Back to Genesis chapter 16. I
titled this message, The Sin of Not Waiting upon the Lord. Usually, from this text, you
go over to Galatians 4 and preach from the two allegories, Sarah
and Hagar being one free woman and one bond. I'm not going to
go that direction tonight I want us to look at some real good
teaching here for us. And the title that stayed with
me the last two days is The Sin of Not Waiting on the Lord. We're going to see the sin of
Sarah. I'm going to call her Sarah. I'll get that all mixed
up. We're going to see the sin of
Abraham. We are going to see the sin of Hagar. And then we'll
see the God of all grace show up and take care of this deal,
take care of this matter. So we'll look at this chapter
here tonight. Now God had promised Abraham a seed. Now Abraham knew
that that seed was the Christ, that he was the Messiah. He knew
that. He knew who that seed was. He knew that seed was the Messiah. And Abraham knew that he had
to have an heir in order for that seed to come through. Eventually, whenever it was that
God was going to bring the Lord Jesus Christ to the world and
was going to bring it through the loins of Abraham, he knew
he had to have an heir. So some years has now passed
by. Ten years has passed by since the Lord promised this seed.
And there's no heir. There's no heir. And someone
becomes impatient. It's the wife. She becomes impatient. See, Sarah
is going to move along the purpose of God here. She's going to help
it along. I always get in trouble when
we start to do that. She's going to help the purpose
of God along. She wants a child. She wants that heir. She wants
him now. Ten years has gone by, it's long
enough. That's the way she feels about it. And she realizes that
she's too old. She realizes that she's past
the age of bearing any children. And she wants this child. We
always cause trouble when we try to move along the purpose
of God to match our timetables, to match our purposes and wills. We always mess up. We always
mess up. That's the reason I read to you
over here in Psalm 37. Remember these principles. Trust
in the Lord and do good. Delight thyself also in the Lord
and He'll give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way
unto the Lord. Aren't those great principles?
Just great. He said commit, trust, And delight
thyself in Him. Wait on Him. But Sarah is going
to move this thing along. Our Lord will fulfill His promises
in His time. Learn to wait on Him. Henry wrote
me a letter 30 years ago concerning this matter of preaching. I still have the letter. The
last thing he wrote in it was, wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage, and He'll strengthen. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Wait on Him. He'll fulfill His
promises and He'll fulfill His purpose. Whatever His purpose
is for us, it'll be fulfilled. We don't need to try to make
something happen. This is where you get in trouble
when you try to fill the church up. You try to build up the congregation
and you're trying to get people to make a decision. and you're
putting pressure on her to make a decision so you can build up
the congregation, it looks like you're really moving along. But you know what you've got
on your hand? Another Ishmael, another wild man. Sooner or later,
you're just going to have trouble. Sooner or later, you're just
going to have trouble. Sarah lost confidence in God's promise. She lost confidence waiting on
Him. So Sarah takes an Egyptian woman. This is the woman that
I believe received when Abraham took her and went down into Egypt
when the famine was in the land. She went down to Egypt. Abraham
said, tell them you're my sister. And then they left. And this
woman was given to her at that time as a handmaid. And so she takes this Egyptian
woman, her handmaid, and she gives her to Abraham to wife.
Now, she does not have the right to do that. Since when does she
say, I pronounce you husband and wife?
You can't do that. She didn't have that right at
all. Sarah's attitude is this. Abraham,
we need to do our part. We just need to do our part.
There's nothing wrong with doing our part in this. We need to
do our part. So Paul said over in Galatians, who hath bewitched
you? Do you begin in the Spirit and end up being made perfect
by the flesh? Do we end up being saved by the
energy of this flesh? And this is what Sarah is doing.
She's trying to help this thing along. She's trying to fulfill
what she thinks is the purpose of God here. And then here is
Abraham's sin. Abraham hearkened to the voice
of Sarah. The father of the human race
did the same thing, didn't he, Adam? He hearkened unto the voice
of Eve and brought down the whole human race. And here Abraham,
the man who we just read about a week or two ago, who believed
God, who trusted God, had full confidence in God, He hearkens
to the voice of his wife. Abraham should have hearkened
to God's voice and said, Sarah, we'll just wait on the Lord.
Let's wait on Him. But he didn't do that. And you
know why he didn't do that? Flesh. Flesh got in the way. The best of men are men at best.
Here's what I believe happened. Sarah said, Abraham? You see that Egyptian woman? She's
probably late twenties, early thirties. She said, I want you to go in
to her and have a relationship. I want you to have a relationship
with her and I want a child from her. Abraham, I believe Abraham
looked over at Hagar. He says, okay. Because look what
it says. It says, and Abraham went...
Let me find the verse. And Sarah, Abraham's wife, took
Hagar and made the Egyptians after Abraham had dwelt ten years
in the land and gave her to Abraham. And he went in unto Hagar. There's
no struggle there. This is the man of God. This
is the man who believed God. But I honestly believe that he
looked At Hagar. And temptation got him. He said,
OK, Sarah, if that's what you want me to do, Sarah, if you
think that's what we ought to do, then I'll do it. Then I think
we ought to do it. He did that. He didn't even halt. He went like a calf to the slaughter.
That's what he did. He went straight like a calf
to the slaughter. I bet she would have said, Empty
the trash. He said, you've got a servant,
tell her to do it. You've got a handmaid, have her to do it.
Didn't do it. You see, Abraham. Abraham's a
friend of God. Abraham believed God, but Abraham's
a man. He's a man in need of mercy. A man in need of grace. And I'm sure they put a religious
spin on it by claiming to do the will of God. I bet you they
put a religious spin on this thing by claiming this to be
the will of God. Here's the heir. We can have
an heir. We can have a son here. An heir. And then we see the results of
the work of the flesh. Hagar despised Sarah after she
became pregnant. In verse 4, And he went in unto
Hagar, just like his wife said, And she conceived, and when she
saw that she had conceived, she despised Sarah. Her mistress
was despised in her eyes. She became lifted up with pride.
Nothing good ever, ever comes out of this flesh, does it? Nothing
good ever comes out of this flesh, ever. The home is now in turmoil. over this sin, over this trying
to move along the purpose of God, over this sin of impatience,
not waiting on the Lord. And it just destroyed the home.
It was in turmoil. Where there used to be harmony,
now there's fighting and there's envy. The home is absolutely
tore up now. Abraham's home is tore up. If
he had stayed the head of the house, this wouldn't have happened.
If he would have been the head of the house that God told him
to be, commanded him to be, and every man to be, this wouldn't
have happened. It wouldn't have happened. But
now there's fighting and envy. And look at Hagar's attitude.
Look at me. Oh, look at me, Sarah. Look who Abraham likes now. Abraham loves me more now. I
have his child. What was Sarah thinking? That
would have never been her child. It would have never been her
child. Even God did not acknowledge Ishmael as being Abraham's son. Not the promised heir. Not one
of the promised heirs. What did he say over there in
chapter 22? Abraham, take now thy son, thine
only son Isaac. God didn't even acknowledge him
as Abraham's son. What was she thinking? It was
never going to be their son. He's going to be a wild man.
That's what it's going to be. That's all he's going to be.
Had Abraham been the head of that house that he was supposed
to be? and the man of God that he should
have been, all of this would have been avoided. It would have
all been avoided. Even though Paul uses this as
an allegory, it doesn't lessen the sin of it. It does not lessen
the sin of it. You go over to Galatians and
what an allegory. What an allegory this is. What a teaching, what
an instruction this is. But it never lessens the sin
of it. Never. And then notice, this thing just
gets worse. It just gets worse. In verse 5, And Sarah said unto
Abraham, My wrong be upon thee. You bear the blame for this.
Here's what she's doing. You see, this is what sin leads
to. It's a downhill drag all the way. Here's what she's trying
to do. She's trying to pass her guilt
onto her husband. Now she's saying, why didn't
you be the head of the house and stop me? I had a woman say that to
me in front of her husband. She had spent a little too much
money. She said, well, he's the head. He should have just said
no. I thought, he'd have to shoot you 20 eyes if he said no. I
know the woman. I promise you. He'd have had
to shot her 20 eyes. I'm not saying it'd just be funny.
He would have. And that's what Sarah said. My wrong be upon
you. You're supposed to be the head. My guilt. My guilt be upon thee. Isn't that what Adam said? The
woman. The woman you gave me, she made
me do it. It's her fault. Turned around and passed that
guilt off on to Eve. And Sarah is trying to pass it
off on to Abraham. I want us to get this, if we
don't get anything else, this thing of guilt here. She says, my wrong, my guilt
be upon thee. Guilt is a terrible thing to
deal with. It's a terrible thing to have
to deal with. Instead of confessing her sin, She blames Abraham for
not being the head, and she won't confess up and own up to her
own guilt. She won't do it. Not yet, anyway. Now here's a
no-win situation. Sarah wanted to call the shots,
and Abraham, you bear the responsibility. You ever had that? I've had it
in business over the years. Hired different people, you know,
and I've had them to work. Constantly tell me what I ought to do and
how I ought to run it or what I ought to buy. And every time
I've done that, I've said, do you want to pay for it if it
doesn't work? Do you want to pay for it if it doesn't work? She wanted to call the shots
here in Abraham. Now you bear the responsibility
of it. We cannot shift the guilt to
someone else. We must learn to admit and own
our own guilt and seek forgiveness from the Lord. He's the only
one who can put it away. He's the only one who can put
it away. Blaming someone else may help
take the edge off of it. It may help take the edge off
of it. It never puts it away. Never. Only the Lord Jesus Christ
can put it away by His blood. Only His blood can quiet a guilty
conscience. I heard Scott Richardson say
that years ago and never forgot it. It hit me like an arrow.
Only the blood can put it away. Only the blood can quiet a guilty
conscience. We must be careful and not try
to cast our guilt of sin on to someone else. And we must be
careful how we call the Lord in to judge us. You know, she
said, the Lord be the judge between me and you. Well, I guarantee
you that's going to happen. But you might not like the outcome.
You know, if you're going to call God in on something, you
might want to think about if you can live with a sentence.
She says, The Lord be the judge between me and you. Well, He
will be. He will be. And then notice,
here's the sin of Abraham's indifference. His indifference. In verse 6,
But Abraham said to Sarah, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand. You
deal with her. She said, You just dig there
in a problem. You caused it. Can you see this
house right now? It's tore up. It is absolutely
tore up. All because they did not wait
upon the Lord. Did not seek the Lord over this
matter. Sarah had this bright idea, and Abraham had this temptation,
and he just said, OK, I'll do what you want. And what a mess. What an absolute mess. You deal
with her. You know what he just did right
here? He gave up the headship. He gave up His headship of the
home. You take care of it. Sarah, you take care of it. One
sin always leads to another. It always leads to another. And Sarah, it says in verse 6,
here's this guilt. Now, this guilt's going to show
back up. First, she jumps all over Abraham. She says, my wrong
be upon you. My guilt be upon you. I want
you to go take care of her. And now, look here, it says,
Sarah dealt hardly with her. She dealt harsh. I have no doubt
she probably beat her. She dealt very severe with her. Why? Because she still has not
accepted her guilt for what she just did. She has not yet accepted her
guilt for this sin of impatience. Instead, she becomes mean. This guilt that's just eating
at her, it's just making her mean. It's just coming out in
meanness is what's happening. She's coming out in meanness.
Her guilt comes out that way. Many people are miserable and
they really don't know why. They really don't know why. And the why is this. guilt. Sarah is so mean because she's
so guilty. What's the root of this whole
thing? It's her sin. It's her sin of not waiting upon
God. It's her sin of impatience. It's
her sin of trying to move along with the purpose of God to meet
her timetable because she's an old woman. And she recognizes
it. She wants that heir and she wants
that heir right now. Oh, it's not time yet. It's not
time yet. You see, God has time. Moses,
when he was in Egypt, he slew that Egyptian. And by doing that,
he thought they would recognize that he was the deliverer. He
had recognized it. He had recognized it. Well, he
slew this Egyptian, so he thought they would recognize he was the
deliverer. Well, that was 360 years after
they had gone into bondage. How long did God say they were
going to be there before they came out? 400. Moses, it ain't time yet. We've
got 40 more years. You're going to the back of the
side of the desert. You're going to go back there until you learn
that you are a nobody, going nowhere. You can't even talk.
Moses, you can't even talk. Isn't that what he said? When
God told him to go after 40 years, he said, I can't even talk. He
didn't say that 40 years earlier. No, he's saying, hey, I'm the
deliverer, y'all follow me. No, God said, you're going to
go back there in the backside of the desert for 40 more years,
because I told Abraham it's going to be down there 400 years. And
after 400 years, it's going to come out. God works on His timetable, on
His schedule. The way we treat others is a
direct reflection of what's going on in our hearts. It is a direct
reflection of what's going on in here. If we would cast the
beam out of our own eye, if Sarah would have cast the beam out
of her own eye, that home would have been quiet. That home would
have quieted right down. It would have gotten real quiet. Hagar had to flee from Sarah
because she was so mean to her. The guilt got so bad and she
got so mean to Sarah, to Hagar, that Hagar had to leave. Grace
wouldn't allow such conduct, would it? She's acting under
the energy of the flesh. Sarah is acting under the energy
of the flesh, not Grace. No, Grace. Grace would say, I
have sinned, forgive me, blame me. I should have never done
that. instead of trying to beat everybody
else up over it. All guilt is a terrible thing.
But the blood of Christ can put it away. But the God of all grace, the
God of all comfort shows up in verse 7. You see, it's a mess. It's a mess. Not waiting upon
the Lord. Trying to make things happen
in the energy of the flesh. It turns out to be a mess. But
then the Lord shows up. And the angel, verse 7, and the
angel of the Lord, and you know who that is, it's the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's who that is. It's not
just one of the angelic beings, it's the angel of the Lord. Because it says in verse 10,
And the angel of the Lord said to her, I will multiply thy seed
exceeding. Who will? The angel of the Lord
said, I will. Now down in verse 13, And she
called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest
me. So this is the Lord God of heaven
and earth. This is the Son of God speaking
to her, appearing to her. And notice to whom the Lord appears. The afflicted one. He does not
appear to Abraham at this time. He does not appear to Sarah at
this time. He appears to Hagar, the one who's been beaten, the
one who's been cast out, the one who's had to flee because
she has been so mistreated. He showed up to her. He reveals
himself to her. She said, I have looked after
him. I have looked upon God. That's who he showed up, that's
who he revealed himself to. Who found who? at this whale. Here she is at
a whale. She's probably there at the whale
crying. She's on her way back to Egypt.
This woman is on her way back to Egypt. She's been cast out
of the family she's been with for ten years. She's been run
off and now she's on her way back to Egypt. And the Lord reveals Himself
to her. He finds her at the well. She
wasn't looking for Him, was she? She wasn't looking for Him. But
He's looking for her. He found her. He found her. This reminded me
a lot like the woman at the well in Samaria. He said, I must need
to go through Samaria. There's going to be a Gentile
woman there. One of my sheep, there's going to be a woman there
that's mine. And he meets that woman, that
Samaritan woman, at the well. He meets them at the well. Both of them were outcasts. That
Samaritan woman, she'd been married several times, and he said, and
the man you've got now is not your husband. Both were just
sinners. Both were just sinners, outcasts.
That Samaritan woman, she came to draw water at noon. She was
too embarrassed. She was too embarrassed to do
it any earlier when the other people were there. She came when nobody
else was there. Her and Hagar had a lot in common
here. And both were there because of their sin. You see, Hagar
got lifted up with pride and then she just started making fun of Sarah, her master. Her mistress is her master. And
she started just making fun of her. And saying, look at me.
You know, it just started arrogance. Well, she's at that web, of course,
of her sin, of arrogance. That's why she's there. And then
Hagar here. She was found by the Lord in
the wilderness. In the wilderness. All alone. No help. Nobody with her. None to help her. None to pity
her. None to take care of her. None to direct her. She's there all along. Can you
imagine, as a woman, traveling in the wilderness, what that
would be like? Pregnant. He found her in the wilderness.
And this is where the Lord finds all His sheep. He finds every
one of His sheep in the wilderness. Every last one of them. Out there in the wilderness.
All alone. Spiritually. All alone. No help. No guidance. Lost. That's who the Lord appeared
to. He appeared to Hagar, the afflicted one. The one that was
cast out out there in the wilderness. Sitting by a well. And there's
the Lord. He finds her all alone. No one
to turn to. And I'm telling you this, if
the Lord is going to save someone, they've got to be brought to
this place. You're not going to talk them into a profession
and get them saved. That's not going to happen. The
Lord has to bring them to the point where they are absolutely
alone. No one to turn to but Him. No
one to go to but Him for forgiveness and for mercy, for help. No one. And here's the remedy. He gives
her the remedy here. And this is the same remedy he
gives to all his sheep. In verse 9, return to thy mistress,
return to thy master, thy mistress, and listen, and submit thyself
under her hand. Now, Hagar, you go back. You go back. See, she ran away.
She was a runaway slave. She fled from Sarah because of
the meanness that was going on. He said, you go back and you
submit under her hand. And here's the point. Return
to the Lord. Every sinner, I say this to every
sinner, return to the Lord and submit thyself under his hand.
Submit. He's gracious. He delights to
show mercy. Return and submit. Return to
Him and submit. He's the only one who can put
away sin. He's the only one who can quiet
the conscience. He's the only one that can cleanse. I tell you this, if your conscience
is troubled over sin, flee to Him. Not away from Him. You can flee to Him. He's gracious. He's kind. He's merciful. He
delights to show mercy. And the Lord gives her a promise.
He says, I'm going to bless you. You're going to bear a son. And
He even names the son. He says, this is going to be
his name. But you know, Abraham named him. Abraham gave him the
name that he told Hagar. He said, this is going to be
his name. This is what I want you to name him. And Abraham gave him that name.
Thy seed is going to be multiplied exceedingly. I'm going to bless you. I'm going
to bless this son. Thy seed is going to be multiplied
exceedingly. Although, although, he's going
to be a wild man. He's going to be a wild man. Here's one thing I believe he's
saying. He's not the seed. This is not
the promised seed. This is not the heir. This is
not him. This is the wild man. This man
was begotten by manipulation and sin and impatience. I'm going to bless you. I'm going to multiply your seed. But he's not the promised seed.
Now, this is not the heir. He's going to be a wild man.
The fruit of sin. Listen, the fruit of sin can
never produce peace. Can never do that. And he said,
this one's going to be a wild man. His hand is going to be
against every man and every man's hand is going to be against him.
And you can actually still look at that people right now. And
I'm telling you, they're rebels. They're rebels. They're against
everybody. Everybody. And I'll close this. You notice
the Lord said to her, return to thy mistress. He didn't say
return to thy husband, did he? He didn't say return to thy husband.
Because Abraham is not her husband. I said in the beginning that
Sarah didn't have the right to do that. She didn't have the
right to marry Abraham and Hagar. You know, when Abraham went into
her, what did he do? He committed adultery. That's
exactly what happened. God said, you return to your
mistress. He didn't say you return to your husband. You return to
your mistress. You return to Sarah. You submit
to Sarah and you just take up your position just like you was
before you left. And the Lord did not acknowledge
Abraham as her husband. Just because Sarah said that
didn't make it so. It didn't make it so. But here's
the message. Here's the message. Wait on the
Lord. Wait on the Lord. Even here,
wait on the Lord. I'm not going to try to fill
these seats so that I can feel like and you can feel like we
have a successful ministry here. Right here is enough if you believe
the Gospel. I heard two or three just here that believe the Gospel.
Isn't that enough? That's enough. Wait on the Lord. Trust in Him. Just trust Him. If He said it, He'll do it. What
He said, He'll do. And commit thy way to Him. Commit
thy way to Him, and He'll bring it to pass. Abraham, Sarah, commit
thy way to Him concerning this heir, and He'll bring it to pass. You see, God had promised Abraham
a seed, an heir. And it's going to happen when
Abraham and Sarah are both physically past having children. It was
evident he wasn't past having children with Hagar. It wasn't until he was 99 years
old and he was past the age, it was past his age. And Sarah, it was past her age. Now this promise is going to
happen. Now the child of promise is going to be given. The heir of promises. Now that's
when he's going to be given when you have absolutely nothing to
do with it. And you know it. Wait on him. Trust him. Commit thy way to
Him and don't blame someone else for your sinfulness. Wives, don't
blame your husbands. Husbands, don't blame your wives.
I probably shouldn't tell you, but she's in the nursery. Give me a minute. Every time I tell her something
sometimes, I'll say, you shouldn't have done that, or this, or whatever. Something like that. Well, you did. And invariably,
she'll bring up something I did. And I said, don't do that. We're
not talking about that right now. And over the years, I said, no,
we're not talking about that. We're talking about this. I had to get the pointer across.
We're talking about this. And I know that goes on the same
place everywhere else. Well, I remember when you, well,
you know, we're not talking about two weeks ago. We're talking
about this. And I'm talking about myself learning this. Learn to
just bear with, deal with the guilt that's there without saying,
well, I remember when. No. It's just, well, if we can
learn to just deal with, deal with our own guilt and not remember
when on anybody else. Don't blame someone else for
your sinfulness. And last of all, take your burden
to the Lord and leave it there.