The God of glory appeared to
Abraham when he was yet in Ur of the Chaldees, and there the
Lord God promised to make of him a great nation. After the
death of his father Terah and Haran, the Lord appeared to Abraham
again and renewed his promise, and yet the promise went unfulfilled. Though he was a seventy-five-year-old
man, Abraham believed God. and left Haran with his wife
Sarah, his nephew Lot, and Lot's wife, and came to the land of
Canaan. And there at Bethel the Lord
appeared to him again, and again he renewed his promise. In Genesis
chapter 15, this is after his lapse in Egypt, after the terrible
strife between his herdsmen and the herdsmen that belonged to
Lot, After the slaughter of the kings in which Abraham delivered
Lot and his family from the hands of their enemies, after the appearance
of Melchizedek and the sacrifice that Melchizedek brought, representing
the sacrifice of Christ, the bread and the wine, and after
the Lord God received tithes in Melchizedek from Abraham,
the Lord graciously appeared to him again. And here in Genesis
15, he makes his promise known to him again, renews it, but
he enlarges upon it, describes it more fully. And Abraham specifically
asked God, and God specifically promised that he would indeed
give him a son, a son who would be his Savior, the Savior of
his people throughout all the earth. a son who would be the
Lord his righteousness by his obedience in death." Of course,
the Apostle Paul tells us plainly, God preached the gospel to Abraham,
and Abraham believed God, and God accounted it to him. That
is, he accounted to Abraham the righteousness of Christ, whom
he believed. He accounted it to him for righteousness,
and yet the promise was not fulfilled. Then in Genesis 16 we have another
of those sad displays of the weakness of human flesh. Sarah
was still barren after ten long years in the land of Canaan.
She devised a plan, seemed most natural to her. The Lord had
promised to give Abraham a son, and had promised to make him
the father of many nations, of priests and of kings, had promised
to send by him through his loins a Messiah who would be his Redeemer
and Savior. And Sarah said, Now, honey, I'm
not getting any younger. This womb has been dry all my
life, and it's drier now than ever. But I have this young maiden,
Hagar, my mistress. You take her. And the Lord must
be determined to give you a son by my mistress, and he will be
our son and our heir. And Sarah said, well, all right.
And he went in to Hagar and took Hagar to be his wife. And God
gave him a son. But his son was Ishmael. Pain. and misery and affliction
and torment. Ishmael. That's always the result
of men leaning on the arm of the flesh. Wood, hay and stubble. Nothing else. What a warning
we're given here. Hagar became for Sarah and Abraham
the means by which they endeavored to accomplish through the arm
of the flesh the work of the Spirit, the means by which they
endeavored to get God to perform what they thought he would not
otherwise perform. What a sad, sad commentary this
is on man's unbelief. What a great warning it is to
us. Children of God No matter how unreasonable the promise
of God appears, no matter how unreasonable it seems for us
to just wait on God to work, we must never endeavor to do
God's work by the arm of the flesh. It can't be done. Good cannot be accomplished by
evil means, not by us, not by us. What a warning this is for
God's servants, particularly in every age. God's servants
like Abraham long for a seed, a spiritual seed. We long to
see God's covenant people born again by his grace, born into
his kingdom. And how often men are pressured
as pastors and preachers, pressured by churches and congregations
and deacons and elders to produce, pressured by society to produce,
And so they said, well, let's do this, and maybe we can make
the church grow. Let's have this program, and
maybe we can get the church to grow. Let's have something for
these folks and something for those. You know, this is a society
in which everything's offered to everybody. We've got to have
some ball teams. We've got to have some theatrics.
We've got to have a little entertainment. We've got to have some concerts.
We've got to have some shows. We've got to have some plays.
We've got to have some skits. Let's enjoy everybody else and
play religion! so we can get the church house
full. Nothing but Ishmael comes as a result. You'll never get
Isaac that way, just Ishmael. And yet God proves himself gracious
even in this terrible fall of Abraham and Sarah. because the
Lord seized this opportunity and overruled the evil for good,
for it was by means of Hagar being thrown out of the house
with Sarah's fit of jealousy that Hagar was made to be the
recipient of God's grace. And while she was out in the
wilderness by a fountain of water, the Lord revealed himself and
made himself known to Hagar. And yet, though God overruled
the evil for good, Still, Abraham had to live with the consequences
of his unbelief in great pain and sorrow for many years. Like
every father, he loved his son, especially his firstborn son.
But Ishmael was for Abraham a constant source of pain, strife, heartache,
and trouble, until at last Ishmael had to be put out of the house.
Finally, Abraham said, son, goodbye. Goodbye. Be warned, children
of God, the arm of flesh will fail you. You dare not trust
your own. Now we come to Genesis 17. It's been 13 years since the
Lord last appeared to Abraham. So far as we know from divine
revelation, There is no record of God speaking to his servant
in any way for 13 long years. Spiritual barrenness, you see,
is always the result of disobedience and unbelief. But we must never
imagine that a man's unbelief nullifies the promise and purpose
of God Almighty. It often appears that the Lord
is not working. It often appears that his purpose
is somehow being hindered. It often appears that his promise
has fallen to the ground, but that's never the case. God's
delays are always deliberate, never caused. Did you get it? God's delays are always deliberate,
never caused. Not only is it true that God
always knows best and always does best, He always does it
at precisely the best time. He always fulfills his promise
in the fullness of time. He's never early and he's never
late. God's always on time. He's always
on time. Sometimes we think the Lord is
tarrying. We think the Lord's delayed.
Not at all. It just looks like that. Why
is it that Abraham had to wait so long for God to fulfill his
promise? Why? from the time that he first
appeared to him back in Ur of the Chaldeans until the time
that Isaac was finally born. Do you know how long it was?
Skip, it was 25 years. 25 years. God came to an old
man, a man who was 75 years old. There's not a man in this building
that old. He was 75 years old when God first made himself known
to him. I'm going to give you a song. And when he was a hundred
years old, he finally got him. Why? Why the delay? Well, the
answer is really quite simple. Abraham's faith must be proved
again and again and again. The simple fact is God never
acts in grace until he convinces us that our only hope is for
him to act in grace. As long as we have one shred
of a hair of a spider's web on which we can lean ourselves,
we will not look to him for everything. It won't happen. The Lord will
knock every prop out from under us before he'll reveal his grace
in us. The Lord will bring us to nothing
before he will reveal himself as everything. He will bring
us to know our own insufficiency before he ever makes us to know
his all-sufficiency. He will make us fully aware of
our impotence before he makes himself known as El Shaddai,
the Omnipotent, the Almighty God. That's clearly what we're
told in Psalm 107. The Lord brings us down until
we are at our wit's end. And then, David, when we're at
our wit's end, we cry unto him, and he hears us, and delivers
us from all our distresses, and brings us to our desired haven.
It was not until Abraham truly saw the deadness of his own body. Well, you know, God promised
me a son. Well, I ain't but, I ain't but
eighty-five years old. And, hey, gosh, you can betcha,
maybe we can get a son this way. He understood Sarah's womb was
dead. He didn't know he was dead. And when finally he is made to
see the deadness of his body, as well as the deadness of Sarah's
womb, the utter impossibility of him performing his, God's
promise to him, then God steps in and says, all right now, son.
Now that you know you're nothing, and you can do nothing, and nothing
can come from you, stand back and see the salvation of the
Lord. That's always how God works. Now, let's look at this 17th
chapter of Genesis together, and I want to talk to you about
El Shaddai, the God of the covenant. When Abram was ninety years old
and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram. and said to him, I am
the Almighty God, I am El Shaddai. Walk before me and be thou perfect,
and I will make my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply
you exceedingly. And Abraham fell on his face,
and God talked with him." Now let's see what he says. As we
look into these 27 verses of this chapter, I want you to see
four things which the Lord specifically reveals in these verses. And
as we look at them and hear what God said to Abraham, understand
this. What is said to Abraham is said
to all God's people in Christ. The promises here made to Abraham
are not written just for Abraham and his physical descendants,
but rather they are written for all the children of Abraham,
those who are the sons and daughters of God Almighty, by faith in
Jesus Christ, just as Abraham was. And all the blessings here
spoken of are blessings given to us in Jesus Christ, our Lord,
our covenant surety and redeemer. And the first thing spoken of
in the text is God's character. The Lord spoke to Abraham and
said, I am the Almighty God. Oh, what a way to begin. I am the Almighty God. This is the first time the Lord
makes himself known by this name. Never before has he come to anyone
and said, I am El Shaddai, God, Almighty God, Omnipotent God,
All-Sufficient God, Independent God, alone, in whom all things
are found. He comes now to Abraham to declare
to Abraham that he's going to do what none but he could do,
none but the Almighty God. None but the Almighty God could
call Sarah's dead womb and Abraham's dead body to give life to a son
through whom redemption and salvation would come in Jesus Christ our
Lord. Now, what God promises, God can
perform and He will perform. But with God, nothing is impossible. Now, this great act of God's
being That which terrifies the ungodly when they see it. Do
you understand this? The God before whom we stand
is almighty. Almighty. You cannot resist him in any
way to any degree. And if you fall into the Augustine
hands of this august Almighty God under his wrath. The torments of the Almighty
forever shall be upon you, and they are indescribable. Well might you quake before But
this attribute of God, which is the terror to the ungodly,
is the most consoling thing in the world to the believer. Rod,
our God is the Almighty. He's the Almighty God. The Almighty God. Now, what does
that mean? The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. The righteous runs into it and
is saved. Because our Savior is the Lord
Almighty, we can confidently forsake all and follow him. And the Almighty says, I'll be
your God. Because our Savior is El Shaddai,
he is able to succor them that are tempted. Because he who loves
us with an everlasting love is the Almighty, nothing can ever
separate us from his love. Because God, our Savior, is the
Almighty God, he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or think, because he is the mighty God. He's able
to, at last, raise our bodies up in resurrection glory, and
make our bodies to be fashion like unto his glorious body,
according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all
things unto himself, because he's the Almighty God. He's able
to keep us from falling and to present us at last faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. I told you
God's word here was to you. I am the almighty God. Now then, look at God's command. Walk before me and be thou perfect. What? God speaks to this sinful man,
this man who has gone down to Egypt in unbelief and said to
Sarah, you go be this man's wife, tell him you're my sister, not
my wife, so that I can say bye-bye? This man, who in unbelief hearkened
to his wife and went in to Hagar, this man, Abraham, this sinful
flesh, Abraham, God says to Abraham, to Lindsay Campbell and Don Fortner,
walk before me and be perfect. Perfect. I know the marginal
translation is given by a translated walk before me and be sincere.
But God Almighty won't take your sincerity. Your mama will because
that's the best she can do. Your daddy will, because that's
the best he can do. The world around you will, because that's
the best the world can do. But God Almighty is holy, and
he demands that you be holy. He's perfect, and he demands
that we be perfect. He will accept nothing less.
What does the scripture say? It shall be perfect to be accepted. You say, well, preacher, how
on this earth can a man walk before God and be perfect? Just
one way. just like Abraham did Moroni.
What did he do? He believed God. And it was counted to him for
perfection, for righteousness. Look in Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews
chapter 11. By faith, Enoch was translated
that he should not see death, and was not found because God
had translated him. For before his translation, he
had this testimony that he pleased God. Now, most folks are of the
foolish, self-righteous, legalistic, God-ignorant idea that somehow
Enoch was such a good man. He walked with God. He just got
closer and closer to God. He got gooder and gooder and
gooder and gooder until at last God said, Enoch, come on home.
You're ready now. Why, nothing could be further
from the truth. Enoch was a sinner. He was a sinner just like you
and me. where he had this testimony that he pleased God. How can
a man please God? Read the next verse. It's amazing what Scripture will
tell you about itself. Go to the next verse. But without
faith, it's impossible to please Him. How can you walk before
God and be perfect? Only by faith in Christ the Lord. For he that comes to God must
believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. You see, perfection is what God
requires of sinners. It's what he requires. Our Lord
said, Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees. You cannot enter into the kingdom
of heaven. God requires righteousness, perfect
righteousness. And what God requires, he gives
to every believing sinner in his Son. Jesus Christ is made
of God unto us. What does the Scripture say?
Righteousness. Righteousness. As God made his
Son to be sin for us, by transferring our guilt and our sin to him,
and making him responsible before his holy Lord for our sin, So
the Lord God graciously transfers the righteousness of his darling
Son to all his people and declares us to be the righteousness of
God in his Son. So now we stand before him righteous,
perfection. Absolute perfect holiness in
thought, word, and deed is the standard that every believer
seeks. We forget those things which are behind, and we press
forward to those things which are before, reaching for the
mark, the prize, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. But we
acknowledge, as we do, that we haven't attained it, and we can't
attain it. This is the standard we seek. Oh, if I could have anything
on this earth, anything, anything, anything, Sam Wall, it would
be to be perfect. Oh, in thought, word and deed,
perfect, perfect, perfect, holy as God himself is holy. And I
strive for it. But it's not attainable. Not
here. Not here. That doesn't mean we forget it.
That doesn't mean we neglect it. That doesn't mean we kiss
it goodbye. We keep striving for the mark. And yet we recognize
and thank God for the fact of it. Perfection. Absolute perfection. Absolute
perfection. Perfection of character. Perfection
of conduct. with no blemish, no weakness,
no infirmity, no seed, no spot, no wrinkle. That's what we shall
have when we stand before God in glory. No wonder the psalmist
said, then shall I be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.
Now, in verses 7 through 16, in 15 verses, The Lord God speaks to us about
his covenant. We're told here, Abraham fell
on his face in utter awe before the Lord God Almighty, that one
who stood before him, El Shaddai, the mighty God. And God talked
with him. Oh, I'm interested in that. This God who said, Walk before
me, and be thou perfect. This God who said, Be ye holy,
for I am holy. Be ye perfect, for I am perfect. This God talked to Abraham, and
he talked to him about his covenant. Now this is what he tells him. First, he tells him that his
covenant is a covenant made with one man for the benefit of many
men. He said, Abraham, this is my
covenant between me and you. And as a result of this covenant,
all nations of the earth will be blessed. I'll make you a father
of many nations, of many people, of kings and of priests. I'll
make you a blessing, a blessing to people everywhere. Oh, what
a picture this is, by which God would have us have it established
as early as this, that he deals with men and women only on the
basis of covenant grace, a covenant made with one man, the God-man,
our Savior, our covenant surety and mediator from all eternity.
And by God's dealings with that one man, all his people are blessed. This is what Paul spoke of in
Ephesians chapter 1. When he says, God has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. Before the world began, God Almighty
made a covenant with his darling Son, one man, one covenant head,
for the benefit and blessing and salvation of the many. who
in him from old eternity, and the many who are in him today,
and the many who shall be in him unto eternity to come. This covenant, secondly, is a
covenant of righteousness. Turn back to Leviticus chapter
20. Leviticus chapter 20. Let it
be understood. God always, first and foremost,
deals with sinners upon the ground of strict justice, unwavering,
inflexible righteousness. Justice and truth are the habitation
of his throne, and you won't get to his throne on any other
ground. Did you hear me? God always, first and foremost,
deals with sinners on the ground of strict unwavering, absolute
justice. Justice and truth are the habitation
of his throne, and we can't get there any other way. Leviticus
20, verse 7, God says, Sanctify yourselves, therefore, and be
ye holy. How come? Because I, the Lord
your God, I am the Lord your God. Peter picks this up in 1
Peter 1. Listen to it. He says, As he
which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of
conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. The blessing of grace and salvation
cannot come except it come to us on the ground of absolute
righteousness. It cannot come except we walk
before God robed in that righteousness which is the righteousness of
Christ, righteousness brought in by his obedience, and washed
in his blood, the blood of atonement by which justice has been satisfied
through the sacrifice of himself. There and only there can God
be both just and the justifier of all who believe. Thirdly,
this covenant, this covenant Made with one man for the benefit
of many. This covenant of absolute righteousness
is a covenant of pure grace. Pure grace. Well, where do you
get that? In the latter part of the chapter, God said specifically,
He said, Now Abraham, my covenant, Ishmael's not going to have anything
to do with it. In Isaac, in Isaac, the seed will be called. In Isaac,
the covenant will be fulfilled. In Isaac, the covenant will be
established. You say, well, preacher, how
do you get that? It's grace. You know I would
have never figured it out. I ain't that smart. I'd have
never figured it out. But Paul, writing by inspiration
in Galatians chapter 4, says this is the reason this thing
happened. Ishmael and Isaac, like Sarah and Hagar and Alagoreth. Ishmael is the works of the flesh,
the works of the law, and God says, test it out. He cannot
be heir with the child of the free woman, and Isaac is the
promise of God. God's covenant is a covenant
of pure grace. You cannot approach God Almighty
on any other ground. You cannot come to God leaning
on the arm of the flesh, no matter what you call her name. You cannot
come to God trusting in your works, no matter how you justify
it. You must come to God clinging
to Christ alone, or you cannot be accepted. Fourthly, it is
a covenant of circumcision. Now, I'd like to spend a lot
of time here. I'm inclined to spend a lot of
time here. Trying to not try won't be hard to show clearly
that there is no basis here for infant baptism, but since there's
not anybody here much likely to do that, I won't waste my
time with it. But circumcision here and throughout
the Old Testament has absolutely nothing to do with baptism. Baptism
does not in any way reflect circumcision, and circumcision did not in any
way foreshadow baptism. Well, how do you know that? Because
throughout the New Testament, all the way through the New Testament,
whenever circumcision is spoken of, it's spoken of as being a
work of God performed in your heart. That's what it was here. That's exactly what it was. Circumcision was here instituted
by God as the outward ceremonial sign and seal of God's covenant
with Abraham. Now, this Old Testament rite
of circumcision was a picture of that circumcision made without
hands in the hearts of God's elect by the Holy Spirit in regeneration. Let me show you this plainly
in the New Testament. Turn to Romans 2. Verse 29. He is a Jew which is one inwardly. What? What do you mean inward? Inward. Doesn't matter whether
he's Oriental, black, Caucasian, or otherwise. He is a Jew who
is one inwardly. And that circumcision, circumcision
is that of the heart. Huh? Yeah, heart matter. In the spirit, not in the letter,
whose praise is not of men, but of God. This circumcision of
the heart is not something men put their finger on, something
God puts his finger on. It's not something men observe,
it's something God observes. It's not something men perform,
it's something God performs. Now look at Philippians chapter
3, verse 3. The Apostle Paul is writing to
Gentile believers, but the one writing is himself a Jew. I mean
a Jew of first rank and order. This fellow was circumcised the
day of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of
the Hebrews. He was a Jew's Jew. This fellow,
he was something else. But he speaks to the Gentile
believers and he says, we are the circumcision. We who worship
God in spirit and rejoice in Christ, that is, trust in Christ,
and have absolutely no confidence in our physical circumcision.
No confidence in the flesh. Now look in Colossians chapter
2. Look at verse 10. And you are complete in him. Oh, glory. If you've got him,
you've got everything. You are complete in Christ, which
is the head of all principality and power, verse 11, in whom
also you are circumcised. Circumcised! What? When? Where? How? Circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands. in the putting away of
the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
Now as a result of that, because God circumcised you in your heart,
fixing to be buried with him in baptism. Not in order to reflect
the circumcision, but buried with him in baptism, confessing
that our only hope before God is Christ. wherein also you have
risen with him through faith of the operation of God, who
has raised him up from the dead." Now, circumcision. So, Pastor,
what does it mean? Circumcision in the flesh meant
exactly the same thing to Abraham and his sons as circumcision
in the heart means to you who believe. Exactly the same thing.
It was a mark. A mark. A mark by which God sealed
his covenant to his people. How do you know that God chose
you? How do you know Christ redeemed you? How do you know you've been
called by grace? Because God the Holy Spirit has
given me life and faith in his Son called circumcision of the
heart. It is a mark which is the seal
of the covenant. The covenant is sealed to me,
not by baptism, not by my works, not by my experiences. The covenant
is sealed to me by God the Holy Spirit who has sealed us in Christ
unto the day of redemption. It was a mark of distinction,
a mark by which God distinguished his people from all other people. Now, this distinction certainly
was in the flesh so that the Jews stood physically, as a physical
nation, in first rank and order for 2,000 years as those people
who were peculiarly the people of God through whom God's Son
would come. But this mark was a mark which
God saw more than in the flesh in the hearts of chosen sinners,
even in those days. By this mark, God calls out. He is owned from the rest of
the world. He comes by almighty grace to
chosen sinners in the time of mercy, in the time of love, and
he calls them, and he circumcises them in their hearts, giving
them life and faith in Christ. It's a painful mark painful mark. Abraham, on this
occasion, Lindsay, 99 years old, takes at least, at least, four
or five hundred men. We see that when he took three
hundred and some of them went over to slaughter the kings.
His son Ishmael, all their sons, all their servants, and circumcised
them, every one, every one of them. so painful that when later
on his grandsons wanted to slaughter those who defiled their sister,
all they had to do was get them all to submit to being circumcised.
And then they walked into camp and killed them all. They were
helpless. Painful. And if God Almighty
ever sticks his finger in your heart, he'll render you utterly
helpless before him. Oh, blessed helplessness! Oh, blessed pain! Stripping man
of his pride! Stripping man of his righteousness!
Stripping man of his worth! Stripping man of his imaginary
strength before God! Oh, Spirit of God, come circumcise
sinners in their hearts. It's a purifying mark. Peter
spoke on On the occasion of that conference in Acts 15, he says,
God put no difference between the Jews and the Gentiles and
us, seeing as how he has purified their hearts, same way he did
ours, by faith in Christ. He that believes God, he who
has been called by grace, has been purified and is being purified
by the operation of his grace. And I'll tell you something else
about it. There was no reversal. No reversal. Circumcision is
permanent. It's permanent. Doesn't matter
whether you got it when you're eight days old or whether you
got it when you're 99 years old. It's permanent. Permanent. And I'm telling you that God's
grace established in the heart, the circumcision of a sinner's
heart is permanent. All hell can't reverse it. and
all heaven won't reverse it. This covenant was a covenant
immutable and sure. The Lord God came to Abraham
and he said, I am almighty God. And then seven times, buddy,
in this chapter, he says, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will,
I will, I will. What do you reckon he meant for
us to understand? I will. But what? I will. But if? I will. But how about? I will. But struggle? I will. What about hell? I will. What about men? I will. What about man's? I will. God says, I will. And because
he is the Almighty God, Abraham says, well, I reckon he will. I reckon he will. What he will,
he does. What he will, he performs. What
he will is done. So sure is it done that the Lord
didn't say to Abraham, I will make of you, make you a father
of many nations. He said, I have made you a father
of many nations. And Isaac wasn't even born yet.
It's done. Oh, God says, I will. God shalls and wills make his
covenant such as David said when he lay on his deathbed and said,
Although my house be not so with God, yet the Lord hath made with
me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, and
this is all my salvation and all my desire. I'll tell you
something else. I'll tell you verse 9. God's
covenant is a covenant kept. by his people. Now wait a minute,
but you've already told us we couldn't keep it. Well, it depends
on how you understand the word kept. The Lord said to Abraham,
Thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore thou and I see after
thee in their generations. But the word keep here doesn't
mean keep in the sense of fulfilling. In that sense, Ron, it was kept
by Christ alone. He fulfilled the covenant. The
word kept here, Bob, means keep in the sense of holding on to,
keep in the sense of guarding, keep in the sense of holding
firmly. And so it is that all needy sinners
looking to Christ lay hold on the All proud, reprobate, self-righteous
rebels, despise the covenant. Say, no! If I come to God, I'll
come on my terms and you'll go to hell trying. But poor, needy
sinners, lay hold on the covenant. Rest in Christ Jesus. And God
says, I'll bring them into my holy mountain. Read it for yourself
in Isaiah chapter 56. One more thing. This passage
speaks to us about God's child. In verses 17 through 27, Abraham
shows remarkable traits of a believer. In verse 17, he fell on his face
and laughed, laughed with joy, hope, expectation he believed
God. He said, Oh, God's going to do
what he said. God's going to, He's going to
send a son, a savior, a righteousness for me. And then he prayed, O,
that Ishmael might live before thee. But even now, Lindsay, he bows
to God's will. God said, No. He said, I've heard you concerning
Ishmael, and I've granted him this favor and that favor and
another favor, but my covenant's with Isaac. And God talked to
him about it no more. And Abraham talked to God about
it no more. Ishmael has no right before him.
Oh, Lord God, these sinners, our sons and daughters. have
no right, no claim on you. If they go to hell, it's their
fault. If they go to hell, it's because they deserve it. But
oh God, may they live before you and we bow to your will. And he did something else. He
obeyed God. He obeyed God. This old man heard
God speak. And God's will was plain. Old men tinned. They're inclined to talk about
what they used to do. You know, we did. This is what
we did. This is what we did. And find
excuses to justify their indolence in their old age. Not this old
man. God said, Abraham, today. starting right now, you circumcised
yourself and your son, every man in your house. And that day,
he promptly obeyed God. And he precisely obeyed him,
did exactly what he said. That's what obedience involves.
That's what it involves. Well, now, Daddy, I sort of obeyed
you. I did a little bit of what you
said. Try it sometime. No, no. He precisely obeyed him. And as always, I promise you,
as always, his obedience was painful. But that's what faith
does. It obeys God. This is the character
of our God. He's El Shaddai, the mighty God. This is his command, walk before
me and be perfect. This is his command, that you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. This is his covenant. I will. I will be to you a God.