so when Abimelech hears and knows that, hey, well, listen, I've got to deal with this man. And one of the ways that, again, this isn't right, So don't do it. But this is the way cultures did this, is that in order to establish treaties with each other, is that the king of this land marries a daughter or a sister or somebody who is of high connection to the patriarch or the king of this culture. That's not uncommon. Solomon falls into that, that lying trap, and it's part of his decline. And so Abimelech, this Philistine king, as Abraham is on the move, once he learns that Sarah is Abraham's wife, then blessed be the name of the Lord, he didn't commit that sin. Now Abimelech's guilty of a lot of sins, but he's not guilty of this sin. So what do we do here? We have a case study. So let's at least note this first of all. The fact that God forgives and restores is not permission to sin. Let me say that again. The fact that God forgives and restores is not permission to sin. Apparently I'm gonna need to say that one again. The fact, I know you know this. I'm saying it for my purposes. I'm saying it for the emphasis of the text. Because we don't want to walk out of the 20th chapter with some kind of perverted theology. That God is not bothered by our sinful actions. And He's not bothered by it because look what He does to Abraham as a result of it. He's given more livestock. He's given more people, more slaves. His wealth increases again. So let me say this with that in mind. The fact that God forgives and restores is not permission to sin. The Apostle Paul would answer this by saying, God forbid there when he's addressing the sin actions. The philosophical idea in the Apostle Paul's day was, listen, here's how I can really show the grace of God. By showing everybody what a great sinner I am and then come out after I've committed a great sin and ask God to forgive me of my sins and show them what a gracious, loving God is. Paul says, God forbid you would do that. That's one who does not understand the grace of God. So to think that one can be forgiven by God, and that God will restore, not only restore, but even add to your possessions, or add to your wealth, or add to your strength, because as you come out of the other end of the sin, that you've prayed a prayer, and you've walked an aisle, and you've asked God to forgive you of doing something. That's an American gospel. That's a prosperity gospel. That's a gospel that tricks, traps and ensnares. The Apostle Paul to the church in the Galatian region would again say that's not even a gospel. Anyone who comes along telling you false things attached to the gospel, that's no God. Even if an angel comes telling you this is a word from God, he'd give him permission for you to act in this sinful way, God forbid you do that to the Christian. So don't do it. The fact that it's written in the text, it's in the holy writ of scripture, is not laying out here for us a case study to examine, okay, here's how to sin and get really rich. You've listened to a liar, if that's the conclusion that one would come to. So we would notice in this case study today, Abraham has, we've already noticed, he's done this before. And we should note here as well in the case study, it is possible for a good man, not only to fall into sin once, but to relapse into the same sin. So brothers and sisters, here stands as a warning to us. It's possible for a man who walks with God to fall into sin. It is possible. It is possible for that same good man to fall twice into the same sin. It is possible. Again, we're not looking for excusing. This is no way to make a defense for your sin. This again would be the kindness of God that we would see this is a graceful God and it is possible for a good man. He might fall into sin once and it is even possible that he would relapse into the same sin. What you should not do is to think that sin is weak and frail. Some Christians I would say, real deal, born again, bona fide Christians think little of sin and they dance with it. That might be your case today. Let me say to you, this is no time to take your foot off the brake here. The Bible is very clear about how we should treat sin. Very, very clear. The New Testament especially uses language like run. Turn. Get as far away from it as fast as possible. Turn from your sin and turn to God. The Apostle Paul, again, to the young preacher Timothy, he tells him to flee from youthful lust. In 1 Corinthians 6, verse 18, the Apostle Paul tells the church, flee from it. The second time really would be the first time. In 1 Timothy 6, verse 11, the Apostle Paul tells Timothy, flee these things. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 14, flee from idolatry. Acts 3, verse 19, turn from your sins and turn to God. So this isn't a case of Abraham being wise as a serpent, because it's clearly not being gentle as a dove. So we're not gonna misuse another piece of scripture to excuse Abraham's actions here, as Abraham was just being wise as a serpent. He's looking at the landscape and he's saying, okay, listen, if we go in there, danger for all of the household of Abraham. So let's go ahead and speak the truth, but let's do it in a conniving, mysterious way so as to preserve ourselves and avoid this nasty possibility of death. No, this is not... And I want to give every kindness and grace to Abraham, but here's what I'm not going to do, is I'm not going to let us use another piece of Scripture to excuse away a sinful action. Being wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove. You can't do one and not the other and be inobedient with the instruction of that text. Abraham is not being gentle as a dove. to his wife, Sarah. He might be, at some level, we might could say, well, look how wise he was. Look how clever he was. Look how he avoided death. Yeah. But look what he did to his wife. No, he's not being wise as a serpent here and gentle as a dove. And because he's not doing one of those, he's not doing either of them. So we have scripture to help us think through this. So this is part of this case study that we have here in the 20th chapter. There's more that we need to get to in the text of chapter 20. But before I move on, though, Abraham has a sure promise from God that he and Sarah will have a son. So I'm going to insert that knowledge on the front end, perhaps even with no ill intent on my part to make Abraham look less like a good patriarch, because he is a good patriarch. He is the father of our faith. Let's not forget this, that Abraham has a sure word from God. that Sarah will soon, if she's not already pregnant at this moment, she will be soon, because the clock is ticking from when the Lord said, when I come back here in a year from now, you will have a son in your arms. He's going to be born. So if she's not pregnant, she will be very soon. And not by Abimelech, praise be to God, by Abraham, that which What's impossible for man is not impossible for God. So let's keep that in mind. Abraham has this on the front end. God is going to bless his household with offspring. Which again, I lay that on the front end of this. And we should do the same with the case in Egypt with Pharaoh. Abraham is a walking believer of the confidence and the faith of God. And notice sometimes that great men of faith will sometimes act as though they have no faith at all. But it doesn't mean he's lost his faith. So let's get some other things in place here. Abimelech. Who is he? Where is he from? He's the king of Gerar. This is a Philistine king. So everything we're going to know moving forward, we know everything we need to know moving forward. This nation will always be at odds with the people of God. This nation is an idol-worshipping nation. Abimelech is already guilty of sins before the High and Almighty. But isn't it interesting that he appeals to the Almighty when it looks like he's in great danger? So possibly he's looking to make a treaty with Abraham because he's a powerful nomad, he's a powerful nation already. So even though he doesn't have any offspring at this time, Abraham is this marching nation, moving and doing and successful in all of his ventures. There are principles here that we can apply to even But there are principles in this 20th chapter that we can see are applied to even pagan nations. And what are they? Well, one, they're politics. Politics are entangled in everything. And marriage is an interesting dynamic in all nations, whether they surrender to God or not. The politics of nations They are always being addressed and talked about. Just recently, while Renee and I are traveling back from Kansas, giving some respite care to her sister and care and enjoyment with her grandparents, we're stopped at a Denny's in mid-Nebraska, bright and early in the morning. The sun hasn't even risen. And I suspect this is the case of Denny's everywhere. The early crowd at Denny's, they show up nearly every day or they show up on the same day every week and there's going to be a lot of dialogue, a lot of loud dialogue. It's hard to not hear what's going on at other tables. Especially you find people like Renee and I who are relatively quiet people. You walk into our home on any given day and say, does anyone live here? Hello, is anyone here? We're pretty quiet people. So we're sitting in Denny's, we've made our order for a delicious breakfast, and I've been thinking through this kind of dialogue of what's happening here in Genesis chapter 20, and it starts happening in the living color right in front of me. So there's these two, I'll just call them older gentlemen. They're not retired, they look like they should be, but they're hard working, ranching, truck driving, a cattleman in the middle of Nebraska sitting down having coffee and a very little other and talking loudly because neither one of them can hear. And I'm not making that assessment. They've said that to each other. I know you can't hear me, but there's just a boy speaking loudly. And in the same region where the waitress sat us was also a couple, an elderly husband and wife. I'm assuming they're husband and wife. They're presenting themselves as husband and wife, not brother and sister. And there they are in dialogue with the, so with, there's four, there's three tables involved in this dialogue. And Renee and I are one table removed and we're hearing everything. The conversation moves along. We know the two individuals are from Nebraska. And we learned the couple is from Minnesota. Oh boy, this is going to get exciting. I think I even looked at Renee and said, we couldn't pay for this kind of a breakfast. The dialogue was already about politics. And don't you know, it's just fun to listen to other people talk about politics. At least I do. So we soon learned from the couple that's from Minnesota that they are pro Harrison Walls, and the two other elderly men are pro-Trump. Well, this is going to be really good. So the conversation was surprisingly civil, but at the same time unsurprisingly diverse and opposite of thoughts. They started with the economy and talking about the price of hotels. I don't know, do you travel much anymore? Hotels, yeah, find a place for under 150 bucks that you're willing to stay in. They were talking about in the 70s, you could stay at a Holiday Inn for under 20 bucks. I thought, oh, I'm not staying anywhere for 20 bucks. I've seen places that charge 70 bucks. I'm not staying in them. So the movement from the dialogue of the economy moved from there to employment, and there from employment to the possibility. The couple from Minnesota asking the two men from Nebraska, what do you think about a woman president? Oh, I looked at Renee and said, this is going to be good. They didn't linger there long because everyone was in agreement, because nobody wants to say, no, I don't want a woman president in fear of looking bad in front of other people. And I'm just going to leave that there. If you want to talk deeper about any of these opinions that I have, we could talk later. Moved back to the economy, and then our breakfast came. So we haven't even started eating yet. And we're in for dinner theater. before the sun has even arisen. The conversation then moved over to migration and illegals voting. Oh boy. I mean, I've got a chicken fried steak sitting in front of me with gravy and hash browns and toast. I mean, this is the, I'm in for a great conversation and a great meal. The conversation then moved not only from migration and illegal voting, but what about paper ballots and computer voting? Oh boy, this is exciting. What about the electoral college? They didn't talk about this, but I promise you at a Denny's in Idaho somewhere, there's a bunch of old men talking to strangers from other states about ranked choice voting. Oh boy, you should have ordered two chicken fried steaks, preacher. It then moved over to global warming and climate change, abortion, and women's rights. Love is love, don't you know? I looked at Renee at this point and said, we ought to ask for a lunch menu, because this is going to be good. Hey, all in all, the hearts of men, they're the same everywhere. But when men come to face to face with death, they want to know who God is. And they want to talk to Him. Not about injustices that God has done, but they want to know, God save me, because I know I'm a sinner. Oh God, what have I done? This is Abimelech in Genesis chapter 20. Abimelech has been struck with, we don't know what, that he has wrongly taken Sarah. Now, the scripture is kind to us and says he's innocent in what he's done. His integrity is above board. He thought she was his sister. And in the dialogue, God even gives him credit for this. I know this. But the fact is, she's his wife. And Abimelech is struck with a disease. And so much so that there's already presence of great sin in the Philistine people. That Abimelech's family, his household, is barren. There's no offspring. There's no ability for them, the capacity for them to increase their tribe is diminishing. And so now, a greater problem has come to them, and that is that Abimelech, who's a pagan man, he's an idol-worshipping, evil nation. And he's visited by God in a dream. Now, I have a lot more I can say about that, but time's just not going to allow me. The economy of the time right now I just got to skip over a whole lot of things to get here to this, where we're at in this narrative, in this case study that we have here. So Abimelech, he acknowledges, he doesn't call him Yahweh, but he acknowledges him as Adonai, Lord, a higher authority than himself. And so in this dialogue, in this discourse, he appeals to this Yahweh. He is Yahweh, but he doesn't know him as such, but he's treating him as such. And so Abimelech has called Abraham to his bedside. He's sick. Something severe has happened. So in this, Also in this dream, the Lord tells Abimelech that Abraham is a prophet of Mine, and he will heal you. And so Abraham and Abimelech have this conversation, and Abimelech is saying, what have you done to me? You know, if you had told me she was your wife, I wouldn't have taken her as one of mine into my harem of wives and concubines. Note, he's already living in sinful actions before God. The great king Abimelech is a sinner before God. The patriarch Abraham is a sinner before God. Two royal sinners they are. The hearts of men really are the same everywhere. And here's the thing, when men come face to face with death, they want to know who knows God. They want to know, who knows this Almighty? I want to talk to Him. Now, they may not say this out loud, but listen, we have enough narrative of people's deathbed experiences that there's usually some kind of remorse even on the beds of the most wicked, vile people. They want to know, does anyone here know God? Abraham is that man. Abraham knows God. What about you? Do your neighbors know that you know God? Do your co-workers know that you know God? Does your mayor know that you know God? Does your county sheriff know that you know God? Does your governor know you know God? Great sinners are committing atrocious sins before God. And they're going to want to know God. Are you ready to give them the gospel? Are you ready to give them the name of the Almighty? This is how Abraham is the father of our faith. He is not afraid to obey God when directly instructed to obey Him. The closing verse of chapter 20, the Lord had closed fast all the wounds of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. Well, this is indeed, I mean, it's uncomfortable reading. It's uncomfortable thinking. It's awkward, and it's frustrating, and yet at the end of it, it is quite glorious. We can be certain of this. God is a forgiving God. And whatever sin you're found guilty of this morning, God is ready to forgive. He's able to forgive because He is the Lamb that is worthy to cover the sins of man by His own blood. But this table represents before us the promise of the Gospel. There it lies again, the opportunity for the church, the believers of the living God to come before the watching world and say, we know God. The world wants to know who knows God. Now it's possible that some will come to this table who don't know God because they want to be seen as those who know God. But it will be certain of this that those who know God will not let that be reason to keep them from the table. Here's the proclaiming opportunity the Lord has given us as a corporate people today to behave like Abraham at this moment and say, blessed be the name of the Lord.