Genesis chapter 21, and we'll
read from verse one. And the Lord visited Sarah as
he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For 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. Isaac means laughter. And Abraham
circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded
him. And Abraham was a hundred years
old when his son Isaac was born unto him. And Sarah said, God
hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with
me. And she said, who would have
said unto Abraham that Sarah should have given children sup? For I have born him a son in
his old age. Amen, and may God bless to us
this reading from his word. You know, we often say that the
whole of Scripture speaks to us of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we have eyes to see and ears
to hear, we will discover that the whole of the Bible speaks
about the Lord Jesus Christ. Not because Christ is mentioned
in every part of Scripture. Well, he's not. but because the
Holy Spirit has taught us that every part of Scripture points
to the Lord Jesus Christ and tells us something about Him
and about His work of salvation. And this is true in this little
portion that we have before us today also. Yes, we're talking
about Abraham and Sarah and now Isaac, who has been born to them.
And this might, in some senses, just simply be a delightful story
of the birth of a baby. A son, Isaac, being born to Abraham
and Sarah. And of course, every time a baby
is born, it's a blessing from the Lord. But we cannot read
this, this little account, without realising that there is more
to what is said here than might at first appear. Isaac's birth,
in a sense, was not of itself miraculous, and yet it was clearly
special. That a child should be born to
a man that is 100 years of age and a woman who is 90 is certainly
very unusual and very unexpected. That the Lord should promise
that child, explicitly and specifically, even to the point of giving him
a name, that he would determine the exact timing and give a knowledge
of that timing to the mother and father when he would bring
it to pass. These things show us God's power
and purpose in the birth of this child. And even that, God's immediate
involvement in the birth of that child, prepares us with an expectation
for the fact that God does such things. So that when God in time,
in an even more miraculous birth, brought the Lord Jesus Christ
into the world, already there had been a pattern set for the
way in which God deals with these wonderful things. And so we can
see a picture of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ in the
birth of Isaac. and that such a gift as this
child should come to Abraham and Sarah was, as we've already
implied, really quite astonishing. And we find that Sarah particularly
rejoices and celebrates celebrates at the birth of this child as
indeed a mother might. She calls his name Isaac or Abraham
calls his name Isaac which is laughter and there might be many
reasons because both Abraham and Sarah laughed when they were
told about the birth of this child and here Sarah speaks about
her own laughter with joy and with the joy and laughter of
those around about her. That laughter would be brought
into this happy home when this child was brought in to these
new parents. And if the birth of a child causes
so much joy in a family, how much more might I celebrate the
coming of that one who came from God and is God, that one of whom
the angel said, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall
be to all people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a saviour, which is Christ the Lord. So
while there is happiness and joy comes into the lives of men
and women with the birth of a child, so the Lord Jesus Christ has
brought joy into the hearts and lives of his people as he came
as a child into this world. And here we see also a picture
of God's covenant purpose. God made a covenant, or a covenant
is just a promise. He made a promise with Abraham. A promise about the land of Canaan
in which Abraham dwelt. A promise about him being the
father of many nations. And we've seen how that promise
had to do with physical nations, physical people, and a spiritual
nation. And we've seen that there were
promises given about a son being born to him. And so this birth
of Isaac, who was the child of promise, began the fulfilment
of all God's promises. And those promises have been
being fulfilled all down through the ages of time, even to this
present day. And wonderfully and amazingly,
even right to this day for you and for me. Because the apostle
Paul tells us in the New Testament, in the book of Galatians in chapter
four and verse 28, he says, now we brethren, As Isaac was, are the children
of promise. We are the children of promise. Isaac had been promised to Abraham
and to Sarah, and the Lord gave Isaac to Abraham and Sarah in
accordance with his purpose and his word. But now we are the
children of promise because we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ
as his covenant people, as his covenant children. And men and
women and boys and girls who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ
are they in whom the covenant promises of grace and goodness
and sins forgiven are manifested as we believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and in the power of his cleansing blood. So here is the
story of Isaac and the account of his birth and here is a picture
that brings us right up to the present day that the child of
promise is here with us today in the person who believes in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.