Turn to Genesis chapter 21. Children
of promise. Everyone who believes the gospel, from the first one to the last
one, is a child of promise. Promised to the Lord Jesus Christ. Not a child of the flesh. Not
a child of works. But a child of promise. You go
home by yourself and you think about that. God promised you
to His Son long before the foundation of the world. He promised you. And God keeps His promise. He's
not like man. Man breaks his promise. if it
seems to be more beneficial to him. It's very difficult to find
a faithful person nowadays. There's not a lot of stock put
on being faithful. Not a lot. Most have their own
personal agenda to take care of. And if it means breaking
their word, they will do so. without any regret. However,
there is one, and this should give us a lot of comfort, there
is one who is faithful. Faithful and true, the Scripture
says. And he will not, absolutely will
not break his promise. And you and I cannot break that
promise. We can't break it. Not by my
sinfulness. If you say that, people do what
they want. That's just their problem. But I cannot break that
promise because that promise was made between the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Made with a triune God. And it cannot be broken. will not break the promise is
the Lord thy God. That's who He is. And as I started reading these
verses, been reading them for the last few days, and I was
immediately going to go to Galatians 4, but I could not get past yesterday
and today God's faithfulness. This is important. This is an
important attribute of God Almighty, His faithfulness. Listen in verse
1. This just jumped out at me. And
the Lord visited Sarah. This is how she became pregnant. The Lord visited Sarah as He
had said. You remember He told Abraham
that Sarah would have a son at a set time? Sarah laughed. Well, the set time has come.
That set time has come. As He had said. And the Lord
did unto Sarah as He had spoken. According as He had promised,
He did. He fulfilled the promise to Sarah.
And the Lord did unto her as He had spoken. Not one thing. Absolutely. Not one thing failed
which God promised. Not one thing. And it never will. It never will. This is a great
comfort to God's people. He's faithful. Nothing that He
has promised us in Christ will fail. Nothing. Look over in Joshua. I've marked
some of these. This one is over in Joshua 23. Joshua 23. Actually, I have two of them marked. One
in 21, but I'll read the one in 23. Over in Joshua 23, in
verse 14, And behold, this day I am going
the way of all the earth, and ye know in all your hearts and
in all your souls that not one thing hath failed of all the
good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you. All
are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof."
Not one thing has failed. what God has promised He has
performed. Over in Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy
chapter 7, it says this in verse 9, Know therefore, know therefore
that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which
keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him, and keepeth
His commandments to a thousand Generations. Know this, that
He's God and He's the faithful God. He will perform and do exactly
what He has promised. Over in Numbers 23, listen, in
verse 19, God is not a man that He should lie. Neither the Son of Man that He
should repent. Hath He said, and shall He not
do it? Isn't that beautiful? Hath He
said, hath He promised? You think of all the scriptures
in the Gospels. Christ said, Come unto Me, all
you that labor and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Hath He
said, and shall He not do it? Shall he not give rest to everyone
that comes to him? Shall he not cleanse everyone
that comes to him? Shall he not give righteousness
to everyone that comes to him? Shall he not do it? That's what
he says here. He's not a man that he should
repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it, fulfill it? Or
hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Those are Scriptures you hang
on your refrigerator. And when you're down, you look
at it. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? Hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Yes, absolutely
he will. Over here in Lamentations, in
Lamentations chapter 3. I could have written down a lot
of them. I've got a Bible program and
I can just plug this word faithful in. I mean, I'd be like, wow,
we can just sit here and read faithful Scriptures all evening. In Lamentations 3, verse 22,
it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because
His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. We sing that song, don't we,
Monty? Great is thy faithfulness. It says over in Hebrews 10, 23,
He is faithful that promised. He's faithful that promised.
We have many promises in the Word of God, and you can be sure
that every one of those promises, every one, shall be fulfilled. If it's a promise of mercy, it
will be fulfilled to the vessels of mercy. If it's a promise of
judgment, it will be fulfilled on the vessels of wrath. And
if it's chastening, God is faithful to chasten his own. He's faithful. He's faithful to keep his own.
God is faithful by whom, Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 1.9,
God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of
his son. God's faithful to his own. Our
security not only lies in the power of God to keep us, it lies
in the faithfulness of God to keep us. I will never leave you
nor forsake you. Then he says here in verse 2,
this chapter, for Sarah conceived just as God said she would. God visited her. Remember, Sarah
is 90 years old. Her womb, it says, is dead. Past the age of childbearing. There has to be a miracle performed
here for her to become pregnant. There has to be a miracle performed
here. For Sarah conceived at the what? Set time of which God
has spoken to Abraham. Just as the Lord said she would.
And when was that? When it was evident that she
or Abraham could not possibly produce a child. When it was
evident that they could have absolutely no power in this conception. That if it's going to happen,
it's of God. What a beautiful picture of our
salvation. What a beautiful picture of God saving a sinner. This
is what happens when God saves a sinner. He takes a spiritually
dead sinner and performs a miracle, a miracle of grace, a work of
His power, when there is not even a remote possibility. There
is not a remote possibility of any sinner giving himself life. And that's when God saves a sinner.
When there is absolutely no possibility of him being saved any other
way or him having spiritual life any other way than God giving
it to him. Those whom the Lord saves are
miracles. Listen, they're miracle children.
They are. They are miracle children. They
are children of promise, as Isaac was. In God's time, God's set
time, she conceived. In God's time, in God's set time,
the children of promise are born of God. That's when a man will
be born of God, in God's set time. If that man is a child
of promise, he'll be born of God. Now Abraham named him, his
son, Isaac. Why did he name him Isaac? Over
in chapter 17, verse 19, God said, Abraham, Sarah's going
to have a son, and you are going to name him Isaac. When Mary conceived, He said,
you're going to name him Jesus. Oh, what a picture. You know
what Isaac's name means? It means laughter. It means laughter. And here's what that denotes.
Joy. Joy. You're going to name him
Isaac, which means laughter, which means joy, because he's
going to be the joy of all the earth. He's going to be the joy
of His people. When Sarah conceived this promised
son, boy, it made her joyful. It made her joyful when she could
feel that child in her womb at 90 years of age. She was thrilled
to death. She was joyful. I tell you what. Those in whom Christ dwells are
joyful. Joyful. You're joyful. You really
are. They don't say we never cry or
weep or hurt, but we're joyful. A joyful people. But his name
is laughter. It means joyful. And then it says that Abraham,
and then let me read, let me go back there in verse 3. And
Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised him,
his son, Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded him.
Abraham circumcised Isaac as God commanded. The promised son
would not be spared the pain of circumcision. This is the
promised son. This is a special son. This is
a miracle son. This is the son of God's promise.
But he's not going to be spared the pain of circumcision. And you can't do that without
shedding blood. Christ, whom Isaac represents,
was not spared the pain of being cut off in the flesh. Look over
in Colossians 2. over in Colossians chapter 2.
I preached from this not too long
ago. Colossians chapter 2 and verse
11. in whom also ye are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands, and putting off the body
and the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ."
By the cutting off of Christ. That special Son, that promised
Son was not spared this pain of circumcision, this pain of
cutting off of the flesh. It says, Abraham was an old man
And Isaac was born, which is another evidence of the miracle
of Isaac being conceived by this 100-year-old man and a 90-year-old
woman. You look at that and you say,
God had to make it happen. God had to perform
a miracle because there's no way that a 100-year-old man and
a 90-year-old woman is going to have a child. God's hand has
to be in this. That's why it says this. And
Abraham was an old man when Isaac was born. Age is no barrier to
God, is it? Age is no barrier to God. He
can do with us whatever He wills, whatever age we are at. It doesn't
matter. Age is not a barrier. It says
in Psalm 92, verse 14, they still They still shall, I can't get
those together, they still shall bear fruit even in old age. Yeah, we get about 50, 55, about
around 55 now and they want, these plants want you to retire.
They want you to go on and go so they can get some young blood
in there. But that's not the way it is in God's vineyard.
That's not the way it is. He said they shall still bring
forth fruit in old age. God's able. He's able. And it
says here, he was an old man. You know, 25 years has gone by
now since he left Ur of the Chaldeans. He left when he was 75 years
old. And God made him this promise. 25 years went by. 25 years he
waited. He waited on this promise. Of
course, you know the incident with him and Sarah trying to
move it along But we see over in Galatians, as I read to you,
why that was allowed to happen. There's an allegory there. There's
a story there. We'll look at here in just a little bit if
we have time. And then Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh. And all who hear me are going
to laugh with me. God hath made me to laugh. The first time she laughed, First
time she heard it, she laughed, didn't she? And it was unbelief.
She didn't believe it. She's like, that can't be possible. I'm dying. I'm an old woman. I'm 89 years old at that time. But she says here, God hath made
me to laugh. God has made me joyful. That's
what she's saying. God has given me great joy through
this son. All who have Christ, all who
truly now, all who truly have Christ in their heart, in their
soul, shall joy in Him. Shall have real joy. You really
will. You'll have real joy. And all
who hear of Him. What gives you more joy than
anything else that you hear? Is it not the gospel? Is it not
the gospel of grace? Here is the God of all grace.
Here is the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is redemption in Him. Is
that not our joy? She said, God hath made me to
laugh. He's made me joyful. And everyone
who hears me is going to rejoice with me. The whole church! The
whole church of the living God is going to rejoice with me. And who would have thought? And
she said, Who would have said unto Abraham? Who would have
said this? Who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah should
have given children suck? For I have borne him a son in
his old age. Who would have said, Abraham? Abraham, Sarah is going to have
a son, your son, by you, you and Sarah, in your old age. I mean, when he left, he was
75 years old. When he left her, the Chaldeans, he was not a young
man when he left. And she said, Who would have
said? Who would have thought? Who would have said? Listen to
this. I thought of this today. Who would have said that God
Almighty would save sinners like you and me? Who would have said,
Thy sins are all taken away? Who would have said that? Who
would have said that I and you, you who believe the Gospel, who
would have said that right now, right now, we are the sons of
God? Who would have said? Only God. Only God would have said. Only
God. Only God could say such a thing. Only God. Only God Almighty.
Only God Almighty can look at an old man and an old woman and
say, you are going to have a son. Nobody else can say that. And
only God can look at a sinner and call that sinner his son
and call him justified and sanctify him. Only God can do that. Only
God can do that. And Sarah could not get over
what the Lord had done for her and in her. She couldn't get
over it. Could not get over it. Who would have said? Who would
have thought that God would save me? Who would have thought? Everyone whom God saves cannot
get over the fact that God has saved them. Called them by His
grace. Revealed His Son in them. Made
then the righteousness of his Son. No man can get over that. No
man. God's favor to his covenant people
are beyond comprehension. It's beyond comprehension. And
the child grew. Isaac grew up. He was weaned. I don't know exactly. I didn't look and see what the
age was that they weaned the man. But now, Ishmael is about
what? 14 years old, probably about
this time. He's probably around 14. Isaac, just a little fella. Just a little fella. And he grew. He was weaned. Abraham made a
great feast. A great feast. This is great. There is great rejoicing here.
There's great rejoicing over the promised son. This is the
heir. This is the heir. This is the
one. This is the promised one, which represents the Lord Jesus
Christ. Through him, through that genealogy, Christ came. There's great rejoicing over
this promised son. The father is going to honor
his only son. God said, Abraham, take your
son, your only son Isaac. He's going to honor him. He's
going to honor the heir of all things. He's going to make a
great feast. There's only one Son who deserves all glory. There's
only one Son who deserves all honor and all praise. There's
only one Son who is the heir, rightful heir of all things,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this did not sit well with
Ishmael. Here he is, a teenage boy. Now
you can imagine, he's a teenage boy now. And here's this little
old pot, Isaac. And Abraham never did this for
him. Never had this feast for him. We don't read of that anywhere.
You see, he was always Always the son of a bondwoman. Always. Never the son of promise. And so he's jealous. He's jealous. And Sarah saw Ishmael. She's
sitting over here. And she sees what's going on.
Abraham probably saw it too. But you know, both of them are
his sons. But Sarah saw this, and like any mother would, she
gets upset because he's mocking her son. This is her son. This is her promised son. This
is their special son. And she's not going to put up
with it. She's not going to put up with it. And she calls Abraham
over. Over there in verse 10, she calls
her husband Over, over. You know, it's like, Abraham,
come here a minute. Come over here a minute. She's
mad as a wet hen right now. She's fuming. She said, Abraham,
you cast out this bondwoman and her son. You run them off. Out
of here. Never to come back. You see,
the first time she went out and God told her to go back. And
she went back. This time she's going out and she ain't coming
back. You cast her out. You take the
bondwoman, this Egyptian woman, she doesn't call her wife, does
she? Remember when the first time
she said, take her to wife and go in and of course she conceived. But now she says, she calls her
what she is, a bondwoman, a slave. He said, you take this slave
woman and you take her son and you cast him out because he is
not going to be heir with my son. I can just hear her saying
this to Abraham. For the son of this born woman
shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. This promised
one. This promised seed. This miracle
child. He's not going to be heir with him. Law and grace don't mix.
And that's where this is leading to. I really don't think I've
got time to deal with it. And the thing was very grievous
in Abraham's sight because of what? His son. Ishmael was his son just as much
as Isaac was. It was his son. And I'm telling
you, Abraham loved his son Ishmael. He was not a reject. He loved
his son. And it was very grievous. This
is a trial. You know, Abraham had to cast
this son out. And then the next chapter, we
see that he has to offer up his only begotten son. What a trial. What a trial. Oh, he said it was very grievous.
And God said unto Abraham, God spoke to Abraham, let it
not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because
of thy bondwoman, Hagar, the Egyptian woman, the slave woman,
and all that Sarath hath said unto thee, hearken to her voice,
listen to her. Do what she says here, Abraham.
And here's the reason why. Here's the very message of it. Christ. Isaac represents Christ. Christ cannot have, I wrote below
this verse right here, Christ cannot have a rival. The Son of God whom Isaac represents
cannot, cannot have a rival. Now he has to go. You can't have
a mixture here. He absolutely has to go. Now I'm going to read you again
Galatians chapter 4. And this will give you an idea.
And Lord willing, we'll just pick this up the next time. I
don't have enough time to really, really deal with it. Go back
to Galatians 4. Now, Paul says in verse 21, Tell
me ye that desire to be under the law. Do you not hear the
law, you who want to find acceptance? before God and keeping a law,
I don't care what law it is, whether it's a moral law or a
ceremonial law. Do you not hear the law? For
it is written that Abraham had two sons. And this is why, you
know, before Paul wrote this, you look back at Abraham and
that incident of going into Hagar and doing this and having Ishmael,
you think, Abraham, you shouldn't have done that. But God allowed
it. so that we might learn something here. Paul reaches back. See, an allegory is just a historical
fact that represents a heavenly truth. And Paul reaches back
and grabs this incident, calls it an allegory here, and he makes
a strong, strong point on this fact to the Galatians that law
and grace, works and grace, absolutely cannot mix. They can't be in
the same house. Can't be in the same heart. Can't
do it. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one
by a bondmaid, a slave, the other by a free woman, the wife, Sarah.
But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh. There
was no miracle performed here. Although God gives all life,
there's no miracle performed here. This was the works of the
flesh. Sarah and Abraham came up with this thing It was all
flesh from the beginning. It's works of the flesh, which
represents works of religion. That's what it represents. But
he of the free woman was by promise. It was a miracle, just as every
child of God is, a miracle. Which things are an allegory,
for these are the two covenants, the covenant of grace and the
covenant of works. The one from Mount Sinai, which leads to bondage,
which is Hagar. That's what that word is. Hagar
is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia. Now you know where Arabia is.
It's outside the land of promise. It's not even in the land of
promise. And that's where he said it's in bondage. It leads
to bondage. It genders to bondage. And it
represents Mount Sinai in Arabia, outside the land of promise.
And it answers to Jerusalem, which now is. And is in bondage
with her children, even to this day, right now. 2009. Jerusalem over there is in bondage. They go up to that wailing wall
and they do all that stuff and they still do their circumcision
for the purpose of acceptance. And I mean, they still do these
things. They're still in bondage. But Jerusalem, which is above,
which is the church, the kingdom of God, headquarters, You see,
when they would talk about the headquarters of religion, they'd
go to Jerusalem over where it is now. But where's our headquarters? What denomination do you belong
to? I'll tell you where our headquarters is, in heaven. Our headquarters
is in heaven. But Jerusalem, which is above,
is free. Not in bondage. We're not in bondage to do's
and don'ts and ceremonies and these things. We're free. Christ
has made us free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written,
Rejoice thou barren that bearest not. Break forth and cry out
now that travailest not. For the desolate have many more
children. Who are the desolate? Who's he
speaking of here? He's speaking of us Gentiles. We were left in darkness. We
did not have these things. In other words, we did not have
a husband. But now listen here. They say that for the desolate
had many more children than she was hath a husband. They had
the ceremony. Here's their husband. They had
the ceremonies, the tithes, the pictures and all these things.
And they were married to him. And they missed him when he came. Now, we, brethren, as Isaac,
are the children of promise. We who believe, we who are born
of God, are children of promise, not of the flesh. We're not of
the works of the flesh in no way, shape or form. Miracles
of God, works of God. But as then, he that was born
after the flesh persecutes him that was born after the spirit,
even so it is now. The legalists will always persecute
those who preach and believe the gospel. They always will. And that old nature. that we
were born with, but always lust against the Spirit. It always
will. It will never change. Nevertheless,
here is good news. 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. There is coming
a day, whether we lay it in the ground or whether the Lord comes
back. There is coming a day when this old nature that we're born
with is going to be totally cast out. And we won't have to deal
with this fighting, this inward conflict that we have every day,
all day. We won't have to deal with it
anymore. He said it'll be cast out. Not going to be aired. It's
not going to be in glory. We won't take it to glory with
us. Not at all. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman. We are not children of works.
We are not children of the flesh. We are not children of this old
nature, but of the free. Children of promise. You're children
of that free. That free woman. That new Jerusalem
that's above. Born of God. Children of promise. And God
Almighty is faithful to keep His promise.