The Failure of a Godly Man

is great to know that God does offer a river of forgiveness for all of our sins, for all of our shortcomings and failures, for times when we do not measure up to what we know He wants us to be or to do, that God offers His grace as forgiveness. We're going to see an evidence of that tonight in Abraham's life. If you will open your Bible, please to Genesis chapter 12. I guess we have a natural tendency to play some people on a pedestal, to think of them as a little more spiritual, maybe a little more godly, more holy than the average person, and to kind of lift them up above others, they are almost above failure. They cannot disappoint. We expect them to be superhuman. They don't struggle with the same issues that we normal humans struggle with. We may exalt them to the point that we expect perfection of them, and that is a sure, sure route to disappointment, because there is no one like that, no human being like that. The only perfect individual who ever walked planet Earth was Jesus Christ. He was God, along with being fully human, but there is no one else that should be blind or placed on a pedestal, because everyone at some point will fall off that pedestal and will be sure to disappoint you in some way. I think we do the same thing with some Bible characters. I think there are some Bible characters that we lift up and think of them almost as perfect role models. I love biographical preaching, preaching through the lives of Bible characters because there are such rich lessons for us to learn. One of the things that is so refreshing about the Bible's portrayal of its characters is that it is surprisingly honest about their lives. Just at the moment, for instance, with Abram, just at the moment you think, this is a great man of God, then all of a sudden you see a failure. If you were with us last week, you were impressed with his faith as he left his homeland, his family, everything that was dear to him and struck out for a nation that God had promised him, but he didn't even really know where it was and we were impressed with his faith. But just about the time we're ready to move him up on that pedestal, God shows a failure in his life. The very next story about Abram describes a failure in his life. Now, that could be discouraging to you. I don't know about you. For me, it's encouraging. Because I am fully aware of the failures that I experience and it gives some encouragement and hope that God can use us regardless of occasional failures that we may experience or personality defects that get in the way sometimes or just some of the personal junk from our past that we may carry around with us. God can still use us. We see that Abram shares with us the experience of failure and God wants us to understand and learn from his failure some principles about how to deal with failure. So in our text this evening, beginning in verse 10 of Genesis 12, I want us to learn some lessons from Abram's failure. First of all, let's look at the elements of failure. What was it that came together to create this opportunity and led to the failure that Abraham experienced in his life? What were the elements of failure? What was to analyze what happened to him? And see if we can learn from it some of the elements that we need to look out for that might be present and cause us to trip up and fail as well. The first element in Abram's failure was a severe test, verse 10. Now there was a famine in the land and Abram went down to Egypt to live there there for a while because the famine was severe. A severe test day after day, no rain, crops beginning to fail, a shortage of food, a real life famine in the land. And I can imagine that Abram was beginning to hear some complaints. We don't know this for sure, but possibly in the evening time Sarah, his wife would ask him, are you sure this is the place where God told you to come? Didn't God say he would bless us when we got here? Maybe some of the servants were grumbling a little bit, maybe some of the other family members that had come along with him a lot or others, maybe were a little disillusion with what was going on. This was becoming a pretty severe test for Abram. Isn't it interesting? Do you find this to be true in your life that oftentimes after a great success or a great spiritual blessing in your life, all of a sudden, there is a real test that comes your way. We have to watch out for those things because after a great spiritual blessing or victory, there is a natural letdown anyway. There's kind of a letdown that says, wow, that was just wonderful. Let me kind of bask in that for a while. And when we kind of lean back in our spiritual easy chair to bask in the blessing for a while, that's when the bottom can drop out and a real severe test can come along. That's exactly what we're seeing with Abram. Now Abram in the midst of this test reacts in a way which shows some surprising weaknesses. I think first of all we have to face the fact was it wrong for him to go to Egypt. Quite often if you read about this text you'll find that people say, well it was wrong for him to go to Egypt. After all, doesn't it say he went down to Egypt, indicating a moral slide and ethical decline in Abram's life? Well those words went down really don't indicate that at all. People do the same thing with Jonah. When they say he went down to Joppa, then he went down into the ship, then he went down into the coil to the fish. He was always going down. Those are just geographical descriptions and are not intended to give us any kind of moral insight into what was happening to Abram. By the way, Egypt was not yet off limits for the people of Israel. That would come later. There would be some very serious warnings. But there's no indication that warning had been given to Abram. So let's be careful before we criticize him too strongly. Had God really told him you should never go anywhere else. Certainly he had told him the land of Canaan was the land that he would inherit and would go to his descendants. But did God tell him you should never take a vacation over somewhere else or go somewhere else for a period of time? We don't really know. So I think we need to be careful to withhold judgment on Abraham about whether or not it was right for him to go to Egypt. Really, in my thinking, it's more what happened to him after he got there that shows some real cracks in his character, that shows some weaknesses and failure in his life. So the fact that there was a severe test opened up the possibility that Abram might fail, but it doesn't necessarily mean that he will fail. How we respond to tests in our lives? Will determine whether or not we fail. So let's move on. Let's see how Abram responds. Verse 11. As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarah, I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife, then they will kill me, but let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and my life will be spared because of you. I think there is a second element in Abram's failure, and that is a willingness to compromise the truth. Now, isn't it interesting that the Bible says, Abram's testimony about his own wife was, I know what a beautiful woman you are. If you compare all of the passages that kind of give age indications for Abram and Sarah, you would be able to figure out she is 65 years old right now. Now, was Abram just being kind because you wanted to butter up his wife? Probably not. Some of you ladies would love to know what kind of beauty cream she was using for 65 years old, but let me remind you, age spans were longer in that day, and we're talking about a comparative equivalent of about 35 to 40 that she would have been in our years. So, probably that's very understandable, that statement at that time. Now, please don't misunderstand, I'm not saying if you're 65 you cannot be beautiful ladies, I'm not saying that at all. I'm about to dig a hole here that I can't get out of, but I'm not suggesting that, but I'm just suggesting there may have been very good reason for Abram to indicate the beauty of his wife. For whatever reason, he was afraid that when they got to Egypt, what he knew to be culturally true would probably kick in, and that is in Egypt, if you want someone's wife, you just kill the husband and take her. That was the way they operated in Egypt. He expected that could possibly happen, and so he says to his wife, why don't you just say that you are my sister? Now, in that case, there would be negotiations to marry a sister. If it was a wife and you wanted the wife, you just killed a husband in Egypt. If it was a sister, however, you negotiated a price, and Abram probably thought, well, you know, we can negotiate a price, and I can set the price so high they would never want to meet that price and will be okay. Maybe that was part of his rationale. If you go back and look at the family tree, Sarah was a half sister to Abram. And so maybe he's rationalizing, you know, we could, in some sense of the word, say that you're my sister and we could escape the problems that would come with them thinking you're my wife, and maybe get by without anything bad happening to us down there, but quite clearly it is Abram's purpose to deceive and to escape from having to give the full truth. So really, this was a lie. It was a compromise of the truth. I don't believe it can be justified on any grounds. I don't think even Abram's rationalizations could justify what he has done. Failure often begins with little compromises, little compromises. Well, this is not really the truth, but it's kind of the truth, little compromises, little compromises in finances, little compromises in sexual purity, little compromises in tax reports, little compromises in how you present yourself to other people, little compromises. Character may be revealed in the big moments of life, but character is made in the little moments of life. And when we begin to make little compromises in our lives, we begin the step toward moral failure towards sin. And so the severe test reveals some cracks in his character, part of how he responds is with a compromise of the truth. But notice he also responded with selfishness, with selfishness. Look again at verse 13. He says, say, you are my sister so that I will be treated well for your sake, and my life will be spared because of you. You see, if he is seen as her brother, then he will be saved. It doesn't seem to occur to Abram that her honor might be compromised in that process. What will happen to her if she's taken as someone's wife there? That doesn't seem to be the foremost thing in his mind. What does seem to be foremost in his mind is I want to escape with my skin intact so that I will be okay. It's clearly what he's saying. He seems to even be willing to compromise her honor to save his own neck. I really don't know that Abraham ever sank any lower than this incident right here. Certainly, there is an astonishing selfishness about the way he's approaching this whole deal. When we begin looking out only for ourselves, it will only be a short time until moral failure catches up with us. When we're only thinking about what works for me, what's best for me, what will gain me, what I want in life, then you are setting yourself up for failure. And so how does failure begin? It may be stressed to the point of showing cracks in our character by a severe test. But we're responding to that test is what really shows whether or not our character is intact. And when we respond with a willingness to compromise truth and selfishness, then we are headed toward failure. But the real response of Abram, when you put all this together, is a lack of faith. Behind everything else, it was a lack of faith. What had God told him when he told him to leave Err and go to Canaan? He had told him, I will bless you and I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. In other words, Abram, if anybody tries to do your harm, you harm. I will take care of you. It appears as though Abram didn't really believe that, did he? At least not in this test. God, in his own marvelous way, could have protected Abram and Sarah from any danger, even if they had told the full truth. I mean, even if he had broadcasted with a bullhorn. This is my wife here. God could still have taken care of them because of his promise. Really, what was happening here was a lack of faith. That is really the bottom line. Whenever we fail, the bottom line is a lack of faith. Now, our character may be revealed to have flaws by a willingness to compromise truth or selfishness or some other moral flaw, character flaw that may be manifested. But in reality, practically every failure in our Christian lives boils down to a lack of faith in either doing what God says, living according to His principles, simple obedience, or a lack of faith in God to take care of us and protect us and to do what He said. So we feel like we've got to handle it our own way. The elements of failure. But I would have you to see next the results of His failure. What happened? As a result of His failure, three things happened to Abram the first was a deeper entanglement in trouble. Verse 14, When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman. And when Pharaoh's officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh and she was taken into His palace. He treated Abram well for her sake. And Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkey men's servants and maid servants and camels. Wow, it appears as though Abram's airtight plan is bursting right in front of him. There's one thing that Abram didn't count on and that is that Pharaoh doesn't play by the rules. It doesn't matter in his mind whether or not she's a sister or a wife. He's going to get what he wants. So the idea of if she's a sister, they negotiate, if she's my wife, they just kill me and take her, that doesn't work with Pharaoh. He doesn't play by the rules. And so now Abram is really in a mess. He's getting deeper entangled in trouble. And there are only two options for Abram at this point. Only two things really he can do. Either he can go to Pharaoh and tell him truth and Pharaoh will probably kill him and keep Sarah by anyway. Or he can continue to live the lie. Both he and Sarah I will live, but they will never be reunited. You see what a mess he's gotten himself in? There's really no good way out of this. There is no other clear option in his mind at this point. I can just imagine Abram at night in his tent ringing his hands, staying awake at night, thinking, what a mess I'm in now. What am I going to do? Why did I ever come here? Why did I lie to start with? And what am I going to do now? And about that time, you know, according to the text in verse 16, some of Pharaoh's guys show up with some more cattle or some more sheep or something else. And with every delivery of more to Abram being treated well because of his sister, the hole gets deeper. And Abram cannot figure out how to get out of this dilemma. There is no way out. What a mess he is in now. You see, even though it may not look right in the beginning, telling the truth and doing what is right is always the best way to go. When we do that, God honors that and God will protect and bless that. When we take things into our own hands, compromise the truth, act selfishly, we are going to dig a hole that we will not be able to get out of. Mark it down. When we fail in that way, when we start to compromise, we just keep digging deeper and deeper holes. So the first thing that happens to Abram is a deeper entanglement in trouble. The second thing that happens is supernatural intervention. Supernatural intervention, verse 17, but the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram's wife, Sarah. God specializes in situations where there is no way out. When we have dug ourselves into a hole that is so deep, there is no way out. When we are overwhelmed by trouble, when we are left with no good options, that is when God steps in. Now, please understand, God is not obligated to do that. He was not obligated to do that with Abram. God would be perfectly just to let us just hang ourselves when we get to the end of our rope because of our own schemes. God would be perfectly just to let us suffer the consequences of our own actions. What we find here is God stepping in in his grace. Abraham is given a gift from God and that is that God intervenes. He doesn't have to, but he does. And evidently, it is to teach Abram, you need to trust me. You would have been better off all alone, all along, to trust me in the beginning. Now you're in a position where all you can do is trust me because there is no other option. There is no other way out. Because of God's grace, he intervened. And we ought to be thankful for every time God bales us out and intervenes by his grace and his mercy when he is certainly not obligated to do that for us. Supernatural intervention, but it didn't come without some cost. The third result of his failure is a loss of his testimony. Look at verse 18. So Pharaoh summoned Abram, what have you done to me? He said, why didn't you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go. Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men and they sent him on his way with his wife and everything he had. Boy, that's stung. A sharp rebuke from an unbeliever. A curt command to take your stuff and get out of here. That hurts. Someone who said it's not injustice that hurts. What really stings is justice. When we get what we deserve. And you know, Abram couldn't say a thing. Abram could not respond with any reason or excuse except to say, I didn't trust my God. Isn't Abram to be the one light in this part of the world about what it means to live by faith and to trust the God of heaven? And now he's blown his testimony before one of the most powerful rulers in the world. You ever been there? You ever done that? When you add an opportunity to be faithful to God in a certain situation, maybe at work or even at home. And in that situation, you were not faithful or obedient to the Lord and an unbeliever called you on it. How embarrassing that is. What a terrible damaging reflection that is on our testimony for Christ. When we lose our testimony, when non Christians are offended by our behavior, when they call us up short and say we expected better of someone who claims to follow Jesus, we must be careful that we never let that happen so that our testimony is not damaged. Whenever we disobey God, whenever we crack under pressure and are not faithful to our Lord, we run the risk of damaging our testimony before an unbeliever. That's exactly what happened to Abram. Well, he's failed. We've seen the elements of that. We've seen the tragic results of that. What about the response to failure? What does this man do now? What does he do now? Well, in chapter 13, the first four verses will find out. But first of all, let me just explore with you for a moment some typical responses to failure. There are some responses that we often try. Blame shifting is one. Failure to take responsibility. And we've learned that well. We learned it from Adam. When God says to Adam, where are you? Where have you done? The woman you gave me. When Eve is asked what happened? The serpent. Blame shifting. Always some reason why I've done what I've done. Well, the circumstances I was in, or that person treated me wrong, or this happened that was beyond my control. And we have a tendency to shift the blame away from us rather than just saying, I blew it. It was totally my fault. Blame shifting is often a response. Sometimes our response to failure is depression. And we think because we have failed that we are a failure. Well, I'm just a failure. I'm no good. I'll never amount to anything. I can't do anything. I'm of no use to God. And we have this pity party that spirals us down into discouragement and depression. That's sometimes our response to failure. A third typical response is resignation. I'm just going to quit. I can't seem to get it right. So I'm just why try anymore? And so I'm just going to be satisfied with the way things are and quit trying altogether. Just a resignation to a kind of mediocrity that certainly does not please God. Those are typical responses to failure. But what's the proper response? Let's give Abraham credit. What he does next is the proper response to when we have failed. Let's read it in chapter 13, verse 1. So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev. That's the southern part of the land of Canaan with his wife and everything he had and lot went with him. Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and silver and gold from the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel to the place between Bethel and I where his tent had been earlier and where he had first built an altar. Their Abram called on the name of the Lord. What did Abram do? He went back home. And more than just going back home, he went back to a place that was very special to him. A place between Bethel and I. One of the places he had first settled when he came to the land of Canaan and a place where he had first built an altar. That's a spiritual place for him. That's a place of spiritual connection with God. And so what is he doing? More than going back home, he's returning to the Lord. He's returning to his spiritual roots. And I would suggest that whenever we have failed, the thing to do is to return to the Lord. To return to him first of all in confession. Come back to the Lord and say, Lord, I have sinned. I take full responsibility. I have failed. I confess honestly to you that what you already know and I agree with what you have said about my sin. It is wrong. And I confess it to you. Return to the Lord in confession. Secondly, return to the Lord in gratitude. I'm sure that when Abraham went to this altar, it was to thank God for getting them out of Egypt, for protecting them. They could have both lost their lives or he could have lost Sarah I forever. And I'm sure there was a sense of gratitude to God. Lord, even though I blew it and I ruined my testimony before Pharaoh, you graciously allowed us to get back home and to not lose each other. You delivered us. And I'm sure there was a grateful spirit. So return to the Lord in confession. Return to the Lord in gratitude. Return to the Lord in recommitment. And the Old Testament and altar was a place where you worshiped God, where you reconnected with God. Where in a sense, you brought your commitments back to where they ought to be. It was a place of finding your spiritual focus again. And I'm sure that's what Abraham was doing. I think he realized he'd gotten out of focus in his spiritual life. And now he is back to where he ought to be, recommitting his life to the Lord, saying, Lord, from this point on, I don't want to do that again. I want to walk with you as I should walk with you. I want to recommit myself to you. It is unrealistic to think. That if we have failed, that's the end. We have no use to God anymore, no use to anyone else, just forget it. Quit. No. Babe Ruth, at 714 home runs, that was a major league record for a long, long time. He also struck out 1,330 times that may still be the major league record for strikeouts. Now, do you think when Babe Ruth struck out, he said, I can't play ball, forget this. No. He got back and batted the next time. And occasionally, he'd hit a home run, but he struck out a lot too. We are going to fail. Not an excuse for mediocrity, but we are going to fail at times. And that is no reason to give up. Failure should only spur us to return to the Lord in confession and gratitude for his grace and his mercy in forgiving us and restoring us and then recommitting ourselves to him and saying, Lord, from this day forward, I want it to be different, I want to live for you. Satan will taught you with failure. Satan will cause you to think that once you fail, you are done. What I think Abram shows us here is that we can turn that around and use failure when it does happen tragically as an opportunity to recommit ourselves to the Lord. Back before the Revolutionary War, the British troops began to taunt the Rag tag American troops. It actually started in the French and Indian War back in the 1750s, began to taunt the Rag tag American troops with a song that made fun of their uniforms and made fun of their weapons and made fun of their leadership, including several verses that made fun of George Washington. And they would gather sometimes outside of colonial churches and sing this song to ridicule the Americans. Whenever there were public gatherings, this song would be sung to ridicule the Americans. But you know what happened? The American troops turned it around on the British. They took that same song Yankee Doodle and began to use it as a victory song whenever they would win a battle. They turned it around and used it against the enemy. Oh yeah, we're a rag tag bunch with ragged uniforms, untrained leadership, faulty weapons. But we beat you today as Yankee Doodles did. And you see, that's what Abram does. Abram took what could have been a miserable failure in his life that could have meant no more resolve to live for the Lord again at all. And he turned it around and said, Lord, let's make something out of this. I come back to you to the altar that I built here. And I want this time to be better than the last. I want to learn from this failure. I want to confess to you. I want to be grateful for your mercy and grace. And I want to recommit myself to you. That's how to turn failure against the enemy and come out of it stronger. If we respond like Abram did, we can actually come out of failure stronger than we were before. Would you pray with me, please? Father, we see ourselves so much in the pages of Scripture. We certainly see ourselves in Abram's life. The times when because of our faulty thinking or disobedience, we fail you. We fail others. Father, I pray that you would help us not to let the enemy use failure to discourage us from ever trying again. But I pray, Father, that you would enable us to respond like Abram did, to come back to you, back to that place where we refocus our spiritual lives and come out stronger than before. Or I would ask for anyone here tonight who is struggling with a sense of spiritual defeat in their lives to recognize that they can respond with victory. Help us to be stronger tomorrow than we were today. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.