All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn back to Genesis 25. Genesis 25. The scriptures declare the surety
of God's word, God's will, God's counsel being done. Isaiah 46,
9 and 10 says, remember the former things of old, for I am God and
there's none else. I am God and there's none like
me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand
and I will do all my pleasure. Now, the Lord had promised Abraham
something concerning Ishmael. Genesis 17, verse 20, the Lord
speaking to Abraham about Ishmael. The Lord said, I've heard thee.
Behold, I've blessed him, and I will make him fruitful, and
will multiply him exceedingly, 12 princes shall he begat, and
I will make him a great nation. Well, in the passage I'd like
to look at for a few minutes tonight, in Genesis 25, verses
12 to 16, we'll go on through 18 in a moment, but I wanna look
at the first few verses. We see the fulfillment of the
promise of the Lord to bless Ishmael. And the names that we
read a moment ago, I'll read them again. These are the generations
of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar, the Egyptian, Sarah's
handmaid, bear unto Abraham. These are the names of the sons
of Ishmael by their names according to their generations. The firstborn
of Ishmael, Nebajoth, and Kedar, and Adbil, and Memsham, and Mishmah,
and Dumah, Massah, Hedar, and Timah, Jeter, Naphish, Kedumah. These are the sons of Ishmael. These are their names by their
towns and by their castles. 12 princes according to their
nations. That's how many the Lord told
Ishmael you're gonna have. You're gonna have 12 sons. Now,
the scripture then declares, verse 17, 18, and these are the
years of the life of Ishmael, 137 years. He gave up the ghost and died
and was gathered unto his people And they, that is, his sons,
dwelt from Habilah unto Shur, that is, before Egypt, as thou
goest toward Syria. And he died in the presence of
all his brethren. Now, we're not told anymore about
the death of Ishmael than this, and the Lord had told Hagar,
Ishmael's mama, about the character of her son. If you want to look,
it's Genesis 16, 12. And this is what the Lord told
her. This is the way he's going to be. He will be a wild man. His hand will be against every
man, against every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell
in the presence of all his brethren. From Genesis 18, we know where
Ishmael's brethren dwelt. They dwelt in the vast desert
of Arabia, which according to learned writers, said that the
eastern part of the desert, desert that he lived in was called Havilah,
and the western part was called the Wilderness of Shores. So
we know where he was. He was in that Arabian Peninsula. Now, of the 12 sons, of Ishmael, and this is where
I was just gonna read them and just look at them and see what
we're gonna do, and I was gonna go on to the next, but I felt
impressed to just stop. I'm just gonna dwell on that
portion tonight. But of the 12 sons of Ishmael,
most of them are mentioned right here. This is it. Not all of
them, just most of them. And generally speaking, We would
read the names of these sons, and you would just think that
there would be basically no more to be known. I mean, this is
what the Spirit of God said concerning. But the two oldest boys, Nebaioth
and Kedar, the Spirit of God moved upon the prophet Isaiah
to pen a prophecy. and mentioning these two men,
and in the mentioning of these two men, what I was able to see
was the setting forth of the glory of God in God's mercy and
compassion to call out His chosen people. So I'm dealing with this
passage of Scripture in Genesis, but I want you to turn with me
to Isaiah 60. Isaiah chapter 60. Now, in this, I'm going to look
at the first seven verses. And the Spirit of God is obviously
speaking to the church concerning the surety of the salvation of
God's elect, especially in this passage, the Gentiles. But also
in this passage, and we'll see this, that there's verses that
can and are applied only toward or speaking toward and of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So I want us to look for just
a minute at this precious account, and I pray that the Lord gives
us eyes to see and ears to hear concerning the Lord who is worthy
to be heard, the submissive, blessed servant and angel of
the covenant of God's grace. Now here's Isaiah writing under
the inspiration of God's spirit, and he's saying, he's speaking
obviously to the church right here, he says, arise, arise,
rise up, stand, be confirmed, arise and shine. Margin says, be enlightened,
excuse me, be enlightened for thy light cometh. Rise and shine. What mercy that
the Lord would speak such encouragement to his people. Shine in the grace
that has been shown you. Why? For thy light is come and
the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Now, The light doesn't
come from us. That's false religion by nature. They think that power, light,
ability, it comes from us. It doesn't say that. It says,
for thy light has come. The light has not come from us,
it's come to us. The Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the light, is revealed unto us. The light has come unto you. John 8, 12, I am the light of
the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. So here's the Lord, the Spirit
of God, speaking to the church. Arise, shine, for thy light is
come. The glory of the Lord is risen
upon you. Now you think about that. He's
risen upon you. He's been given to you. God has
shown mercy unto you. Verse two, for behold, the darkness
shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people, but the
Lord shall arise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon
thee. Behold, he said, now take note,
darkness, darkness, ignorance, spiritual ignorance, wickedness,
death. Now this is man by nature. This is man by nature, blind,
dead, trespasses and sins. For behold, the darkness shall
cover the earth, conceal, and gross darkness, the people, heavy
darkness, thick darkness, You know, the Lord said to a group
of people concerning their confession of having light. He said, if
the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness. If
what you think is spiritual light is actually ignorance and darkness. That's darkness, that's gross
darkness, heavy darkness. That's just by nature. But the
Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon
thee. So we know this, before the Spirit
of God causes the light of the gospel to shine into the hearts
of his people, all there is is ignorance. All there is is superstition
and false religion that's found within us. But when the Lord
gives the light of the gospel, and it shines upon you, shines
in it, when he gives us light, then we behold. Then we see. Then we, by faith, we see the
Lord, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of His people. We see Him. We see Him as the
Redeemer. We see him as the great high
priest, the king of glory. And then the spirit of God is
prophesying, continuing on through Isaiah, and he said, and the
Gentiles shall come to thy light, and the kings to the brightness
of thy rising. Now, the Gentiles, now here's
the promise. The Gentiles, the world, that's
what they call the world, you know. When he says, for God so
loved the world, he was speaking to a Pharisee. And he was telling
that Pharisee, for God so loved the world, not everyone without
exception. You know that. I know how that
scripture's distorted. They say God loves everybody.
The scripture doesn't bear that out. God so loved the world,
Jew and Gentile. He loves all manner of men. But
the Gentiles, verse 3, shall come to thy light, light meaning
here illumination, the setting forth of the gospel of the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And kings, that is royal, it
means royal, to the brightness of thy rising, that word means
to shoot forth in beams of light, that the blessing of beholding
the mercy of God to the world. to all men. Let me tell you,
the blessing of God showing mercy to Gentiles were all Gentiles. You got Jews and what the Jews
considered dogs in the world. Jews were, in their opinion,
were the only people of God. And everybody else was dogs.
And God shows mercy to Gentiles, to dogs, Like us, a believer
will admit that, yes, like the Syro-Phoenician woman, the dogs
eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. So here he's
saying, he's telling through Isaiah, here's the promise of
the Lord. God's gonna save his people,
and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, to the brightness
of thy rising, the blessing of men of all ranks, all colors,
men, women, you know, just all types, but ultimately, all needy
sinners. Men, women who are chosen vessels
of God's mercy, like us, those who according to the grace of
God have been made to be partakers of the heavenly calling. Look
at, hold your place and turn back to Isaiah 2.2. Isaiah, here's
the promise of the Lord concerning his people. Isaiah 2, verse 2. And it shall come to pass in
the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be
established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted
above the hills, and all nations... Where's that? Jews and Gentiles.
All nations shall flow unto thee. Mount Zion. shall be fixed and
known by all people. They're gonna behold it, those
that are of the Lord. And back in Isaiah 60 verse four.
Then he says, lift up thine eyes round about and see. all they
gather themselves together. They come to thee. Thy sons shall
come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side."
Now here's the Spirit of God telling us again the marvelous
work of God's power, continuing in the context to call out His
people, all God's sheep, are going to be gathered together,
joined in that unity of the faith. Not just the Jews. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about the Gentiles. Sons come from far and daughters
shall be nursed at thy side. The Lord said in John 6, 37,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Him that cometh
to me, I will know wise. What does it say in verse four?
Lift up thine eyes round about and see, all they gather themselves
together. They come to thee, thy sons,
and come from far, thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.
Isn't that a precious thing? Sons of God. Now are we the sons
of God. It does not appear what we shall
be, but when we see Him, seem as he is and be like him. I don't know. That's as far as
I can go with that. That's all I can know about that.
But here's the promise of the Lord. We have brethren that are
all over this world. They're scattered, but they're
coming. We'll all be drawn and be refreshed
spiritually. nourished with the sincere milk
of the Word. And then verse 5, Then thou shalt
see and flow together, and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged,
because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee. The forces of the Gentiles shall
come unto thee. Now, at that time, in the calling
out of God's people, When we behold, and we behold it now
in these last days, last days from the time of the Lord's arrival
into this world when the word was made flesh. And so when we
see the Lord coming and calling out his people, our brethren,
sons and daughters of God, according to the election of grace, those
predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to good pleasure of his will, the scripture says
we shall flow together. When you look at that word flow
together, it means with joy, sparkle, to be cheerful, When
we see that, and we do, when we see the Lord calling out His
people, we flow together, we're cheerful. I've told you before,
every time I would see somebody come in for the first time visiting
or something like that, first thing I think, who knows? Who knows, this may be one of
the Lords. Who knows that the Lord might be pleased to call
them out. It says, our heart shall fear. It'll revere and
be in awe at the glory of the Lord and be enlarged. That is,
to broaden or to make open wide, obviously, with the joy of those
that are being called out. That they're one with us, if
the Lord's pleased to call them. Because the abundance of the
sea shall be converted unto thee. Now, in my margin, it says, the
noise of the sea shall be converted unto thee. And that word, abundance,
It means to roar, to crowd or sound. And the best interpretation
of this, the sea, was given in a parable by the Lord, hold your
place and turn to Matthew 13. Matthew 13, verse 47, concerning
this sea, the abundance of the sea. Matthew 13, verse 47, Warren gives a parable here,
and he says, again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net
that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind, which
when it was full, they drew to shore, set down, gathered the
good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the
end of the world when the angels shall come forth and sever the
wicked from among the just. and shall cast them into the
furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Jesus saith unto them, have you
understood all these things? They say unto him, yea, Lord.
What he was saying, he says, the kingdom of heaven is like
a man, like a fisherman. And he cast a net into the sea.
And he pulls in all kinds, all kinds of fish. He sits down on
the shore and he divides the good from the bad. He keeps the
good and the bad thrown out. It's like the casting of the
net of the gospel. What we're doing is we're fishers
of men. That's what the Lord told his
disciples. He said, follow me, I'll make you fishers of men.
And we cast the gospel, we just proclaim the truth of the glory
of God. And the Lord has promised, He's
going to bless. He said, all that the Father,
we just read it, all that the Father giveth me shall come to
me. And him that cometh to me, I'm
not gonna cast out. If they come, they come by the grace of God.
They're made willing in the day of God's power. That's why they
came. They came because God drew them to come. Gave them a new
heart, and they came to him. And here's the promise back in
Isaiah 60. It says, then shalt thou see
and flow together, thine heart shall fear and be enlarged, because
the abundance of a sea shall be converted unto thee. The forces
of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. So we behold The abundance
of the sea, the promise of the abundance of God's people found
in the world, they're going to be converted unto Him. The Spirit's
speaking concerning that inconceivable number of God's people which
shall be converted. And the first time we see the
word abundance, the abundance of the sea, first time I found
it was in Genesis 17.4. And it was when the Lord was
speaking to Abraham, he's talking about the abundance of the sea,
and he said, as for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and
thou shalt be a father of many nations, a multitude of nations.
So when it's talking about the abundance of the sea that'll
be called unto the Lord, it's talking about a number that no
man can number. The Lord knows, but no man can
number. And concerning the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto
thee the wealth, the strength, the might of the Gentiles. They'll
come unto the Lord, the mercy of God toward his people. And
what wealth can be spoken of concerning being found among
God's people? Say for the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. To have him is to have all. He
that has a son. So here they are, the abundance
of the sea is gonna be the force, the multitude, they're coming,
all of them are gonna come. And then these last two verses,
and now, here's where I've come to. These are the last two verses
I'm gonna deal with tonight. And it's the verses that I wanted
to look at concerning back in Genesis 25, how to tie these
two together. The scripture says, and it's
still talking about the Lord calling out his people, he's
gonna have his elect, they're gonna come, the abundance of
the sea, they're gonna rejoice. Here's what it says in verse
six and seven. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the
dromedaries of Midian and Ephah, all they from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and incense.
They shall show forth the praises of the Lord. All the flocks of
Kedar shall be gathered together under thee. The rams of Nebaioth
shall minister unto thee. They shall come up with acceptance
on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory." Now,
I read these last two verses together, to show how, as I said,
Genesis 25 was graciously, miraculously, divinely knit together with Isaiah
60. The Lord, the Spirit of God moved
upon Isaiah to write about a certain people. And I looked at when
Isaiah wrote when Abraham was here, and there was somewhere
around 1,100 plus years from the time of Abraham and Ishmael
up until the writing of Isaiah. And Isaiah spoke, I want you
to turn back. You can hold your place right
here, but we're gonna pretty well finish up in Genesis 25.
Genesis 25, Isaiah spoke. Look at Genesis 25, verse one
to four. Now, while you're looking at
that, I'm gonna read again. In Isaiah 60, verse six, the
multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian,
Ephah, and they from Sheba shall come and shall bring gold and
incense. They shall show forth the praises
of the Lord, All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together
unto thee. Rams of Nebaioth shall minister
unto thee. Now let's see what Genesis 25,
one to four, says. Then again Abraham took a wife,
and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimram, and
Jochshon, and Midan, and Midian, and there's one we just read,
and Ishbek, Shua, Jokshan, Begat, Sheba. There's another one. And
the sons of Dedan, and Ashurim, and Lathushim, and Leomim, the
sons of Midian, Ephah. Oh, there's another one that
was mentioned by Isaiah. Ephah, Hanak, Abida, Hildea,
all these were the children of Keturah. Now, here's these men
talking about the posterity of Abraham through his wife, Keturah,
that he married after the death of Sarah. And the Spirit spoke
of these men right there, Ephah, Midian. Then it mentioned one
named Sheba. And there was a queen that came
out of that town right there that was raised up through the
posterity of Abraham through Keturah. There was a queen that
came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And they, that is the posterity
of the ones just mentioned, the Scripture says concerning them
back in Isaiah 60, verse 6, here's what the Scripture says concerning
those that God mentioned. It says, they shall show forth
the praises of the Lord. They're going to set forth and
show. They're going to be cheerful.
They're going to be free. They're going to be full to proclaim
the glad tidings of the Lord. And then concerning back in Isaiah
16, that seventh verse, all the flocks of Kedah shall be gathered
together unto thee. The rams of Nebaioth shall minister
unto thee. They shall come up with acceptance
on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory. Now, here's what's going to happen.
Some out of Ishmael's family, out of his posterity, Two of
the boys that was mentioned, the first two, what were their
names? Well, it was Nebaioth and Kedar. That was two of the princes out
of the 12. The Lord said, they're gonna
minister unto the people. They'll come up with acceptance
on mine altar and I'm gonna glorify the house of my glory. Many,
many years had transpired. between the time of Abraham and
Ishmael and the prophecy of Isaiah. And in Genesis 25, in Isaiah's
writing concerning these men, though no mention may have been
made of who was found among the children at the time, back in
Genesis, no mention was made of that, but the spirit of God
revealed over a thousand years later. that there was a remnant
found out of that family, out of Abraham and through Ishmael
and Keturah, that there was a remnant according to the election of
grace. God had a people that was only
known to himself, and all of those years went past, and then
the Spirit of God moved upon Isaiah to say, now, I want you
to write your names down. And you tell them that they're
going to be accepted of me. God's word concerning his own
stands sure. This is what it said. Not all
of them out of Abraham and Keturah's children, not all of them out
of Ishmael's were mentioned. They weren't mentioned. But these
were. And here's what they said, they
shall show forth the praises of the Lord. They shall come
up with acceptance on mine altar and I will glorify the house
of my glory. The house of God's glory is his
church chosen in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The house
of his glory, the bride, the elect bride of the Lord Jesus
out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. God's got
a people. We don't know who they are. So
what do we do? We just proclaim the truth of
the gospel of God's grace. You know, as I read that, and
here again, this is, I was gonna go on from here, but I read that
part, Ben, concerning just that heritage of Ishmael. And I thought
to myself, there's some comfort. There's some comfort for God's
people. We've all got people in our family. We got neighbors, but those in
our family, and the Lord was pleased to show mercy through
Ishmael's family. God named them. Through some
of these boys that was born between Abraham and Keturah, God blessed
them. It may be that the Lord might
be pleased to show mercy to me and to mine. and to you and yours. He's able. The counsel of the
Lord's gonna stand. Well, what do we do? We ask him,
Lord, have mercy. Lord, you're able. Lord, your
word declares that you saved your people. Out of a group,
look, Abraham and Ishmael and all of them, they'd been dead
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. But when it pleased
the Lord, Paul said, when he pleased God, he called me by
his grace. Why didn't we come before? He
didn't call us. But when he calls, we gonna come.
I pray God bless this to our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.