I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn back with me to the book of Genesis chapter
21. Genesis chapter 21. I'd like to look at verses 8
through 12. Before I look at that, I want
to just, as a way of reminder, the Lord had promised Abraham
Turn with me to Genesis 15. Promise Abraham and Sarah a son. He said in Genesis chapter 15,
verse 1 to 4, after these things, the word of the Lord came unto
Abram in a vision saying, fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and
thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, What
wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of
my house is this Eleazar of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me
thou hast given no seed, and, lo, one born in my house is mine
heir. And, behold, the word of the
Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but
he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be
thine heir. being barren, surely thinking
that she was doing the right thing, knowing that the Lord
had told Abram, your seed's going to come out of your boughs. Sarah
suggests that Abram take Hagar, her handmaid, and for this reason,
I'm sure, that the Lord's promise might be fulfilled. It said in
chapter 16, verses one and two, now Sarai, Abram's wife, bear
him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian,
whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, behold,
now the Lord has restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, go
in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children
by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice
of Sarai. Well, Abram was 86 years old. Genesis 16, verse 15, 16 says,
Hagar bare Abram a son. And Abram called his son's name,
which Hagar bare, Ishmael. And Abram was fourscore and six
years old when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram. So the Lord promised
that son would come out of him. Sarah says, surely the Lord means
that you go into Hagar and bear me a son by Hagar. And Abram
hearkened to her voice, 86 years old. And Hagar had a son. Well, 13 years later, after she'd
born a son, it says in chapter 17, verse 1 and 2, when Abram was ninety years old and nine. The Lord appeared to Abram and
said unto him, I am the Almighty God. Walk before me and be thou
perfect, and I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will
multiply thee exceedingly. Verse nine, and God said unto
Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore thou and thy seed after
thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye
shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee. Every
man child among you shall be circumcised and you shall circumcise
the flesh of your foreskin. It shall be a token of the covenant
betwixt me and you, and he that is eight days old shall be circumcised
among you, every man, child, in your generations, he that
is born in the house, or bought with money, or any stranger,
which is not of thy seed." So, thirteen years later, after Ishmael
is born, the Lord comes and He talks to Abraham and He tells
him, This is going to be the way that your seed that I'm talking
about is going to be had by you. It's going to be according to
my covenant, according to my promise. And then the Lord told
him, now you think about this. Thirteen years, he watched his
boy grow up. Thirteen year old boy. And he
had, the Lord told him in chapter 17 verse 19, he said, God said, Sarah, thy wife shall
bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and
I will establish my covenant with him, or an everlasting covenant,
and with his seed after him. So, according to the timing of
the Lord. Now, this is what happened. After
the Lord told him, you're going to have a son. out of your bowels."
They assumed that means through Hagar. The Lord said, no, this
is not going to be your son. I'm talking about a son out of
your bowels and Sarah. Sarah is going to have a son. And after the Lord had promised
him things, according to the timing of the Lord. Now, from
where we just read in Genesis chapter 17 verse 19, after that, after the Lord destroyed Sodom
and Gomorrah, after Abraham dealt with Abimelech, and after all
of those things that we studied about, Sarah was found with child,
the child of promise. And now here we are now in chapter
21. And the Scripture says, verses 1 to 3, the Lord visited Sarah
as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken.
And Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age
at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham
called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah
bare to him, Isaac. Now, oh, what a blessing is found
whenever we wait on the Lord. You're going to have a son. He'll come out of your bowels.
All that he went through, the long suffering of God. But what
a glorious picture the birth of Isaac is concerning the new
birth. All of us, Abraham, his body
was dead. Sarah was passed. Childbearing
years, she passed as the manner of women was. Humanly speaking,
she can't have kids. They're just too old. They're
just too old. But by the grace of God, Sarah
was found with child. And here she is, a 90-year-old
woman, Abraham, 100-year-old man. What a picture of all of
us. We're without strength. We have
no ability for there to be any birth of life, spiritual life. We're going to have to be born
from above. What can we do? What can we do
as far as being found, accepted in heaven? We couldn't choose
ourselves. God is a covenant God. God does
all things according to His will. He has mercy and compassion on
whom He will. We couldn't choose ourselves.
We were chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the
world. We couldn't choose ourselves. We couldn't establish a fit righteousness
before God. How are we going to establish
the righteousness of God? That's what it's going to take
for God to accept us. We're going to have to be without
sin. How can we put away our sin? How can a clean thing come
out of an unclean? You can't do that. No. No, no, no, no. We're dead. Trespassers. That's Abraham and Sarah. How can we regenerate ourselves? I can't even keep myself from
getting older. How am I going to make a new
me? I can't do that. How am I going to intercede before
God? I need a priest. I'm not my own
priest. I have to have a priest ordained
of God without sin. One accepted of the Lord. I can't keep myself. I kept prepared
myself a place in glory. Without me, the Lord said, you
can do nothing, nothing. Isn't that amazing how easily
the carnal mind just passes right over that. We just, we don't
get it. We don't hear it. We don't hear it. But here she
is, she's found with son. Now, we looked at those first
seven verses last time. Now I'm gonna pick up in verse
eight. This is where we are. And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast
the same day that Isaac was weaned. Now, we don't know how most writers
think that Isaac was three or four years old when he was weaned. That's probably about the amount
of years that children nursed. He was three or four years old.
And the scripture says that Abraham, his father, made this great feast,
a great feast, a banquet to celebrate Isaac being weaned from his mother,
being dependent upon Sarah. The young son was growing. And
Abraham was thankful unto the Lord. He made this great feast.
And while the festive activities was taking place, Something that
disturbed Sarah very greatly took place. Look at verse nine.
It says, and Sarah saw. This is why the festivities are
all going on. Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the
Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. Now, this mocking that took place
was more than just mere sibling rivalry, jealousy. This was more,
he wasn't kidding. This word right here cannot be
understood. You look it up, it says to laugh,
but it can't be understood as something that happened in just
an innocent sense, but rather it was a bitter sarcastic mocking. Because, I know this, because
the Spirit of God moved upon the Apostle Paul to write, turn
with me to Galatians 4, Galatians 4.29. Here's how we know just
exactly what was going on. You know how you have children,
they grew up, they're always picking on each other, this,
that, and the other. This was more. This was animosity. Galatians chapter four, The Spirit
of God moved the Apostle Paul to write, but as then, he that
was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit. Even so, it is now. We're going to read just a few
more verses of that. But it was talking about, this is an allegory. We're starting to see something
here in this 21st chapter. This is a picture, an allegory,
it's a story. Actually, what it is, that is
given to reveal the difference between those that are totally
free being born by the Spirit of God in the Lord Jesus Christ
as opposed to those who are actually thinking that they're free but
bound in trespasses and sins because of their works of the
flesh. See, Ishmael was born according
to the flesh. Abraham Listened to his wife,
and she said, you go into Hagar, we'll have children. It was just
a natural birth, and it was just something that they did. And there it is. There's God's will. God's will
is fulfilled. Lord said, no, no. No, I'm going
to give you a sign. But he made them wait until it
was real evident. They're past the age of being
able. We're long since past the age of being able. We lost all of our life. We lost
our ability to walk with God in the garden. We were born unable. The Lord uses this as an allegory,
and he's going to show what happens. And here's what happened at Galatians
4.29. This boy, this is repeated. Now
this is repeated. It tells us what happened. He
said, that which was born after the flesh, he persecuted. That's what he was doing. Now
Sarah, back in Genesis 21, verse 9, she saw him mocking. She saw him mocking. And the
Spirit of God said he was persecuting him. You know, here's where the
true nature of the carnal mind is seen. It's whenever that which
is born of the Spirit is wrought in a believer. You know, until
any man, any woman is born from above, they're not too bad. I'm not too, you know. I may
not be the best in the world, but I'm certainly not the worst,
I can tell you that. And I'm just as good as the next
fellow, really. That's the way we all think.
But you know, when the Lord's pleased to call one of his people
out of darkness, they see things about themselves they never saw
before. They start seeing. And they agree with Paul, the
apostle, oh, wretched man that I am. They realize the things
they think, the things they say, the attitudes they have, and
they realize, oh, what a miserable, miserable person I really am. And Sarah's reaction to this
mocking was more than a motherly instinct. You know, response
in defense of her child. It was obviously a divinely ordained
reaction, response, according to the Lord's will and purpose. Here's what it says in verse
10, Genesis 21, 10. Wherefore, she said, she saw
Ishmael mocking. Wherefore, she said unto Abraham,
cast out this bondwoman and her son, For the son of this bondwoman
shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. Now, that response, turn back
to Galatians 4. If you get back there, hold your
place there. I may come back again. But just
Galatians chapter 4. That response was not something
that was just born, like I said, just out of a defensive mama.
The Spirit of God moved on Sarah to say that. And I can show you
right here. Galatians chapter four, verse
30. I'll read 29 and 30. 30 is what
I want to read. But as then, he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit,
even so it is now. Nevertheless, what saith the
Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her
son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son
of the free woman. The Spirit of God moved on Sarah
back in Genesis 21 to say exactly what she said. The scripture
said that. That's what the Spirit of God
moved the Apostle Paul to Pim. So this mocking of Ishmael. And here's this allegory. This
is this story. This is a picture. It's between
these two women, these two sons. It's between Hagar and Sarah
and Ishmael and Isaac. And here's what it is. It's showing
that the difference between being born of the flesh, being born
of works, being born of self-righteous works, or born of God, born of
promise, without any works of the flesh. That's the difference. And the battle that goes on between
them, this mocking of Ishmael. This set forth that which continues
even till today. This is going on right now. It's
the evidence of the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the
seed of the woman. Now listen to Matthew 24, 9.
I'll just read this for you. Matthew 24, 9. Then shall they
deliver you up to be afflicted, and they shall kill you. And
you shall be hated of all nations for my names sake. I'm going to bring something
out in just a minute that's going to verify what we just read. Now this persecution, turn to
Genesis chapter 3. This persecution, you can count
on it, count on it. This persecution is going to
be found with those that by the grace of God live before the
Lord, having been regenerated by the grace of God, you can
just bet on this. Genesis 3, 14, 15. Genesis 3,
14, 15. And the Lord said unto the serpent,
because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle,
above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go,
and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed. It shall bruise thy head, thou
shalt bruise his heel. So if you want to know where
this enmity originated, right here, right here, in the garden. God said, I'm going to put it
there. There's going to be a button of heads and wheels. It's going
to be that which is born after the flesh persecuteth him that
was born after the Spirit. But what is the very heart? What's the heart, reason, the
foundation of the hatred and persecution that believers behold
today from those of the world, those of the world's religions?
The Lord had said, then they'll deliver you up, be afflicted,
they'll kill you, that you'll be hated of all nations for not
my name's sake. Where is that enmity? Where does it come from? What is it? The reason for the
enmity back in Genesis 21, the reason for the enmity actually
is found in what was said by Sarah. You know, she said, out
of Galatians 24, 4, here's what she said, cast out this bondwoman
and her son, now listen to exactly what she said. Under divine inspiration,
repeated from Genesis 21, repeated again in Galatians 4, listen
to what she said, for the son of the bond woman shall not be
heir with my son, even with Isaac. Now, Hagar and Ishmael, son of
the bond woman, Ishmael, surely presumed, he went 13 years. He was the only boy. He's the
only one there. I don't doubt for one second
that he was a pleasant young man. There's no record of him
being anything other than Abraham's son and I'm sure he presumed. I'm the heir. I am the heir. And he represented all those
that go about to establish their own righteousness by the works
of the flesh. This is what Ishmael pictures.
Those who think that they're children of God because of what
they do. He's that one half of that allegory. And here it is. It's coming to
a head. Here it is. He thought, I'm Abraham's
son, born after the flesh. That's what the Scripture says.
Born by Hagar and Abraham. And he presumed himself to be
the heir. Those who will by nature, those
that are represented by Ishmael who do not submit themselves
to the righteousness of God, righteousness of God that's in
Christ Jesus. Here's where the rub comes, right
here. Here's the animosity. Here's
the problem between those who trust in their works and in their
decision and in their will and their way. They look to themselves
for salvation. This is what I've done. I've
done this. I've done that. I've prayed through. I've been
baptized. I've joined the church. I've
read the Bible. I'm a member of the church. OK. When they hear that the son of
the bondwoman Those that think that they have established righteousness
before God by what they've done, when they hear, you're not the
heir. There's the rub right there. That's where it comes down. When they hear that salvation
is totally by the grace of God, without any works of righteousness
which we've done. When you tell them what you're
trusting in is a lie. You are not an heir because of
what you've done. You mean to tell me that all
this I've done, all these many years, you mean all of this that
I've done and the faithfulness that I've shown to this church
and to this and all of these works, you mean that counts for
nothing toward my righteousness before God? That's exactly what
I'm saying. It counts for nothing, nothing, nothing. And Ishmael
mocked him. He mocked her, and Sarah saw
it. And she, under divine inspiration, said, you cast this woman, this
bondwoman, out, and her son. For the son of this bondwoman
shall not be heir with my son. Oh, when the carnal mind hears
that it is not an heir of God and has no part Because of his
work, he hates that truth. He hates it. He hates the people
that believe it, because he hates the God who said it. If the world
hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. You know,
people say, I don't hate God. I love God. And here they are. They're resting in their works. And they love everybody, they
say. The Lord said, no, you hate me. You hate me. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. The carnal mind hates salvation
by the grace of God. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. For by
grace are you saved through faith. And that, the grace, the salvation,
the faith, and that is not of yourself. It is the gift of God,
not of works. Lest any man should boast. And that's all a man or woman
will do. They boast. They won't say it
out loud because that's just a little bit too arrogant. But
inside, inside, both. Sarah was moved of God to say
what she said, and those words tore Abram's heart out. Verse 11, the thing was very
grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. Now, without a doubt,
listen, I don't doubt for one second Abraham loved Ishmael. I don't doubt that one for a
minute, but there was something that was more important than even Abraham's love for
Ishmael. What was more important? The
Word of God. The will of God. The purpose
of God. And the Lord was merciful to
Abraham. He told him in verse 12, and
God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight
because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman. In all that
Sarah has said unto thee, hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac
shall thy seed be called. Now that's, this is something. The Lord is speaking to him,
and I'm gonna read this, I'm getting ready to wrap this up
for this evening, but the Lord's gonna, He's speaking to Abraham. Verses 12 and 13. It says, what
I just read, 12. Then verse 13 said, And also
of the son of the bondwomen will I make a nation, because he is
thy seed. Now the Lord was speaking to
Abraham, obviously, at night in a dream. Like David said,
amused, communed upon my bed. And the Lord, you know how we've
talked about that before. Because look at verse 14. And
Abraham rose early in the morning and took the bread. He obeyed.
He did it. But what happened was the Lord
spoke to him. A word of the Lord. And the Lord
told him. He said, listen, don't grieve
over the words of Sarah. But you hearkened. You hearkened
what she said. The Lord put those words in her
mouth. The Lord is showing us something. He said, don't be
grieved. I know He was. Humanly speaking,
that's His Son. I understand that. But the birth
of Isaac would, according to the revelation of the Lord, was
going to set forth something that was greatly, wonderfully
being fulfilled according to God's promise. Covenant grace
and mercy. That covenant that assures salvation
for the people of God's choosing and gives the Lord all the honor,
all the glory, and all the praise. Abraham heard what she said and
it just ripped his heart out. You cast her and you cast that
boy out of here. He's not going to be the heir. Proverbs 19.21 said, there's
many devices in a man's heart. I wonder, I wonder what just
went through, humanly speaking, I'm just, I'm speculating. I wonder what Abraham thought.
Surely, surely there's another way. Surely there's, maybe, maybe,
you know, there's many devices in a man's heart. Nevertheless,
the counsel of the Lord That shall stand. Don't be grieved at what your
wife told you. You listen to her, you hearken
to her. The true Israel, true Israel of God is not after the
flesh. The true Israel, the spiritual
Israel, it's not after the works of righteousness, self-righteousness,
not after the works of the law. Ishmael must be cast out. He must be. Before the foundation
of the world, God had chosen, ordained that in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. Salvation is of the Lord. And
I know that the people of God's covenant mercy are those that
the Lord has formed for himself. And they're a peculiar people. They're a valued people. And
the Lord is going to have them. And all that is not of the Lord
is going to be cast out. Now, just in closing, I'll turn
over to Romans 9. I'm going to read Romans 9, just
to pass the Scripture, and then I'll stop. But I think as I was
reading this, concerning casting out. I understand it, humanly
speaking. I understand it. I've got family,
you've got family. This was his boy. This was a
boy out of his very loins, through Hagar, but this was Abraham's
son. And the Lord told him, he said,
you listen to Sarah. You cast him out. You throw him
out. Throw him out. I can understand His tenderness. I mean, we who know the Lord
in sovereign grace, electing grace, predestinating grace,
redeeming grace, regenerating grace. We've got family members
just like He did. And we love Him. We love Him.
There ain't no doubt about it. We love Him. I've got family
members that my heart just grieves for. Because they don't know
the Lord. My heart breaks. But you know
what? I'm going to have to take God's
Word over there. Over my affection for them. I don't want to lie
to them. I don't want to be disrespectful
to them. But I'm going to have to tell
them. You're not converted by the works
of the flesh. You're not. You're not. I love
you. I love you. I might have to cast
that out. Romans chapter 9, 6 to 16, and
I'll stop. This is the word of promise.
At this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but even Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac for the children. being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to
election, might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. I pray that the Lord be pleased
to show mercy to our family. I pray that God have mercy on
my kids, your kids. I pray He does. But you know
what I know? I know the word of the Lord is
going to stand. The counsel of the Lord, that's going to stand.
And the truth is the only thing that will set a man free. Tell
somebody the truth and pray the Lord bless it. If the Lord doesn't
bless it, it's not going to be blessed. But if God's pleased
to bless it, He'll bless the truth. But He's not going to
bless a lie. I can't tell somebody a lie.
I'm going to have to let God be true and every man a liar.
You cast out the bond woman and her son, he's not going to be
an heir with Isaac. May the Lord bless this to his
honor and glory and our good. Amen.