I'd like to turn over there with
us, Psalms 37, and verse 1. Fret not thyself because of evildoers,
neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity, for
they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and withers the green
earth. Trust in the Lord, and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land,
and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord,
and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way
unto the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall
bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth thy
righteousness as the light. Bring it to our mind. Bring it
to our knowledge. And thy judgment is the noonday.
Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. fret not thyself because
of him who prospers in the way, because of the man who bringeth
evil devices to pass." Over in our text now in Genesis chapter
16, we read this to you this morning.
Let's read a couple of verses to begin our study. Genesis 16,
verse 1, Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. And she
had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. Sarai said
unto Abram, Behold, now the Lord hath 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 unto the
voice of Sarai. Now, the Lord requires a lot
of things of His children. He gives us many, many words,
many commandments, many sayings. And there's three here that I
read to you from Psalms 37 that we could easily apply to the
situation that Abraham and Sarai got themselves into if they had
remembered These three principles, just three of those principles
that I read to you there in Psalms 37, they'd have saved their family
a lot of trouble. And the first one was this, commit
thy way unto the Lord. Commit thy way unto the Lord. That wasn't what Sarai did. She
took matters into her own hands. The Lord has restrained me from
bearing a child, but I've got a plan. I've schemed up an idea. We can work this out ourselves.
She took it out of the hands of the Lord and sought by human
wisdom and fleshly means to accomplish what God had promised. And that
never works. That never works. Having begun
in the Spirit, Are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Commit
thy ways unto the Lord. Her own conniving and human wisdom
led to this problem. The second principle that I read
to you there was this. Trust ye also in Him, and He
shall bring it to pass. Trust ye in Him. Trust in Him. Who was it that made this promise
to Abraham? It was God. And the same God
who made this promise to Abraham that you're going to have a son,
is the same God that would fulfill that promise. All they had to
do was trust. That's our part in it. Trust
ye in the Lord. He shall bring it to pass. It's
not us who brings things to pass. It's Him that promised that brings
things to pass. Thy seed shall be as the stars
of heaven. Sarai and Abraham wouldn't even
be living when this comes to pass. It wasn't their responsibility
to worry about this. What was their concern? Trust
in Him. Trust in Him. Trust in the Lord
with all your heart. Trust His gospel. Trust the Son
of God. Trust the promises of God. Trust
the providence of God. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge
Him. And He'll direct your steps. Be not wise. Be not wise in your
own conceit. That's the very next line. Be
not wise in your own eyes. Trust in the Lord and do good.
And the third principle that if Abraham and Sarai would have
remembered this, is this. Rest in the Lord and wait, and
wait, and wait patiently for Him. We spend a lot of time waiting. And the Lord's fixed it that
way. He has a time. He has a purpose. And he always
comes in his time to fulfill his promises and his will. The
Lord's time. You remember when Moses went
to deliver the children of Israel. Remember the first time he tried
to deliver them, what happened to him? He supposed that they
knew that the Lord had sent him down to deliver the children
of Israel. But you know something? The Lord didn't send him. The
Lord didn't tell him to go down there and deliver them. He went
down there because he thought it was time. It had been 360
years since the Lord told Abraham, they're going to be down there
400 years. It was 360 years, Larry, when Moses went down there
to deliver them people. And he killed that fellow, remember
that? And he fled to the backside of the desert. Remember how long
he was down there? 40 years. I don't know if Moses knew it
or not. I doubt if he did. But the Lord did. It wasn't time. It wasn't time. God's got a timetable,
and He goes according to that. And you and I have to graciously
and patiently wait. I waited patiently for the Lord,
and He brought me up out of a horrible pit. When did God send His Son? He's the perfect example for
us to follow. He didn't send him one moment
too soon in the fullness of time. When did Christ go to the cross? So often He said, My hour has
not yet come. My time has not yet come. My
time is near. Until finally He said, My hour
has come. My hour has come. What shall
I say, Father, deliver me from this hour? For this cause came
unto this hour. This hour, the time had come. I remember, and you remember
too, that passage in Luke 2. And I often think of this, how
condescending the Lord Jesus is to being an example to us. How He condescends just to being
an example to us. He was 12 years old, and they
had left Him there at Jerusalem at the feast. and went back up
into Galilee and realized that he wasn't in the company. And
Joseph and Mary went all the way back into Jerusalem looking
for him. Three days, three days. And they
found him there in the midst of those theologians, understanding
what they were talking about and asking them questions. It
amazed, it amazed those fellows. And Mary sent a message in to
him and said, you've worried us, you've grieved us. And this
12-year-old boy, this God man, he said, don't you know that
I must be about my father's business? But you know he was about 18
years too early. Did you ever think of that? And
the Scripture says he went back to his home and submitted himself. to his mother and Joseph, and
waited eighteen long years before he preached his first message.
And remember what Mark says it was? The time is fulfilled. The time is fulfilled. Eighteen
years ago it wasn't, but now it is. God has a time. God has
a time. What was Sarai wanting this child
for? Well, the Lord's promised him
The Lord's promised my husband a child. It's just not time yet. It's just not time yet. Wait
on the Lord. He has a time, doesn't He? Glenn,
He has a time. He called you. He has a time
He calls His elect when it pleases God. So He has a time. He has a time. You and I just
need grace to wait on Him to accomplish what He's promised.
The Lord has restrained me from bearing, but I will obtain children
another way. That's what she said. That's
what she got in her head. I'll have children another way.
Sarah, you may do it. You may do it. But I tell you
what you're going to do, you're going to cause yourself some
trouble and your family some trouble. We do this every time,
don't we? If we don't trust in the Lord,
If we don't wait patiently upon Him for Him to accomplish His
will and His purpose, if we go off to our human inventions and
natural wisdom and try to figure things out, we'll get ahead of
Him. We get ourselves in trouble. That's what Sarai did. And then
in verse 2, it says here that Abraham hearkened to the voice
of his wife. This is the second time we read.
Up until now that a man, a husband, hearkened to the voice of his
wife. Two times. Adam, remember Adam? She offered him the fruit. Good
fruit. Good fruit. Eat of it. Okay.
Okay. And here it is the second time.
Abraham hearkened unto Sarai. Now you can't blame the wife.
You can't blame her. No sense to me getting up here
and blaming Sarai or Eve because the scripture doesn't blame Eve.
She was ignorant but Adam was. The husband has the right and
he has the responsibility and here's what Abraham should have
said. Wait a minute wife. Wait just a minute. This ain't
right. This is contrary to the Scriptures.
We can't take matters into our own hands. This is the Lord made
this promise, and He'll fulfill the promise. Let's not stagger
at the promise of our God. Let's wait upon Him. But that's
not what Abraham said. The husband not only has the
right and the responsibility, but he must have the courage
to stand. You brother, and since our wives
are here, you ever have any trouble standing against your wives? Especially those who want to
get pushy? Sarah was a beautiful woman,
but she can get pushy. She can get pushy. Did you ever
see Abraham stand up against her? Show me one time when Abraham
ever stood up against his wife. She could get pretty pushy. So
here, Sarai came to him and said, Abraham, I got a plan. Here's
what I want you to do. I want you to take my slave and
take her to your bosom and let her be your wife and have a child
by her. This is my purpose. And you know
what he said? Okay. Okay. Now whose fault was that? The best thing that Abraham and
Sarai could have done was to sit down and talked about this. That would have been the best
thing they could do. Abraham didn't want to talk. I don't
know about this fellow sometimes. I don't know about it. You see
him in this situation here, and he was so indifferent. He's a
lot like us. He didn't want to sit down and
discuss things with his wife. He didn't have much to say about
anything. She'd come and say, here's my plan. He said, okay.
When things fell through, she'd come back and say, here's what
happened. He said, you handle it. You know the best thing for a
husband and a wife to do is sit and talk. Heirs together of the
grace of life. Ain't that what Peter said? Heirs
together of the grace of life. One thing we notice about Abraham
in this passage is his indifference to all of this. And that shows
a weakness of his faith. His faith got weak. If his faith
would have been strong at this time, he'd have cut this off
in a minute. He'd have cut it off in a minute. In verse 3, look here in verse
3, And Sarai, Abram's wife, took
Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years
in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be
his wife. Now, there are commentaries that
tell us that Sarah's motives were good in this, And I don't
doubt that a bit. I don't doubt that a bit. That
her motives were good. It was more than just her wanting
a son. It was more than just wanting
somebody for Abraham and her to leave their property to. That
was part of it. She wanted a son and wanted children
to raise them and watch them grow. But she knew the Messiah
was coming through them. through Abraham. Abraham knew
that Christ was coming through him. He knew what seed be in
thy seed, shall all nations be blessed. And Abraham understood
that to be the Christ. Sarah knew that the seed of the
woman would be born that would bruise that serpent's head. And
her motive was to have that son, even if it took having it through
Hagar, her slave. Her motive was good. Her desires
was good. Who wouldn't desire that? So
I agree that this is probably true concerning Sarah. But you
know something? Sometimes our desires are wrong. And sometimes our motives, though
they may be right, what we do is wrong. It's good always to
have motives that what we do is for God's glory, and it's
good when our desires are for His glory and the salvation of
our souls and others. But you know something? We need
guidance. We need our desires to be directed,
and we need our motives to be clear and holy and gracious. And how do we know if they are?
But one place to go to. That's God's Word, ain't it?
That's God's Word. Sarah's motive may well have
been good, but what she did was wrong. She was wrong. Verse 4, now we have the slave
girl. Here comes Hagar, and she enters
the picture in verse 4. She went unto Hagar, he went
in, unto Hagar, and she conceived, and when she saw that she had
conceived, her mistress Saria was despised in her eyes." Can
you imagine how this girl felt? She was elated. She was a slave
girl, probably been ever since Sarai and Abraham went down into
Egypt. That's probably where they got
her at. Somebody gave this slave girl to Sarai, or she bought
her off the slave market. Been with them for ten years.
And now she's the wife of this famous man. This rich man. Even a military man. Everybody
knows this man. Kings know and respect this man. Abraham. And now here she is,
not only his wife, she has a child in her womb. She's pregnant with
this Abraham. Boy, can you imagine how elated
this girl was, this slave girl, Abraham's wife bearing Abraham's
child, and she got lifted up in pride. And the first thing
she did was look down her nose at Sarai. She despised Sarai. You know how we know it's pride?
Because that's what pride does. It despises other people. The
sad thing about pride is this. We usually are proud over things
that we should be humble and thankful over. Here was a slave girl. And she
had been exalted unto a place of honor. And this very honor
that had been bestowed upon her was Saria. She was the one that
bestowed the honor upon her. Now who does she despise? Saria. Despise the same one who exalted
her to this place of honor. Boy, pride is a sin. that you
and I can fall into without hardly knowing it. The Lord blesses
us. He gives us a family. He gives us some children, and
they turn out to be rather successful. And what do we do? We look down
on those we call dysfunctional families. The Lord gives us a good job. He gives us health. He enables
us to work. He gives us half cents not to
waste so much of it. Then what do we do? We look down
on those who out of necessity sometimes have to get on the
welfare program. Don't we do that? Pride. And it's what the Lord has done
for us. It's what the Lord has given
us. None of us have anything but what we've received, whether
it's carnal, natural, or spiritual. It's from Him. The Lord gives us some light.
He gives us some knowledge of Himself and of His ways. And
what do we do? We get puffed up in pride and
despise those who don't have the light that we have. Pride. The Lord brings us together as
a body of believers. Gives us a comfortable building
here to worship in. He gives us the carnal means
and the spiritual gifts to be a local church. And what do we
do? If we're not careful, we'll exalt the church over Christ. I was reading this evening. I
asked Wanda to bring me the little church directory. We put an article
in it, and she brought it to me today, and I was reading through
it. And I know it's a church directory.
But as I read that, I thought, how sad. How sad. Because all the way through the
book, you know what it was about? The church. The churches. And the church's programs, and
the church's activities, and the church's locations, and the
church's worship time. Just about the church, the church,
the church. Ain't that sad? And as I read
that, I thought, where's Christ? Where's the glory of Christ?
Here's the bride bragging on herself. Here's the bride showing
off her dress. But where's the glory of the
bride? Christ is the glory. I thought, where's the message?
Where's the gospel in this? Can't we get lifted up in pride?
Instead of talking about Him, we turn the attention to ourselves.
Boy, it slips up on us so easy. And the one who has blessed us,
if we're not careful, is the very one we'll wind up despising. Paul was riding to the Corinthian
church, and the first thing he said to them, you fellas, you've
got all kinds of gifts. The Lord has gifted you. You
come by no other church in all the gifts that you have. You've
got the gift of wisdom. You've got the gift of knowledge.
You have the gift of the discernment, the gift of prophecies. You've
got fellows among you that can speak in tongues and others that
can interpret the tongue. You just have all kinds of gifts
of healing. But you know what he had to tell
them? If you've received these things,
why do you glory as though you've not received them? God's given
to you and you've lifted up in pride and glory as if somewhere
or another you've developed them yourself. And you've earned them. Boy, it's spiritual pride that's
dangerous, ain't it? It's the worst kind of pride
because it's the most deceitful and sometimes the most destructive.
And the sad part is about it, it's pride that comes from what
we should be thankful and humble over. The Lord's gifts to us. His mercies to Him. Paul said,
I was caught up into the third heaven. I saw things that I can't
even understand. I received all these abundance
of revelations. He said, the Lord has blessed
me tremendously. But he said, what's happened?
I was ready to get lifted up in pride. And the Lord had to
send me a messenger of Satan, a thorn in the flesh to buffet
me, to keep me down, to beat me down. Pride. And here's poor
Sarai, that poor Hagar, and Sarai had given her to her husband,
and now she is with child. What does she do? Get lifted
up in pride. And despised the very one that
put her there. Now look here in verse 5. And
Sarai said to Abraham, My wrong be upon thee. I've given my maiden
to thy bosom when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised
in her eyes. The Lord judge between me and
thee." You could be a baby in Christ and see what Sarah's doing,
can't you? She's shifting the blame. My wrong be on thee. Sarah wanted to have it both
ways. What she wanted, Larry, she wanted Abraham to take the
responsibility and be the head. But she wanted to tell him what
to do. And she got mad at him when he wouldn't be the head,
you see. What she wanted was this. She
said, Abraham, I've got a scheme, and I want you to go along with
it. But if it don't work out, you're going to get the blame.
That's how she was, at least here in this chapter. Shifting
the blame. There must be something about
shifting the blame that in some way or another takes the guilt,
at least in part, from off our conscience. That's what Adam
sought to do. That's what Eve sought to do. Shifting the blame. It's not
my fault. It's their fault. I guess this is why the Lord
often commands us to acknowledge our sins and to confess them
to God. Return, O backsliding Israel,
and acknowledge thine iniquities that you have transgressed against
the Lord thy God, and you have not obeyed His voice. Acknowledge
it. Confess it. A thorough confession. That's what He requires of us.
Quit shifting the blame to somebody else. I tell you, when we do
that, it may take the edge off of the guilt, but it won't remove
it. Will it? We'll just keep carrying
it until we've confessed it and He's forgiven it. Abraham, my
blame be upon thee. Well, you say that, Sarai, if
you want to. But you're at fault. You're at
fault. Abraham's at fault. And now,
the slave girl is at fault. And look what he says here again
in verse 6. But Abram said unto Sarai, Now
look at his indifference. Look at his indifference. Behold,
thy maid is in thy hand. Do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with
her, she fled from her face." Abraham just didn't differ about
this whole thing, wasn't he? And notice here how one sin just
leads to another. Sarai was wrong in suggesting
this thing to Abraham. Abraham was wrong by not putting
a stop to it. Agar was wrong because she got
lifted up in pride. Sarah was wrong in shifting the
guilt to Abraham. She is madder than a wet hornet
because of her maid. And Abraham, he's so indifferent
to this whole mess, he don't care what's happened. He just
wants it to be over with. You just take care of it. You
just take care of it. See how one sin always leads
to another? One fellow said this, he said
something to this effect. He said something about, be careful,
sin may begin in a dark corner, but it can spread throughout
all the house. And that's so ain't it. Here's a sin that began
probably in the bedroom of Abraham and Sarai. But look where it's
spread now. It's spread all the way out in
the slave quarters. Sin. In verse 6, in the last portion
there, it says, Sarai dealt hardly. Harsh. She chastened her. And this word means to humble
and depress. Well, she depressed her. I don't know what she did. I
don't know if she beat her. I don't know if she browbeat her or physically
beat her. But she depressed her. And depressed
her so much, the Scripture says here, she fled. from Sarah's
face. She dealt hardly, hardly with
her, harshly. Ain't it so evident here that
Sariah still ain't got over this thing of accepting her responsibility?
You can see it there, can't you? She did wrong. She tried to shift
the guilt to Abraham. And she still got that guilt
on her conscience. And you know how she shows it?
She's mean to this girl here. She treats her in a harsh manner. Her servant, the one she rules
over. There's people who go through this life, bless their hearts,
and we know some of them. Sometime we may be some of them.
They're so unhappy and miserable in themselves, they don't know
it. They don't know they're the fault
for being so miserable. And they won't acknowledge that
they're the fault of being so miserable, but they're so miserable
in themselves that they make the lives of other people around
them miserable too. They never got a positive thing
to say about anybody. They're always negative. They'll
find some poor waitress down at the restaurant and they'll
deal heartily with them and take their frustrations out on them.
Haven't you seen that? I bet a part of Sarah's frustration
was directed towards God, too. I just bet it was. I can just
almost hear Sarah thinking this. Me and Abraham have been married
and living here in this place for ten years. And we've tried
to have a son. And we want a son. And God's
promised a son. And He hasn't given us a son.
But as soon as my husband went in to that maid, that slave,
God blessed her and she has a son. There's something wrong with
this. That was her problem. That's her problem. If she would
have been a gracious woman, been a tender woman, and walking in
fellowship as she should have been, she would have never treated
this slave woman like she treated her. She never would have. But she carried this guilt and
shifted the blame. The Lord Jesus gives us some
good advice in our advising other people,
in our trying to correct other people. And boy, this advice
just applies to all of us. It applies to the husband and
wife. It applies to the parents with
the children. It applies to friends, and here's what it is. Cast first that log out of your
own eye, and then you'll see clearly how to take the little
splinter out of somebody else's eye. That was Sarah's whole problem.
If she would have been right in her own heart with the Lord,
she would have never dealt with this woman as she did. In verse 6, in the last portion
of verse 6 and verse 7, we're told that she fled from the face
of Saria and the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain
of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to shore. Now this angel of the Lord here,
there was no doubt that that was the Lord Jesus Christ. that wasn't an angel, a spirit,
as you and I think of, but it was probably the Lord that appeared
to her there in the farm. But we're told down there in
verse 13 that it was the Lord, it was God. And there in verse
10, He said, this angel of the Lord said, I will multiply thee.
So it wasn't just an angel that appeared to her, as we think
of. It was God. The Lord Jesus Christ, God the
Son, appeared to her, here He said, by a fountain of water
in the wilderness. This is the first time, rather,
that the Lord had talked with a woman beside a well of water. But it wasn't the last time,
was it? It was the last time. Brother Glenn has been teaching
us. very aptly about the Lord, meeting that woman of Samaria
there at the well, Jacob's well, and talking with her. And as
you read this passage here, you can't help but think of that
woman. And they've got so many things in common. Let me just
read a few things that I thought of myself. That woman of Samaria
and Agar the slave had in common. They both were adulterous women. They both were adulterous women. Now, I know that Agar may have
said, well, you know, I'm his wife. I'm his wife. But she wasn't
Abraham's wife. Only Sarah said, you take her
to be your wife. Abraham never acknowledged her,
and the Lord never acknowledged her as Abraham's wife. When the
Lord appeared to her, how did He address her? Sarah's maid. And that woman there, the Samaritan
woman, she was an adulterous woman. That's the first thing
they had in common. They were both at the well because of their
sin. Agar was there because of her
pride. She fled from Sarah. And the
Samaritan woman was there because of her shame. Why did you tell
us when she was there at noon? Nobody's going to be there. She
didn't want to be there when everybody else was there. She
was ashamed. And thirdly, they were lured
out of public into privacy. They were there at the appointment
of the Lord. His secret providence brought
them there. Fourthly, they were both sought
out of the Lord when little or no evidence was given that they
were first seeking Him. The Lord sought her. The angel
of the Lord sought her. And what did the Lord Jesus say
about, He must go through Samaria? Why He was seeking that woman
out before she ever sought Him. Fifthly, In both cases, the Lord
began the conversation. He began it here, and He began
it with the Samaritan. They were both outcasts from
the Lord's people. Agar, from Abraham's house, and
that Samaritan woman from the Jewish nation, they were outside
the family of God. They were both slaves. They were
both slaves, physical and spiritual. Agar was Sarah's slave. The Samaritan
was the slave of sin. The Lord made Himself known to
both of them, and both of them immediately confessed Him. One
was told here in verse 13, she confessed the Lord God, and she
called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seeth
me. And what was it the Samaritan
said? Come see a man that told me all things. It's not this
the Christ. So these women have a lot in common. The Lord converted
both of them. It's a wonderful thing and it's
owing to sovereign grace and incomparable love when the Lord
of glory in his secret providence is pleased to lure a sinner out
from society, out from sinful pleasure, out from carnal security,
and brings them to the wilderness to meet with Himself. Ain't that a wonderful thing?
Somebody read Psalm 107 to us not long ago. They wandered in
the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell
in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul
fainted within them. And then they cried unto the
Lord. Then they cried unto the Lord. She didn't cry to the Lord
that we read of until she was brought out here to this wilderness.
Before she was lifted up in pride, now she cries. Before she had
dwelt in Abraham's tent, now she dwells in the wilderness.
Before she had plenty, now she's hungry and thirsty. Before she
was happy and carefree, now she's in trouble. Before she laughed
while she lay in Abraham's bosom, now her mouth is in the dust.
She's in the wilderness. But it's here in this wilderness
that Hagar the slave, who was fleeing from Sarah's angry face,
was looked upon by God's smiling face. But it's in the wilderness. And ain't that where it usually
happens at? Right in the wilderness. Sovereign grace, eternal love
that found a slave. And where did he find her? Returning
to the place of her nativity. She was going back to Egypt.
The way to Shur, the way to Egypt. A woman lifted up in pride. A
woman carrying in her womb a little illegitimate child. A woman still
full of resentment. And yet the Lord sought her out. and let her see His smiling face."
That's amazing. Blessed day when the Lord passes
by a poor human wretch and looks upon their proud heart and says,
I'm going to humble it. He looks upon their rebellion
and says, I'm going to subdue it. He looks upon their backsliding
and says, I'm going to heal it. He looks upon all manner of sin
in their heart and blasphemy and says, I'm going to forgive
it. He looks upon a heart full of iniquity and says, I'm going
to blot it out as a thick cloud. I have seen her way. I have seen her way. I know where
she comes from. I know Sarah is angry with her. I know Abraham is indifferent
to her. I know her heart of pride. I know her secret sins. I know
all about her. I have seen her ways. And I will
heal her. Ain't that amazing? I will heal
her. Not judge her. Not damn her. Not condemn her. Neither do I
condemn them. But I'll heal her. I'll heal
her. This poor woman, was a mixture
of all kinds of emotions. A proud heart, but it was now
a broken heart. A heart full of resentment, but
a heart that was now afflicted. Not willing to go down to Egypt
because she knew what awaited her there. The slave market. Not able to go back to Sarah. So what does the Lord do? He
finds her there. Undecisive. Full of trouble and affliction.
And what does he do? He reveals his good side to her. His saving side. His smiling
face. He reveals himself. That's amazing. I think if the Lord would open
our hearts to this, we'd probably see in this woman one of the
most amazing conversions in all the Old Testament. Because of
the way it happened, who she was, and the trouble she was
in. What amazing it was for him to
do this for her. And here's his instructions in
verse 9. Look at what he says. Return
and submit thyself under her hands. Return to thy
mistress and submit thyself under her hands. Before, there's no way she could
have done this. She wouldn't have done this.
Either out of fear or out of pride. And you couldn't have
talked this woman into doing this. You may, you may think
you would have talked her into it. She may have said, okay,
you've convinced me, I'm going back. But she would have got off track
somewhere. She wouldn't have went back. She was too afraid
of saving. She is still too full of pride
to do it. But when the Lord, when this angel of the Lord here
spoke to her, when Christ spoke to her, and when He took in heart to
save her and convert her, He not only gives the command
to return and submit, but He gives the power and He gives
the grace. And He gives the desire. And
that's the difference, ain't it? He does what you and I cannot
possibly do. You know why I never come to
Christ before I did? I didn't want to. You know when
I come to Christ? When I wanted to. I did. And you couldn't have talked
me into the will to. You couldn't have given me the desire. You
couldn't have given me the power, the grace to do it. It's written
in the prophets, they shall all be taught of God. Every man that
hath heard and learned of the Father, what does he do? He comes
to me. He comes to me. As soon as they hear of me, they
shall obey me. And strangers shall submit themselves
unto me. This is the message. This is
the message that you and I have for lost people. Return and submit. That's the message we have. Because
that's the message of the Bible. Let the wicked forsake his way,
the unrighteous man his thought. Let him return unto the Lord.
Take with you words and turn to the Lord. And say to him,
Lord, take away all iniquity. Return and submit yourself to
Christ and His righteousness and be saved by Him. That's the
message, ain't it? But nobody's going to hear it
if they just hear it from our lips. Who's believed our report? Nobody in their heart. But you
let the angel of the Lord speak. And it's different then. As soon
as they hear of me, of my lips. I speak to the conscience, you
see. I speak to the heart. We speak to the ears. The Lord
speaks to the conscience. Who was that? Somebody the other
day talking about the difference between speaking to the ear and
the conscience. How loud. You can't speak loud
enough to the ear to reach the conscience. But when the Lord
speaks to the conscience, man, that's loud. That's loud. And
it gets their attention. And what does he say? Return.
Return. And as soon as they hear of me,
they shall obey me, and strangers shall submit themselves unto
me. And Agar went home. She went
home with a promise from God that she would have a son. And he'd be a man that would have
a great nation. Twelve kings would come out of
this man. Great nation. But she went home too, not only
with a promise from God, but she went home with grace in her
heart. And when she went home, she submitted
herself to Saria. And we don't know how this episode,
this trial in this family ended. We don't know if it was all ever
completely smoothed over, but you just know that when this
slave woman returned to Saria, after she had seen the face of
God, a gracious face of God, that so surprised her that he
saw her in her condition. after she had sinned and lifted
up in pride and carried all this resentment that God would visit
her in mercy and show His forgiving face. She was so amazed and so
glad to submit, she went home to Saria. And when Saria saw
this gracious attitude, this humble attitude, this submission,
you just about know that it softened, it tendered Saria's heart. And you know how we know that? Because it always does that to
God's children. You can't mistreat somebody that
you see the grace of God in. Not if you're a child of grace
yourself. When you see the Lord has touched somebody and He's
humbled them, and they're full of His grace and humility, you're
not going to hurt that person. If you do, what did John say?
The love of God's not in you. Well, I don't know how this episode
ended. Maybe we'll have some light on
it later on. But the Lord dealt mercifully with this woman. And
she returned and humbled herself. And Abraham had this child and
called him Ishmael. Lord bless His Word. Let's pray.