<TITLE>12. Par 81-92</TITLE>L-81 Abraham was the beginning of our faith. Is that right? All right, Abraham had the promise. And God called Abraham because he was a great man, I guess? No, sir. He come down out of Babylon, in the--in the land of Chaldea, in the city of Ur, and God called him and made His covenant with him, unconditionally. "I'm going to save you, and not only you, Abraham, but your Seed," unconditionally.
God made a covenant with man, and man breaks his covenant every time. Man never did keep his covenant with God. The law was never kept. They couldn't keep the law. Christ was come and broke the law Himself. 'Cause, grace had already provided a Saviour, Moses provided a way of escape, and then--escape, rather; and then the people, after that, they still wanted something to do. Man's always trying to do something to save himself, when you can't do it. It's his nature. As soon as he found out he was naked in the garden of Eden, he made some fig leaf aprons. Is that right? But he found out they wouldn't work. Nothing a man can do can save yourself. God saved you unconditionally, all down through the age. And then when you're saved, you're saved.

L-83 Look at Abraham. There that fellow was, went over, and God give him the land of Palestine and told him not to leave there. Any Jew that leaves Palestine was backslid. God told him to stay there. If God tells you to do something another, and you don't do it, then you're backslid. Is that right? All right, a drought come on to try Abraham's faith. And instead of Abraham staying there, no, he couldn't stay there, he run off, and took Sarah and went about three hundred miles (wish I had time to get on that) down to another land.
And when he got down there, and then he got this great king down there, Abimelech. He was a young fellow and he was looking for a sweetheart, so he found Abraham's wife, Sarah, and fell in love with her. And Abraham said, "Now, you tell him that you are my sister and I'm your brother."
So that pleased Abimelech, so he said, "All right, we'll just take her over to the castle." And I guess the women fixed her up, and he was going to marry her the next day.

L-86 And Abimelech was a good man, a righteous man. And that night while he was a sleeping, the Lord appeared to him, and said, "You're as good as a dead man." He said, "The man's... The woman that you got out there to marry, is another man's wife." Now, watch, "Another man's wife..."
Why, he said, "Lord, You know the integrity of my heart," a righteous, holy man. "You know the integrity of my heart. That man told me that was his sister. And didn't she tell me herself that that was 'my brother'?"
He said, God said, "I knowed the integrity of your heart, and that's the reason I kept you from sinning against Me. But that's My prophet." Hallelujah.
What was he? Backslid, and a little, lying shyster. Is that right? Oh, no, there ain't no little white lies; they're either black lies or they're not lies at all. The man setting out there telling a pine-blank lie, saying that was his sister when it was his wife, beating around the bush, and backslid.
And here was a righteous man standing before God, and said, "Lord, You know my heart."
"But I'll not hear your prayer, Abimelech, but take him--take her back and let him pray for you. He's My prophet, I'll hear him." Yes, a backslider, liar, "but that's My prophet." That truth? That's the Bible.

L-92 Now, don't go plumb too far over here on the Calvinistic side, "once in grace, always in grace," 'cause you'll get in disgrace. See? Now, just a moment; we'll get time this week to bring that up and show you how level it is. But don't think just because you've done something wrong that you're gone forever. You're a child of God; you're born of the Spirit of God; you're sons and daughters of God, and the fruits will bear record of itself. There you are.


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