Let's be returning now to Genesis
chapter 21. Genesis 21, our text is the same,
eight verses, the first eight verses here. And the first hour
we saw how that Isaac's birth foreshadowed, it pictured the
birth of Christ and all the glorious things that that means for us,
what he's accomplished for us. Now we return a second time,
this time with a focus on the marks of the spiritual birth
that are pictured here. There are many blessings. Ephesians 1 3 that all spiritual
blessings all spiritual blessings are given to us by the Father
in Jesus Christ in heavenly places in Christ and that heavenly places
speaks of the atonement the atonement the blood atonement of the Lord
Jesus Christ and what he's accomplished so this isn't everything but
this is a few things about nine things we'll see some things
are hidden and no to us. Other things are a rejoicing. They're hidden, but the Lord
tells us so that they're not hidden. They're not a mystery,
but this is what he does for us in Christ. And so when we
look at the birth of Isaac now, we can see some parallel likenesses
to our spiritual birth. You that believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Every one of us is born physically,
but there are the Lord's people are born again. They're born
spiritually. spiritually. And so the details
here about Isaac's birth give us some outline. They provide
some sense in which we see the work of our God in giving us
life, giving us a new birth, making us a new creature in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's what matters,
is a new creature. A new creature born of His grace
and power. And so the Lord is showing us
that salvation is not a work of this flesh. It is a spiritual
work. And by nature, we don't do spiritual
works. God does. God does. It's his glory. It's of his grace. And so, for example, one of the
results of the spiritual birth in a sinner, because that's what
we are by nature, we are sinners. We are sinners deserving of hell
and the wrath of God. But one of the things the Lord
does in making us new creatures is He gives us a new ear. He circumcises the ear. And He
uses that word of circumcision in relation to the ear. It was
actually Stephen before his stoning who accused the Jews of being
uncircumcised in heart and ears. Meaning we need a circumcision
of the ear, and so he circumcises our ears so that that which is
covered over with flesh, that which is corrupted by dead flesh
is cut away and removed by the spirit of God so that when we
hear the gospel, we hear it as new creatures. We hear it being
born anew by the grace of God so that it's different. It sounds
different to us than the way it sounded before. Because now
we're alive. The message hasn't changed. We've
been changed by the grace of God so that we hear it with spiritual
understanding. We hear it by the work of grace
in us, and we hear what Christ has done for us so that we rejoice
in Him. Now, for example, in our text,
Sarah, she was overwhelmed when the Lord conceived in her Isaac
and she brought forth a healthy, living child, Isaac. She said, God hath made me to
laugh, from verse six, so that all that here, will laugh with
me. All that hear will laugh with
me. What it's speaking of there is
you that hear the good news of the grace of God freely given
in the Lord Jesus Christ and believe that word, you hear it
and you rejoice. You laugh with joy. In the old
man of flesh, it's nothing special. We could care less. It means
nothing to us because the natural man despises Christ. The natural man thinks lightly
of Christ. The natural man can do without
Christ. But to you that are guilty sinners
who are delivered from death in Christ, it's a rejoicing. It's a gladness, a joy, and a
rejoicing because you've heard that word with a circumcised
ear. You've heard that word by the
Spirit of God, and it's evidence that you've heard because you
believe. That's the evidence that God has given you a new
birth. You believe, and you continue
in that faith, and you're not careless with it. Well, sometimes
we're shown how careless we are in ourselves, but we're always
brought back to see Lord, I need you. I need your grace. Keep
me, Lord. I see my wayward heart. I see
my unbelieving. I see how foolish I am in this
flesh. Save me. And so he always brings
us back to see how precious the Lord Jesus Christ is. And we're
thankful that he gave us that repentance and brought us back
and didn't just turn us out of the way and let us go off into
death and darkness. But he recovered us because he's
gracious and loving and kind to those for whom he shed his
blood. And we're made thankful in that. And so our Lord speaks of this
throughout. Christ said in Matthew 13, he
said, he who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Come and hear what
your Savior has done for you and rejoice, be glad, receive
that word, believe that word, cry out to the Lord, I believe,
help thou mine unbelief, but come and hear that word and rejoice
in it. And Christ added in this, in
Matthew 13, 11, saying, because it is given to you to know. It's given to you to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them. To them that only
hear in parables and hear dead letter religion and hear, yep,
more mumbo jumbo and this and that and whatever, these religious
things, to you that hear it that way, he says, it's not given. That's why you hear it that way.
But to you who hear, I need that. I need that grace. Lord, don't
leave me behind. Don't pass me by. Save me. Give me that ear. It's because
he's given you that ear to hear, to know your need. and to know
that he's the one who satisfies that need. That's grace and mercy. That's grace and mercy. And so
we'll see, Lord willing, nine truths that we can see in Isaac's
birth described here in these eight verses that describe something
of what our God has done for you, that belief. Something that
he's done for you. So first, we're told in verse
one, the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. He did this. And so in this,
what the Lord is giving us to understand is that he has a people
of promise. He has a people whom he has saved
and redeemed for himself by grace. We see in Isaac that he was a
child of promise. He was given to Abraham and Sarah
according to promise. He told them, you're going to
have a son, and you're going to have a son by Sarah. That's
right, Sarah who's old and dead and washed up, you're going to
have a son by Sarah. This was the promise of God,
the promise that he gave. Well, like Isaac, in the scriptures,
you and I who believe are called children of promise. We, like
Isaac, come forth, new creatures, born again, because we are children
of promise. Listen to what Paul says in Galatians
4.28. you that believe with the Apostle
Paul, we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. God says you that believe are
children of promise. He determined this. He purposed
this before the foundation of the world. This can only be said
of those that manifest faith. And until they manifest that
faith, we really have nothing to tell them to encourage them
and to comfort their hearts except to keep declaring the gospel.
Except to keep reiterating the promises of God, praying that
the Lord reveal that in their heart and give them faith also. And so what the Lord teaches
us in his word is that he chose a people and gave them to his
son before the foundation of the world. He tells us that in
Ephesians 1, 4, it's according as he hath chosen us in Christ,
in His Son, before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. And so if God purposed
that, if God did this in promise, in giving us to His Son that
we should do those things, we're gonna do those things. We're
gonna believe Him. We're gonna come forth and be
delivered and saved in holiness and in love. And so even though
we are the children of promise, the promised children of God,
we don't know who they are. We don't know who they are. There's
no outward marks that we can say or see. All we can do is
wait upon the Lord. We preach and declare this gospel
to every sinner. We declare it to all because
we don't know who they are, meaning it's not according to race. It's
not according to the color of our skin. It's not according
to the family that we're born into. It's not according to the
nation where we were born or raised up in or live in now.
It's none of those outward fleshly things. We declare it to all
because the Lord has his people among every people, tongue, tribe,
and nation, and he calls them as he will. He calls them as
he will. Don't look on the outward. Trust
God and declare this word to all. Because every one of us
is a sinner. Every one of us is born of Adam's
corrupt seed. And so every one of us needs
the grace of God. And so we declare it, and God
manifests those who are chosen of him. Because we need a new
birth. And he says he gives that new
birth through the preaching of the gospel. That's when he's
pleased to come with his spirit and to lay it to our hearts,
to break open that hard heart, to raise from the dead us who
are dead in trespasses and sins, and to give us that circumcised
ear, to cut away that flesh, and to open it up so that the
Word enters in, and by His grace goes down into the heart, and
is received in good ground, prepared by the Spirit of God to bring
forth fruit unto the praise, honor, and glory of His name. Now second, we see that before
Isaac was born, right, so this is one of those hidden things
there that is made known to us, but before Isaac was born, God
made it known that both Abraham and Sarah were unable to bring
forth life. They were unable to bring forth
a son. They couldn't produce this son. They wanted to, but they couldn't.
They had no power, no ability to do it. So that the Lord is
teaching us here, it's a gracious work. Salvation is a work of
grace. It's a work of the Lord who does
it. Verse two, we're told, Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a
son in his old age, in her old age, when she was old and Abraham
was old, that's when this son was born. God didn't give them
this son of promise until their bodies were dead. He waited to
give them this son until their bodies were dead so that they
couldn't attribute it to themselves and to their own power. We're
told Paul speaks of this in Romans 419. He speaks of the deadness
of Sarah's womb. That's how he describes it. Sarah's
womb was dead, barren. She was far into menopause. She
was 90 years old. She was well past the time when
women can conceive and have a child. God did that on purpose to show
us It's grace. It's of His grace. It's not of
your power. It's not of our cooperation.
It's all of His power, according to His will, to save whom He
will, when He will save them. And so this emphasis is given
to us, to tell us Sarah was dead. Her womb was dead. Abraham was
dead. In that same verse, Romans 419,
he says Abraham was dead. He couldn't have children either.
He was dead as well. And so it's emphasizing our inability
to produce life. And so the Lord teaches us in
his word that men by nature are dead in trespasses and sins.
That doesn't mean that they're not religious. There's a lot
of religion in the world. There's a lot of idolatry. There's
a lot of foolish, ignorant, dark things about God and who he is
and how to approach unto God. There's many religions in the
world, but they're not life. They're not salvation. They're
not the truth. And so man thinks that he can
save himself. Man thinks that he must save
himself. And so he tries and strives and
labors and spends and does what he can to earn God's favor. but it's not salvation. Paul
even describes among the Jews who had the scriptures, who had
the prophets, who had the oracles of God, but left to themselves,
it was not salvation. They died in trespasses and sins.
As Christ said, if you believe not that I am he, you shall die
in your sins. And so Paul writes of these Jews
in Romans 10, verse 2 and 3, saying, I bear them record that
they have a zeal of God. They're zealous. They work. They
labor. They strive. They spend. They
sacrifice. They have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. according to the flesh's knowledge,
according to the wisdom of man, but not according to the knowledge
that God gives to His born-again children whom He saved. For they,
being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God." And so, what the Lord is doing, what
He shows us here in His Word is He's stripping us. of vain
confidences, of fleshly vain confidences in thinking, I've
done this. I brought forth life. I did something
good for the Lord and now he's rewarding me. He takes that away
because that's a vain hope. It's a lie. We come in Christ
and in Christ alone, not Christ plus what I've done. Not Christ
plus what I've added. No, we are stripped down to nothing
but the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness alone. And God does that graciously. In the flesh, we get confused
and we're terrified sometimes when he's bringing us low and
showing us what we are in the flesh, showing us what sinners
we are, showing us how all we've earned is eternal death. and it terrifies us in the flesh,
and it makes us afraid. But in grace he comes. with the
promise of God in Christ and what he's done for sinners who
aren't worthy of that grace and mercy, yet he gives it freely
in his son. And so he does that work by his
grace. Paul describes us in the way
he, in scriptures. For example, there's a few passages,
there's a lot of passages that tell us what we are. In Ephesians
4.18, Ephesians 4.18, saying, having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. That's
what we are. It's to describe to you and I
that by nature, we don't have life, but death in us. We are
unable, our womb is dead so that we are unable to bring forth
this new birth in us. You must be born again, but we
don't give ourselves that new birth. A lot of religion puts
that birth on your faith. They say, when you believe, you
make yourselves born again. No, we don't, because faith is
not of the flesh. God gives faith, and God gives
that new birth. so that we believe and trust
Christ and look to Him. And so he tells us in another
place, 1 Corinthians 2.14, that the natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. And so we don't have that discernment. We don't have
that understanding, because by nature we don't have the Spirit
of God. And we need that Spirit of God.
And that's when we begin to hear and believe. And so the Lord
is showing us there's none righteous, no not one. That we will be stripped
down and brought to the end of ourselves, that we would hear
this word of what Christ has done for us. So that we will
lay aside our idols, lay aside our works, in thinking that they
are our righteousness, and come to Him with nothing in our hands.
Come to Him begging God for the blood of Christ alone, and his
blood alone. And so he tells us, he strips
us down, telling us what we are in ourselves that we're nothing,
and then declares that God, it's God who is rich in mercy for
his great love wherewith he loved us. Even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened, or made us alive together with Christ,
by grace ye are saved. And so when we're looking at
Abraham and Sarah, and it's talking about the deadness of Abraham
and Sarah's womb, it's to show us what we are spiritually, that
we are dead in ourselves and unable to bring forth this life. God gives life. That's who we
look to. We look to God and beg him, Lord,
give me that life. Reveal in me that I'm a child
of your promise. Save me, Lord. The way you brought
forth Isaac, bring me forth in Christ. Save me, Lord. Third,
just as Isaac's birth was a miracle of God's power, so your birth
is a miracle of God's grace and power. Turn over to John 3. Let's
see this in John 3. And we're gonna pick up in verse
19. John 319, this is the condemnation
that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that
doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. That's us, brethren. We don't
want to come into God's presence. We don't want to hear these things
because it shows us what we are by nature. Just like we saw when
the voice of God entered the garden in the cool of the day,
Adam took off because there was the light of God and he didn't
want to hear it. He didn't want to be reproved. He knew what
he did. He knew what he was and he knew what he did and so he
ran from it and that's what we do by nature. We run from the
truth. But if God is gracious to you,
if God is gracious to you, He's going to show you that. He's
going to bring you to the end of yourself. He's going to show
you your need and He's going to give you life. So that even
though by nature you don't want to hear it, in the new man you
come to hear. That you may hear the good news
of what Christ has done for me, the sinner. For me the sinner.
And so verse 21, John 3, 21 says, but he that doeth truth cometh
to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are
wrought in God. So that any good thing I have
is all attributed to his grace. It's all because he did this
mercifully, graciously in me for his own sake, for the glory
of his name and the praise and honor of his name. And so he
does this, and our life is attributed to the resurrection power of
God. It's attributed to that same
power that raised Christ up from the dead physically, so you and
I who believe are raised up spiritually from spiritual death. That's
why Paul said it this way, that I may know him and the power
of his resurrection. because it's going to take a
mighty power of God, the act of God, the dynamite of God by
his power and his glory to raise this dead sinner up from the
dead to hear his word and to rejoice in and believe that word.
Then fourth, we see that Isaac's birth was at the set time of
God, which God had spoken to Abraham. So just as Isaac's birth
was set, just as Christ's birth was set, so every believer has
a day of grace when the Lord will be gracious to them and
cause them to hear that word and live and live. Some of that
is spoken of in Ezekiel 16, 8, which says, this is the Lord
speaking. He said, when I passed by thee
and looked upon thee, behold, Thy time was the time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee,
and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. When he walked by us, it says
that we were as a child tossed aside, a bloody child left for
dead. But when he passed by, he took
pity upon us. and was merciful and gracious
to us. And then he describes all the
things he did for us and bring us to himself. And so our Lord
has done everything. He's provided all our salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said this is the father's
will which has sent me that of all which he has given me I should
lose nothing. And so there is a day of grace
and he will not fail. because he accomplished our redemption
on the cross by the death of himself. And these things are
unfolding, just being brought out in time according as it pleases
him in the set time. Fifth, we are told that Abraham
called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah
bared to him, Isaac. And so Isaac was named of Abraham
according to the name that God had given him. You that believe
have received a new name. You've been given a new name.
And the scriptures speak that all believers are given a new
name. And here's how it's described
in Revelation 2, verse 17. He that hath an ear, that describes
you that hear, that circumcised ear, he that hath an ear, let
him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that
overcometh. will I give to Edah the hidden
manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new
name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it."
What is your name? What is the name that God has
given you? God has given you the name of your husband, your
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our name. We've been given
His name. We are adopted into the family
of God. You have the name of Christ marked
upon you so that you here, and you were brought in, and you
are kept and protected. You've been redeemed. You've
been purchased by Christ. And so you're in His family.
And all those blessings that's promised to the family of God
in Christ are given to you. And how do I know? Because He's
opened my ear. And He's shown me, I need Him, I need Christ. Without Him, I'm nothing. That's
an open ear, that's a circumcised ear that hears. And that brings
us to the sixth point. In verse four it says, Abraham
circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded
him. When Isaac was circumcised, that
meant that the covenant that God made with Abraham was also
made with Isaac. And all the blessings given to
Abraham in that covenant were given to Abraham in that same
covenant of grace and mercy. And so that foreshadows for us
that we too have been circumcised. I covered it a lot, but listen
to Colossians 2 verse 10 and 11. And ye are complete in him,
meaning there's nothing left undone. All the promises are
yours. All the benefits are yours in
that covenant made with Christ given to you, given to you in
him. You're complete in Him, which is the head of all principality
and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of
the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. In other words, since
it's made without hands, it means I can't do it for you, I can't
do it for myself, and you can't do it for another, and you can't
do it for yourself. It must be done by God. That's
why we go to Him. Otherwise, we're confident. We're
vainly puffed up and confident in ourselves and what we can
do for ourselves. But the Lord is saying, no, no,
I circumcise the heart of my people. It's without hands, and
there's nothing you can do to do it for yourselves. You're
going to depend on me. You're going to look to me, our
Lord says. You're going to trust me for
all your life and all your salvation, because you cannot get it for
yourselves. Because if we could reach out
to the tree of life and pluck that fruit off, and give ourselves
life, we would by nature. That's why we were cast out of
that garden, brought low in ourselves and stripped of everything to
show us you need Christ. I'm going to give life to whom
I will give life, our God says, and it's going to be in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the tree of life. He's the
one who brings forth his fruit in his season. He's the one who
eternally bears that precious fruit. and gives life to his
people in himself. There's the one that we glory. We rejoice in him and him alone. And so just as circumcision,
it was bloody. When they cut away that flesh
of the foreskin, it was blood. Blood was shed. Well, Christ
is that bloody sacrifice who went to that cross. Not only
under the law was he circumcised on the eighth day, but he went
to that cross. and shed his blood. He spilled
his blood to cleanse us, to bring us into that covenant of his
grace by the death of himself. And so Colossians 1 20 through
22 says, and having made peace through the blood of his cross,
by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say, whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. And so that's why we come to
God so confidently, brethren, because of the blood of Christ
which was shed for us, what he did for us. He came not only
to pay the price, to purchase a people, but to reconcile all
things that we wrecked and ruined in Adam. We destroyed it all. Christ came, the son of promise,
came and reconciled all things between the people of God and
our father so that we have fellowship with him. We are cleansed. We're
not, God's not angry with us anymore. We're not enemies of
God. in Christ. There's peace, there's rest,
and there's rejoicing. The seventh thing, and I'll be
quicker. Verse 5, Abraham was a hundred
years old when his son Isaac was born unto him. What he's
showing us there is that we were old men like Abraham, just an
old man of flesh. When the Holy Ghost formed the
new man of grace in us, born of the seed of Christ, we were
born again. He did that. We were like Abraham, just old,
dead, and cut off. And an old man like Abraham can't
give himself life, but God has done it. God has done it. Eighth,
just as Isaac was born, When he was born, it was a time of
joy and rejoicing. So brethren, you and I rejoice,
are made glad in what Christ has done. Listen to what Mary
said when Christ was conceived in her womb by the Holy Ghost,
by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. In Luke 1, verse 46 and
47, Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath
rejoiced in God my Savior. Mary had that same response when
the Lord did that in her. Sarah had that same response
when she said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that
hear will laugh with me. And brethren, you that have been
born again, rejoice in Christ your Savior. You rejoice in Him,
because God's given you life in Christ. 9 Isaac was fed milk, and weaned,
and then came to the feast. 8 The child grew and was weaned,
and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. Now, brethren, we feed upon the
sincere milk of the word. we grow thereby and the Lord
grows us in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ but there's coming a day and when this old flesh
will be laid aside and we shall be raised anew we shall see him
as he is and our bodies will be transformed and we shall rise
to that great feast and we shall go to the feast of our Savior,
that marriage feast of the Lamb, and rejoice in Him. That marriage
supper of the Lamb will be there. Now, this body is weak and struggles. It can do nothing of itself. But we rest in Christ. We rest
in our God who brings forth that fruit of us by His grace and
power. Romans 7.4 says, wherefore, my
brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ. Just like Abraham and Sarah were
dead, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is
raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto
God. Who would have ever thought?
that we could bring forth fruit unto God. That's what Sarah said
in verse seven. She said, who would have said
to Abraham that Sarah should have given children suck, for
I have born him in his old age? That's us, brethren. Who would
have ever thought that we, that when you look back at what you
are, that we should be called the sons and the daughters of
God? That God should be so gracious and merciful to us? give praise
and thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ for He had done that in
you. He wrought fruit in you. He wrought
life in you and delivered you from death, who deserved death. He delivered you from that death
and gave you life and an inheritance in Him And one day soon, brethren,
our Lord will return and bring us to himself, and we shall ever
be with the Lord in that day, rejoicing with our Lord and our
brethren in the marriage feast, the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Amen.