Let us turn this evening to Genesis
chapter 21. We've been looking at the life
of Abraham for several Wednesday nights and tonight in this chapter
we read of three events in his life. We have the birth of his
son Isaac, the sending away of his son Ishmael, and his covenant
with Abimelech. And we see that Abraham's life,
as is the life of all of the heirs of faith, was one of both
joys and sorrows. And what we should see tonight
is that the one constant, the one constant in a believer's
life a life of variableness, the one constant is the faithfulness
of God. So first of all, the birth of
Isaac, a time of joy. Notice the scripture says, and
the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto
Sarah as he had spoken. First thing we notice is the
word of the Lord. we have the same thing said two
different ways, as he had said, as he had spoken, both saying
the same thing. And it is repeated to remind
us that the Lord is faithful to fulfill his promises, that
the Lord is always faithful to his word. We cannot get away
from the truth that the word of God is all important in a
believer's life. Our faith is founded upon this
foundation that is his precious word. Not upon dreams and visions
and things like that, but upon the precious word of God that
is settled forever in heaven. We've all heard the saying, a
man is only as good as his word. When an honest man tells you
something, you can believe it. You can believe it, you can count
on it. But we know that the best of
men, even honest men, are all limited. Sometimes they forget. Sometimes they tell us they will
do something and they have every intention of doing it, but they
forget. And sometimes their circumstances
change. Maybe they are wealthy people
one day and tell you what they will do for you, and the next
day, riches make themselves wings and fly away, and their circumstances
have changed to such they can't do what they had told you to
do. It's impossible. But any of those
things that we can think of, and there's many, that will keep
a man, even an honest man, from fulfilling His word. None of
those things can be true about God. Nothing is true about Him
because, or none of these things can be true about Him because
we know that He is all-powerful, that He has all knowledge, and
not only that, but He is in control of all circumstances. Nothing
ever takes him by surprise. Nothing ever changes to God. He knows from the beginning,
the scripture says, known unto God are all his works from the
beginning of the world. I want you to look at a psalm.
Keep your place here, but this is a precious psalm that I know
you're familiar with, Psalm 139. But how it extols to us the the
omnis about God, his all knowledge, his all power, his omnipresence,
his immutability. All of these things are brought
out to us in this psalm. Psalm 139. O Lord, thou hast
searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down sitting
and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou compassest my path and my
line down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there's
not a word in my tongue, but, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and
before, and laid Thine hand upon me." Now notice what David says
about this. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto
it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit,
or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up
into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell or the
grave, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall
thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say,
surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light
about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not
from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and
the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins. Thou hast covered me in my mother's
womb. I will praise thee. for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and
that my soul knoweth right well. Anything that could cause a man
not to keep his word cannot be true of God, because we know
that he is all-knowing, all-powerful, and in all places. And back in
our text tonight, the Lord in the most difficult case yea,
the impossible case. And that's what this was. As
far as men are concerned, this was an impossible case. And yet God showed himself to
be faithful. He said that Abraham, being 99
years old, Sarah being 90 years old, that they would have a son. and they have a son, just as
the scripture here tells. And the Lord visited Sarah as
He had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken. So the first thing we think about
here is the Word of God, the faithfulness of God Almighty
to His Word. When you have a promise in the
Word of God that you can hold on to, you know that it is good,
it is sure, because it's God's word and God's promise to you. Now the second thing I point
out to us is in verse two. For Sarah conceived and bare
Abraham a son in his old age. Now notice, at the set time.
At the set time of which God had spoken to him. The Lord's
set time. The Lord, rather, He set the
time. If you look back to chapter 12,
keep your place here in 21, but if you look back to Genesis chapter
12, in verses 1 and 2, this is when God first called Abram. Genesis chapter 12, verses 1
and 2. Now the Lord had said unto Abram,
Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from
thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee, and I
will make of thee a great nation." Now, 25 years has passed. When God told him, I will make
of thee a great nation, Abram was 75 years of age. Now he's 100. Now he's 100. But you see, at God's set time,
God's time is always the right time. And God is always on time. Not your time. Not my time. He's always on His time. Isaiah prophesied 600 years before
the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world. And one of his prophecies,
God said this, I will bring near my righteousness. I will bring
near my righteousness, it shall not be far off, and my salvation
shall not tarry, and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel,
my glory." Well, you know tonight the Lord Jesus Christ, He is
the righteousness of God. And God said, I will bring near
my righteousness. And he did, the scripture says,
in the fullness of the time. Whose time? God's time. God sent
forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law that he might
redeem us from the curse of the law. And we know his keeping
of that law, his obedience to that law in thought and word
and indeed is the righteousness by which God declares sinners
to be righteous. By the imputation of His righteousness
unto each and every one who believes, it means that God is both just
and the justifier of them that believe in Christ. God's set
time, it's always His time, just as it was in this case, at the
set time. God had told them in the previous
chapter at the season, and we pointed out at that time that
would mean in about a year. Now the third thing we notice
here is verse 3, And Abraham called the name of his son that
was born unto him, whom Sarah bared to him, Isaac. You know
what? Isaac means laughter, laughter. The Lord had given this name
to Abraham before he was even conceived. God told him what
he would name his son, and he named him Laughter. And what
a time, what a time, think about it, what a time it must have
been of laughter, of joy. with this man, Abraham, and his
wife, Sarah, in their old age, and this son who had been promised
for 25 years. And they had looked for him and
hoped for him and probably lost hope at different times, but
yet the scripture says in Romans, Abraham staggered not. He continued
to believe and trust in the Lord And when the Lord gave him this
son, what a time of joy and laughter it must have been in that home,
in that family. You know, when God told Abraham
once that he was going to have a son, the scripture says he
laughed and he laughed for joy. In other words, he believed God
and he was just overcome with joy. Now, if he laughed, if he
had that joy just hearing, I'm going to give you a son." How
much more when he actually gave them the son? They had to have
been filled with joy and laughter. Of course, we know that Sarah,
she also laughed when she overheard the angel, the angel of the Lord
tell Abram, that she was going to give him a son. She laughed,
but her laugh was not in faith. Her laugh was in unbelief. She
didn't see. And it wasn't humanly possible. She said it had ceased with her
after the manner of women. She had gone through that process
that means that women no longer can be pregnant and bring forth
a child. And yet here she is with a child. And not only does she give him
a child, but she gives him suck, the scripture says. Think of
the joy of Sarah. The Lord gave her the strength,
the strength to conceive, the strength to carry this child
for the months during her pregnancy, and now He gives her the strength
to give her son, to feed, to breastfeed this son. What joy
she must have had. And I say this to you and I tonight,
those of us who trust in the Lord Jesus, we don't even begin
to recognize, I don't think, the joy that is awaiting us.
The joy when we leave this world sorrow and tears behind and enter
into the presence of the Lord. The joy, the psalmist said this,
in thy presence is fullness of joy. There's never fullness of
joy here in this world. Yes, we experience joy, we rejoice
in the Lord, but only in heaven at thy right hand there are pleasures,
the scripture says, forevermore. Well, the fourth thing that we
see is, in verse 4, that Abraham circumcised his son as the Lord
had commanded him on the eighth day. Abraham circumcised his
son Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded him. If you look back into chapter
17, this is when God gave Abraham the ordinance of circumcision. And remember, on that very day,
Abraham was circumcised, Ishmael was circumcised, and all of his
servants were circumcised. But as far as we know, here is
the first one in scripture who is circumcised when he's eight
days of age, just as God had commanded. The scripture says
back in chapter 17 in verse 12, and he that is eight days old
shall be circumcised among you. Every man child in your generations
He that is born in the house or bought with money or of any
stranger, which is not of thy seed. Now I said, we don't know
that he was the first one. There may have been others born
over this period of time between when God told Abraham that gave
him the right of circumcision and the birth of this son. But he also made a great feast
when Isaac was weaned. The scripture says, verse 8,
and the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast
the same day that Isaac was weaned. You know, I would imagine, and
we don't know, Usually in our society, babies are weaned, what,
about a year, year and a few months. I'm not sure about that.
But we know in the scripture, sometimes it was three years
of age. You remember when Hannah took
Samuel to the temple, not to the temple, but to Eli, and presented
him, she did that when he was weaned. Surely she didn't take
an infant child. He may have been more than three
years of age. Some say as much as five, but
the minimum, Isaac was three years of age now when he was
weaned. And Abraham, no doubt, to show
his thanksgiving that God had protected his son, given him
a son, first of all, and kept him through the days of infancy,
however long that period was, and to show his thanksgiving
and his love and devotion to God, he gives a great feast. Thanks unto the Lord. You know,
sometimes it's good just to give a thanks offering to the Lord,
isn't it? I don't know if you've ever thought
about that, but the Lord's blessed you and the Lord's helped you.
Just out of thanksgiving, give an offering, a special offering,
maybe to someone else, not necessarily to the Lord, to the church here,
but to someone else, someone that's needed that you know of.
just because you're thankful that God's blessed you and kept
you unto this day. I think that's what Abraham did
here. He was so thankful. Can you imagine
how thankful he must have been to have a son by his wife, Sarah? Something that he had waited
for, prayed for, been promised, and now it is fulfilled. And
Isaac is at least, I say at least, three years of age. So that's
the first thing. Now the second thing, that's
the birth of Isaac, that's the joy. That's the joy in the life
of Abraham. But now the second thing is what
we would call the sorrow. And our lives are mixed with
joy and sorrow. No one goes through this world
without joy and sorrow. And believers are no different.
We're not exempt from sorrows as anyone else. So the sending
away of Ishmael is a time of sorrow, beginning in verse 9.
Ishmael, now remember, he was 13 years old. when the Lord told
Abram that he and Sarah would have a son the next year. That
would mean that when Isaac was born, Ishmael was 14 years of
age. Now, when Isaac is weaned, Ishmael,
this is just a minimum, would at the very minimum have been
at least 17 years old. So let's read here beginning
in verse 9. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar, that is Ishmael,
the Egyptian, which he had borne unto Abraham, mocking, mocking. And I believe the reason he was
mocking is he was the firstborn, but he wasn't the firstborn by
Sarah. And he was mocking Isaac, it
seems at least to me, thinking, Isaac, you think you're going
to be the firstborn, you're going to be the heir. That's not going
to happen. I'm the heir. But no, that wasn't
God's purpose. That wasn't God's plan. The heir
was the promised son, the son of promise, the son who came
into this world in a miraculous way, even as our savior came
into this world in a miraculous way. So he's at least 17 years
of age, and he's mocking Isaac, who was his younger half-brother.
Now, how young, we do not know, but young enough to threaten
him, to show some threatening actions or words. And Sarah picked
up on it immediately, and she realized that probably Hagar
was involved in it as well. prompting her son to do what
he did, to mock Paul. And we'll look at this in just
a moment, but in the New Testament, he says persecuted. Somehow he
persecuted Isaac by his actions, maybe even threatened him with
death. We don't know. Wherefore she said unto Abraham,
that is Sarah, cast out this bond woman and her son. For the
son of this bondwoman shall not be here with my son, even with
Isaac. And the thing, here's the sorrow,
here's the sorrow. 17 years. This is Abraham's son. Not his
son by Sarah, that's true, but still his son. And there's no
question he loved Ishmael as any father would love his son.
And now, His wife tells him to cast out
the bondwoman, send her away and her son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous,
very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son, because he
loved Ishmael. And God said unto Abraham, let
it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad and because
of thy bondwoman, And all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken
unto her voice. For in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. And also of the son of the bondwoman
will I make a nation, because he is thy seed. Now notice, and
Abraham rose up early in the morning. This is a characteristic
of Abraham, how prompt he is in his obedience unto God. When Sarah told him to cast out
the bondwoman, he didn't do anything. But when God spoke to him and
told him, hearken unto what Sarah told you, cast out the bond woman
and her son. And the scripture here says,
and Abram rose up early in the morning, took bread and a bottle
of water and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder and
the child and sent her away. And she departed and wandered
in the wilderness of Beersheba. The water was spent in the bottle,
and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And she went
and set her down over against him a good way off, as it were,
a bow shot. For she said, let me not see
the death of the child. And she set over against him
and lift up her voice and wept. And notice this, she wept. But look what we see in the next
verse. And God heard the voice of the lad. Yes, he heard Hagar's
voice, I'm sure, as well. But we are told that he heard
the voice of the lad. And the angel of God called to
Hagar out of heaven and said unto her, what aileth thee, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard
the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad and
hold him in thine hand, for I will make him a great nation and God
opened her eyes and she saw a well of water and she went and filled
the bottle with water and gave the lad drink. And God was with
the lad and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness and became
an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness
of Paran and his mother took him a wife out of the land of
Egypt. Robert Hawker. wrote this, the
spiritual meaning of this never could have been known. Now there's
a spiritual meaning to this. And he said it could never have
been known had not the Holy Ghost graciously condescended to have
taught the church by his servant, the apostle. Look with me in
Galatians chapter four. This is an allegory, Galatians
chapter 4, and beginning with verse 21. Tell me, ye that desire to be
under the law, do you not hear the law? Don't you hear what
the law says? That the law demands and commands
obedience and curses everyone for every disobedience? Don't
you hear what the law says? For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, one by bondmaid, the other by free woman. But
he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he
of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory? For these are the two covenants. Hagar represents one covenant. Sarah represents another covenant. These are the two covenants.
The one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which
is Hagar, that covenant that God made with the nation of Israel
at Sinai. And that's the law, that's the
law that these Judaizers who had come among the Galatian believers
were trying to get them to put themselves under, that old law
of Moses. And Paul asked that question,
don't you hear what the law says? And he points out these two women
represent two covenants. And one covenant is a covenant
of works, a covenant of works. It was given from Mount Sinai. And what does a covenant of work
produce? It produces bondage, bondage,
bondage. Why? because men are not able
to fulfill all the conditions of the covenant. And every time
we fail the law, it curses us. It's a covenant of works. But
now this other covenant, this covenant that Sarah represents,
he says, but Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the
mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou
barren that bearest not, break forth and cry, thou that travailest
not, for the desolate hath many more children than she which
hath a husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was,
we believers, you tonight, if you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you, myself, we are as Isaac. We are children of promise. And
we're children of a new covenant, not that covenant that gendered
to bondage, no. But a new covenant, an everlasting
covenant, a covenant of grace. We are the children of promise. But, now notice, as then, he
that was born after the flesh, that's Ishmael, he persecuted
him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless,
what sayeth the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her
son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son
of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not
children of the bondwoman, but of the free. And notice in that
next chapter, he said, for I testify again to every man that is circumcised. That's all they wanted you to
want these people to do. to be circumcised and submit
to the law of Moses. But Paul reminds them, if you
are circumcised, that means you are now debtor to do the whole
law of God. If a man is circumcised for a
religious reason, to make himself accepted to God or anything like
that, any kind of works, then he becomes debtor to the whole
law. Well, we see that Abraham, he
obeyed the Lord. He was prompt in his obedience. He cast out the bondwoman and
her son by sending her away with bread and water. Now listen,
he sent her away with enough, sufficient, sufficient enough
for them to go to the place that he had He had prepared where
they would be maintained. But the scripture here says that
they wandered. They wandered. Maybe they lost
their way. I don't know. But they wandered and their supply
was exhausted and it looked like death was their end. They would
both die that day in the wilderness. But no. If you turn back here
to Genesis, look back to chapter 17. Again, we see the faithfulness
of God to His Word. Ishmael is not going to die in
the wilderness. Why? Because look at what God
had said back in chapter 17 and verses 18 and 19. And Abraham said unto God, O
that Ishmael might live before thee. And God said, Sarah, thy
wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name
Isaac. And I will establish my covenant
with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him.
And as for Ishmael, you're concerned about Ishmael, Abraham, as for
him, I have heard thee. Behold, I have blessed him and
will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He's not going to die. He's not
going to die in this wilderness. Again, what we see is God's word
of promise and his faithfulness to his word. It looked to Hagar
like her son was going to die. left him there under a bush,
it says, and she withdrew herself an arrow shot. That's a pretty
good distance, but she did not wish to see her son die. The Lord appeared unto Hagar,
and notice God opened her eyes. Notice that back in chapter 21,
verse 19. Well, verse 18, the Lord spoke
to Hagar, Arise, lift up the lad and hold him in thine hand,
for I will make him a great nation. That's what I've already said
I would do. And I'm going to do it. God is faithful, isn't He? Even
when we are unfaithful, He is faithful. Faithful to His word,
to His promises. And God opened her eyes, verse
19, and she saw a well of water. Was it there all the time? We
don't know. But we do know this, she didn't
see it until God opened her eyes. And you know, the same thing
is true about lost men and women. Christ, he is presented, he is
preached, he is proclaimed. And yet lost men cannot see the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. They just cannot do it
until, Paul says, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
in the beginning, God said, let there be light. That same God
must shine into the hearts of a lost person before he will
ever, she will ever see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But once you see it, once you
see it, you're happy and satisfied to know Christ. He is the only
savior, the only way to God. And then let me just say the
third thing, third event, this covenant that God made, that
Abraham made with Abimelech Last week we saw that Abraham
came to Gerar and he lied to this king, remember? Abimelech. He lied and Sarah lied. She agreed
with the lie. And God reproved this king, and
then this king reproved Abraham and Sarah for their deception.
But at the same time, he told Abraham, he said, dwell in the
land wherever it pleases you. Now this was part of Canaan.
This was part of the land that God had promised Abraham to give
to him. But he, this man Abimelech, he
controlled it. He was the king over this area
where Abraham came. And he told Abraham, he said,
just wherever you want to live, you choose the best of the land.
And so now, maybe he had heard, maybe he had heard. God has already
told Abraham this is his land. This is all his land. And he
comes to Abraham now and he asks for a guarantee, a guarantee. If you notice in verse 22, and
it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phecho, The
chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is
with thee in all that thou doest. Now, therefore, swear unto me
here by God that thou will not deal falsely with me, nor with
my son, nor with my son's son. So he's asking for a guarantee,
asking Abraham to swear. He knew that God was blessing
Abraham. He could see that. And he asked,
you swear to me that you will not deal falsely with me, my
son, or my grandson. And Abraham entered into this
covenant with him. He agreed to swear to this. But
before he did, he told Abimelech, there's a problem here. There's
a problem here between you and me, and this needs to be settled
first. There's a well of water that
my servants dug, but your servants have forced us away from that
well, and that needs to be straightened out first. And Abimelech told
him, he said, well, I knew nothing about that, but certainly the
well is going to be yours. And so they entered into the
covenant, between the two. And I pray that the Lord would give
each one of us something here tonight as we look at these events
in the life of Abraham that will be a blessing and a help to us. The main thing that I see is
the faithfulness of God. The faithfulness of God. And
what a help, what a blessing that is. to recognize that the
God we serve, the God we love, the God we know, that he is a
faithful God. And his word is going to be completed. I pray the Lord will bless us
tonight. Bill, if you will, come and lead
us in a verse or two of a hymn. All right, let's stand and turn
to hymn number 40. Hymn number 40, Great is Thy
Faithfulness.