Return of the Old Man (15 of 34)
Jerry Vines
Genesis 20:1-18
4/27/03
This is a sad chapter in the life of Abraham. In a way I wish that this chapter were not in the Bible. Yet, one of the ways we know the Bible is true is because it tells the truth about its heroes. Noah, the great man of faith, got drunk. Moses, the great leader of the people of God, lost his temper. David, the great king of God's people, committed adultery and murder. In the New Testament three times Simon Peter denied that he even knew the Lord. Here is Abraham, the great man of faith, the father of the faithful, yet he tells a lie. He says about his wife, Sarah, "She is my sister." He causes a great deal of problems.
It is in the Bible not as an encouragement for you and me to sin, but as a warning that you and I might not sin. The things, which are written in the Bible, are given for our learning that we might learn from the mistakes of these Bible characters and not make the same mistakes ourselves.
This particular experience in the life of Abraham is extremely helpful, especially to those of you who are mature Christians. Some of you have been saved for a long, long time. You have grown in the Lord. You are a mature Christian. But there are two very important facts I want to lay on your heart this evening if you are a mature Christian or consider yourself to be.
One of those facts is this. You never, ever reach a point in your spiritual progress where you are so mature in the Lord that it is not possible for you to commit some of the same sins you committed when you first became a believer. You never get to the point that you are immune from temptation. First Corinthians 10, verse 13 says, "For there has no temptation taken you, but is common to man." The same old sins that tempted us early in our Christian life can tempt us again and cause us to fall. That's the first thing you need to understand.
The second thing you need to understand is that your safety, as a believer, from sin ...
Jerry Vines
Genesis 20:1-18
4/27/03
This is a sad chapter in the life of Abraham. In a way I wish that this chapter were not in the Bible. Yet, one of the ways we know the Bible is true is because it tells the truth about its heroes. Noah, the great man of faith, got drunk. Moses, the great leader of the people of God, lost his temper. David, the great king of God's people, committed adultery and murder. In the New Testament three times Simon Peter denied that he even knew the Lord. Here is Abraham, the great man of faith, the father of the faithful, yet he tells a lie. He says about his wife, Sarah, "She is my sister." He causes a great deal of problems.
It is in the Bible not as an encouragement for you and me to sin, but as a warning that you and I might not sin. The things, which are written in the Bible, are given for our learning that we might learn from the mistakes of these Bible characters and not make the same mistakes ourselves.
This particular experience in the life of Abraham is extremely helpful, especially to those of you who are mature Christians. Some of you have been saved for a long, long time. You have grown in the Lord. You are a mature Christian. But there are two very important facts I want to lay on your heart this evening if you are a mature Christian or consider yourself to be.
One of those facts is this. You never, ever reach a point in your spiritual progress where you are so mature in the Lord that it is not possible for you to commit some of the same sins you committed when you first became a believer. You never get to the point that you are immune from temptation. First Corinthians 10, verse 13 says, "For there has no temptation taken you, but is common to man." The same old sins that tempted us early in our Christian life can tempt us again and cause us to fall. That's the first thing you need to understand.
The second thing you need to understand is that your safety, as a believer, from sin ...
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