Faithfulness and Fulfillment

We're going to be looking at Genesis 20 and 21 this morning. So we're going to be going back a chapter from where Sean began reading. One of the things that startles me from reading this passage is that when we are faithless, God is faithful. When we are faithless, God is faithful. Listen to the words of 2 Timothy 2. The saying is trustworthy for if we have died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he also would deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. So last verse there that I think sums up. Genesis 20 and 21 very well. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. God has committed himself to a people, God has committed himself to sinners. And while those sinners may deny his promises, while those sinners may fail to keep those promises, God does not fail in keeping those promises. We may question God, we may doubt God, we may have lapses, but God does not. When God says, this is what I am committed to do, that is what He will do. I'm very thankful that salvation does not depend upon the faithfulness of His people. When Abraham lapsed in faith in Egypt, right after he was called out by God, when he lied about his sister the first time, God did not remove the promise. When he lapsed in faith with Hagar, by sleeping with another woman, hoping to get a promised child. God does not deny Abraham. Even today, as we look at Abimelech, Abraham fails again. God keeps his promise. It's very important we see right in the middle of the Abimelech section. That is when God delivers the promised child. That's when God brings Isaac. Another figure, David. One of the great heroes of the faith. He commits adultery and murder. Yet, God does not remove the kingdom from him. God does not remove the promise from him. God still says, I will bring about the promised child through your line. And it's even from David after these great sins that we have some of the sweetest psalms. God continues to use David in the midst of his failure. In the New Testament, Peter, the head disciple. He denies Christ. He denies Christ three times. And yet, God still uses him to be the first proclaimer of the Gospel after the resurrection. God's promise is sure. It's not dependent upon us. It's, if anything, despite us. God's faithfulness to His promise is not dependent upon His people. And it's encouraging that when we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. These words are sweet. These words can be the most encouraging words for Christians. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. But they can also be the most abused. They're encouraging when we hear them, when we find ourselves in the midst of sin. They're encouraging after we sin. They're encouraging when God reveals to us a new sin pattern, a new sinful desire, a new sinful action. Whenever God shows us more of our sin, these words are encouraging because we see God is remaining faithful to us, even though we are faithless. They're abused when we claim these promises before we sin. It's a big difference. When we find ourselves in the midst of sin, these words are sweet and encouraging because we realize it's not our obedience that keeps us in the covenant. It's God's love for us that keeps us in the covenant. But if we say these words while we know we're going to sin, it's abusing God's promises. It's abusing the power of the cross. This morning, we're going to look at God's faithfulness to His promise in Abraham. This morning, we're going to see the gospel provides correction when we are tempted and living in sin, and the gospel provides comfort when we realize our failure. The gospel provides correction when we are tempted and living in sin, and the gospel provides comfort when we realize our failure. Let's look at chapter 20. I will read the chapter in its entirety. From there, Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. And he sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah's wife, She is my sister. And Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah. The god came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife. Abimelech did not approach her. So he said, Lord, will you kill an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me, she is my sister? And she herself said, he is my brother? In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands, I have done this. Then God said to him in the dream, Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart. And it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore, I did not let you touch her. Now then, return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.' So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all of the servants and told them all these things, and the men were very much afraid. Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done. And Abimelech said to Abraham, what did you see that you did this thing? Abraham said, I did it because I thought there is no fear of God at all in this place. And they will kill me because of my wife. Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, though not the daughter of my mother. And she became my wife. And when God calls me to wonder from my father's house, I said to her, this is the kindness you must do to me at every place to which we come. Say of me, he is my brother. Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and male servants and female servants and gave them to Abraham and returned Sarah, his wife, to him. And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before you. Dwell where it pleases you. To Sarah he said, Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you and before everyone you are vindicated. Then Abraham prayed to God. And God healed Abimelech and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. For the Lord had closed all the wounds of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. As we look at this, we see Abraham after the episode with Sodom and Gomorrah, he goes south. He's traveling south. And maybe he's traveling because of the drought. Maybe he's traveling because he's overused the land there. He needs to go find new grazing territory. Maybe he's traveling because the smell of the burning sulfur is too disgusting to bear after the destruction of Sodom. We don't know why he is traveling south. But he goes south and he lies about his wife again. This is startling. This is amazing. The same man who did the same exact lie before. Goes back into that bag of tricks, thinking this is how he is going to be protected. He does it again. He even says, this has been the plan all along. And he's stuck to it. From the very time God called him out. This has been the plan. This is what I'm going to do. We'll set up this kind of half-truth in this way. Well, you may be in some danger, but I'll be fine. And Abraham, Sarah, his wife, she submits to him. It's not a complete lie, but it's absurd after the same thing has already happened in Egypt. Now, there's an interpretation that says this story is slightly different from Egypt. The interpretation says that Abraham is over dependent upon God's sovereignty. The interpretation that I read that many have. is that Abraham here has learned to trust God to the point where he says, I'm going to throw her in danger, keep myself safe and trust that God's going to protect that child. There's nothing in the text that implies this. I don't see it anywhere in the text. If anything, Abraham tells us his motivation is you're wicked and I'm afraid for my life. There's no fear of God here. So here he is. He's put his wife in danger. He's put the promised child in danger. Let's look at Abimelech's guilt. God says, in a dream, you're a dead man. Just cut right to the chase. Let's get right to the status of who you are and what you've done. You're a dead man. That'll shake you up a little bit to hear those words right off the bat. Abimelech, you are a dead man because of the woman you have taken, for she is a man's wife. Now, after God declares him a dead man, Abimelech says, but I'm innocent in my motives. I did this in the integrity of my heart. I had no idea she was another man's wife. She told me he was her brother. He told me she was his sister. And God says, yes, I know. You did this in the integrity of your heart. This is an interesting little dialogue. Because God is saying, yes, you're not culpable in the intentions of your heart, but you are responsible for your actions. Was the curse that God put on Abimelech just even though his intentions were innocent? Yes. Is Abimelech innocent in his intentions? Absolutely. God affirms so much. How do we think about this? Well, God is really pointing out that while you may have thought you were doing something good, you were unintentionally sinning against this man. But most importantly, you are sinning against me. God points out that you are sinning against me. Think about this. When you think about our lives, when you think about do we have intentional and unintentional sins and how does God view these? Many of our deeds may not be immediately culpable, but that does not mean we are without responsibility. Sometimes we can act with the best intention. Sometimes we can have the best intention in doing something for somebody. But that doesn't mean that what we do isn't, in fact, sinful. We can be innocent in our motives, but we will still be held accountable for what we actually do. Now, here God confronts this man, Abimelech, in a dream. And I believe God can still confront us in dreams about our unintentional or intentional sins. But it's interesting here that this man needs somebody from outside to say, look, I know you acted in the innocence of your heart, but what you actually did was sinful. Now, God could still speak in dreams, but I think God actually uses brothers and sisters to confront us whenever we are sinning. We may act with the purest motivations, but what we may not realize is that we can completely be sinning and others need to come alongside and say, look, I know you think you're doing something good, but you sinned against that brother. This happened to me recently. I sent an email out that was rude. The message I was trying to say was very clear. But whenever I sent the email out, I thought, hey, I'm just telling this guy exactly what he needs to hear. I had two brothers come and tell me you're wrong. I didn't see I was wrong. I kept reading the emails over and over again. I couldn't see it. But because I believe that God has put these men in my life to confront and correct me, I said, you know what? I may not see that I'm wrong, but I'm going to have to believe that I'm wrong and I'm going to have to apologize. And that's what God did. He used these two men to confront me, even though my intentions were not sinful. He used these two men to confront me in my sin. As we look at this, furthermore, Scripture has a clear distinction between intentional and unintentional sins. Psalm 19, 12 through 13, David declares, Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins. May they not rule over me. Then I'll be blameless, innocent of great transgression. David realizes that his heart is so sinful that he cannot be, he's not able to count all of his sins. He asked for forgiveness for those. How about Paul in 1 Timothy 1, 13 and 16? Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. But for that very reason, I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. See, what's amazing about God is He forgives us of sins we're not even aware of. When we confess our sins or maybe a sin to God, when we come to faith and we confess our sins to God, He's forgiving us for all the sins that we've ever done or ever going to do. God knows more about our sinfulness than we do. He's more aware of how deep our sin runs. He's more aware of how many sins we have than we are. It's amazing that He forgives us of all of those sins. You see, we can't count our sins. It would be impossible for us to ever count up all of our sins, but God knows each and every one of them. And this beauty of the gospel, the sweetness of Christ and His death and His resurrection is that those sins aren't counted against us. When we believe in Jesus Christ, those sins are counted. They're declared Christ's sins. They're counted against Him. Friends, what an amazing love this is. Portrayed most specifically here when Christ is on the cross and He says, forgive them for they know not what they do. Here are these Roman soldiers. They're doing a job. They're doing what they're supposed to do as Roman soldiers. They're nailing Jesus to the cross. They're nailing a convicted criminal to the cross. What they don't realize they're doing is they're nailing an innocent man, and not just an innocent man, the Savior of all the world. Christ looks at them and says, forgive them for they know not what they do. What an amazing Savior who saves us from all of our sins. Something else we look at, not just Abimelech's guilt, but we see God's providence in this story. Look at verse 6. Then God said to him in the dream, Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. This verse is quite full of some theology here. It is I who have kept you. God kept Abimelech. As I try to figure out, what does it mean for God to keep Abimelech? Okay, he could have used his physical means. It could be like a Three Stooges routine, right? So every time Abimelech is walking down the hallway to visit Sarah because he desires to be with her, you know, one time there's two guys that are walking with a big mirror and he doesn't realize he walks into it. I mean, another time he's got a big ladder and he hits a bimble-lack in the head and he's not able to go. It's over and over again. God uses something physical to keep a bimble-lack from actually entering the door. He forgets his keys. He loses his keys. I don't think that's really what it's pointing to. I don't think that's how God kept him. I think it's limiting God's sovereignty to think that's how God kept him. I think God kept him by changing the desires of his heart. I think God was actually involved in the very heart of Abimelech. While Abimelech was allowed to have the desire to go get her, God never allowed Abimelech to have the desire in his heart to go be with her. So we believe in a sovereign God. A God who is able to harden Pharaoh's heart. A God who is able to illuminate our hearts. A God who is able to change hearts. I believe God was actually sovereignly able to change and affect Abimelech's heart. Now, of course, this is getting into the whole sovereignty of God and freedom of man. Well, if you're offended that God has the sovereignty to do this, what you have to realize is what you're saying is you have the sovereignty to protect your heart from God. You see, either God has absolute sovereignty or you do over your heart. I don't want absolute sovereignty over my heart. I know the sins that are in that heart. I want God to have absolute reign and sovereignty to protect me from my sin. I want absolute sovereignty from God to keep me and to illuminate the sin and illuminate the gospel that forgives me of that sin. So, we think we're battling over God's sovereignty and our free will. Really, it's God's sovereignty and our sovereignty. What you're wanting to do is keep God from having sovereignty over you, friends. God is good. If you're His child, God has given you so many promises. God wants to cry out in your heart, Abba, I'm your Abba Father. Why wouldn't we want Him to speak to us in our hearts? Why wouldn't we want Him to be able to keep us from more sin? There's also here it says that he sinned against me. Now, Abimelech is about to threaten the covenant marriage. He's about to sin against Abraham in many ways because he's going to lie with his wife. But God takes it personally. He says, Oh, you're sinning against me. Well, a covenant marriage is made before God, and so when I have made a promise to God that I'm going to keep my marriage, any time I break that, I am sinning against God. But here more so the sinning against me is that God has blessed this woman with a unique, special miracle child. And by sinning against Sarah, when Abimelech sins against Sarah or Abimelech sins against Abraham, he's more so sinning against God because he's putting The Covenant child, the promised child in jeopardy. Let's look finally in this section to God's resolution for Abimelech, he says, return Sarah and have Abraham intercede for Abraham is a prophet. He begins this whole dialogue by saying, you're a dead man. He begins with a grand judgment. Look, in your present state, you are a dead man. But as God continues to talk to and with Abimelech, He gives him hope. He gives him a way that you may live. See, God, as the great physician, He gives the proper diagnosis. And He also gives the remedy. He gives the prescription. You're a dead man, but then if you obey, you will live. The first thing we need to realize is Abimelech cannot continue in his error. Abimelech cannot continue to sin. Abimelech cannot keep Sarah and have the curse removed. Abimelech cannot become alive again. He cannot remove this dead man declaration and keep Sarah. He must repent. He has to return her. Secondly, he needs to get Abraham to intercede for him. He needs to get Abraham to pray for God to remove the curse and renew Abimelech. Now, what's interesting here is that he says, get Abraham to intercede for you, and then he says, because he's a prophet. Now, this stands out to me because I would have expected him to say because he's a priest. Right? Because whenever you take a prayer to God for someone, that's typically the act of a priest. You're going to take the concerns of other people and you're going to declare them to God. And that's kind of the work of a priest, taking things up to God. A prophet takes God's word and gives it to the people. That's typically the dichotomy or the differences that you see in Scripture, but they're not absolutely that different. They're actually very connected, the office of prophet and priest, because both are interceding for God's people. One is declaring the word for the people from God and one is taking the people's concern and declaring it to God. Here, I think you see a bit of an intermingling. Very much like Moses as a prophet. He's the one who goes before God's people and intercedes for them. Abraham has already interceded for Sodom or Lot and the righteous people in Sodom. Here, I think you see the offices are coinciding, they're relating to one another in many ways. Verses 17 and 18 show us that this is an effective prayer because of Abraham's status. The father of all nations, the father of the covenant family, the special chosen man through whom God is going to bring his salvation. His prayer is effective. He gets to pray with a real authority. He's given authority to pray to God as a friend, as we saw before. It was interesting in one of our discipleship groups, someone pointed out that, you know, we get to pray with the same authority as Christ gets to pray. When we say in the name of Jesus Christ, we're praying to the Father with the same kind of authority as Jesus himself prays. I believe this is the kind of authority that Abraham is given even before Christ comes. Now, this episode, it ends very much like Egypt. There's gifts given, there's protection promise. While Abimelech refers to her as Abraham's sister, God says, no, this is Abraham's wife. The key difference is Abraham now has the power of prayer to intercede. If you think about this, we look at Abraham and we shake our heads and say, you should have known better. How do you do this again? How do you go back to the same sin? How do you go back to the same lie? How have you not changed your strategy from day one? That's what's so shocking about this, is Abraham says, well, you know, it's ever since Genesis 12, when God called me out of my home, this is kind of the plan. Alright, how over 20 plus years of walking with God, of believing His promises, has your plan not changed? How do you not think differently? How do you not strategize differently? How do you not trust God and let that change the way you live your life? Well, friends, if we look at Abraham, we just say, friend, it's time for a new strategy. How are you not different after so many years and so many trials and seeing God being so faithful? Let's ask ourselves, how much have we moved beyond our old self? How much change would someone see since our conversion if they knew us then was able to watch? Us, until today. How much change would people see in our married life? How much change would people see in how you, husband or wife or father or mother, how much would people see you changing? Even the last year, growing in grace. How much evidence of God's grace being effective in your life is there in the way you treat others? How much evidence in your life is there to make you date differently than the world? How much evidence is there in your life that you have truly given up the ways of the world? Do you gossip less? Do you do coarse jesting less? Do you use foul language less? Friends, let's test our growth. If we're going to look here and judge Abraham, we've got to realize we're going to be judged with the same measure. How much has God changed you? How much have you opened yourself up to truly trusting God's promises and say, you know what? This is really going to take effect in the way I live my life. How much do others see you change? That's a good question to ask over dinner or lunch today. How much does your spouse see change in you? Friends, we must strive for godliness. We must strive to the promises of God, take root and affect and change us and know that when we fail, God remains faithful to us in our failure. Strive for godliness, knowing that God's promises are good. They're our foundation. They're going to lead us and guide us. And most of all, they're going to forgive us when we sin. They're not an excuse to sin. They forgive us when we do sin. If you look, I'm going to quickly skip over to chapter 21, verses 22 to 34. I'm not going to read it. It just simply shows that this whole section is really the Abimelech section. Abraham ends his time with Abimelech, with Abimelech saying, God is with you in all that you do. That's a good outside perspective to hear what encouraging words that is to hear non-Christians to say, friend, you are clearly blessed by God. I see evidence of God's grace or a difference in you. Abimelech and Abraham, they make a covenant. Abimelech really just wants to make sure Abraham's not going to lie again to his people and bring about curses. Still not really trusting. There's gifts. And then there's a little dispute over a well. What I really want to spend most of my time on, from here on out, is what Sean read to us earlier. Because this has been great anticipation. It's been with us since Genesis 12. Here in chapter 21, we see God remains faithful to Abraham and Sarah. He blesses them with the promised child. Let's look at verses 1-7. And listen for this. Listen for God saying what He said He would do and what He's done now. Right? Because all along, we've been hearing God say, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this. And Abraham and Sarah are trying to figure out ways to get it done on their own strength and power. But now God says, I said I was going to do it, and I've done it. It shows how trustworthy God's Word is. The Lord visited Sarah as He had said. And the Lord did to Sarah as He had promised." Alrighty, verse 1. So sweet. God fulfilling His Word. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham, a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him. Not some other woman. Sarah. His name was Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh over me. And she said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have born him a son in his old age. Four times. Twice in verse 1. There in verse 2. And then again in verse 4. God commanded. God said as God said. His word is trustworthy. Now, after 20 plus years of waiting, Abraham and Sarah get to fully rejoice in what God has said. It says, at the time he had spoken, this is referring back to chapter 17 and 18, when God told them, about a year from now, I will bring about this child. It also sounds very much like Galatians 3, when Paul says, at the time God appointed the Father, sent His Son. You see, Abram and Sarah, if you haven't been with us, they're way too late to have children. Over and over again, it's reminded us they're way beyond childbearing years. Her body is described as being worn out, being past her prime. But God made it happen. God spoke in an impossible situation and he brought about his promise. He made it happen. You see, this is a miracle child. The child wasn't supposed to happen naturally. It's a miracle child. Late in years, way beyond the age anyone could even imagine. But it's not just a miracle child. It's the promised child. This child is unique, not just because he's born in a miraculous situation. It's unique because it's the child through which God is going to bless all the world. It's the child of which the lineage is going to lead to Jesus Christ, our Savior. Now, let's look at his naming. His name is Isaac, which, as we heard earlier, means laughter. And we see here, Abraham called the name of his son Isaac. But Abraham received that name. Abraham didn't come up with that name. When Abraham laughed at God, God said, your kid's name is going to be laughter. When Sarah laughed at God, he said, your kid's name is going to be Laughter. And with Abraham, I believe it's a renewal of, believe in me. With Sarah, it's a correction. See, the child's name, Laughter, was a reminder of God's promise. It was a correction of lack of faith. But now, when they say Isaac, they truly get to laugh with just absolute joy and celebration. Look how things have changed so drastically for Sarah. God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh over me. Instead of having people laugh at her because she's never been able to have a child, now people will join with her in laughter. Now she's able to celebrate with God because she sees the fruit of God's work. When we look at Sarah. She's now full of laughter. We see a beautiful process. She had doubt. She had a huge failure by sending Hagar to her husband. She questioned God. She laughed at God. But now, as a woman of faith, she has absolute, pure rejoicing. As you look at this, and I'm going to kind of step aside here for a second and say, I haven't ever heard anyone else make this analogy, so I could be completely wrong, but I think it's interesting to think through how all the scripture is united. And so this is just for your own personal study or thought. It's interesting how this account parallels the account of John the Baptist. Isaac is a forerunner of Christ, maybe the first forerunner of Christ, the first promised child who's going to bring about the Savior. John the Baptist is the last forerunner of Christ. And their births are very similar. John the Baptist's mom says, I was once ridiculed, but now people will laugh with me. People will celebrate and have joy with me. God names a child. The Father does not. Reproach is removed. Joy is given. And the child is brought about with a woman of faith. Both, I think, are forerunners of the Messiah, Isaac being the first, John the Baptist being the last. Well, now we get into the difficult section where we see verses 18 to 14. Abraham has a celebration for Isaac when he is weaned. And, but Sarah saw the son of Hagar, verse 9, but Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. Now, this is good Hebrew wordplay. Because it's the same root word. Laughing as in Isaac's name and laughing as in what Ishmael is doing. It's the same root word, but there's a small difference in the Hebrew. So that this one is more precisely ridicule. He's mocking. Now, think about this. This is Ishmael. 12, 13, he's of an age where he gets what's going on. He realizes he was once going to be the heir of everything Abraham had. Now he sees the promised child come in and everyone's just, wow, what a great miracle of God. What a great child. Everyone's celebrating over this child. Here's Ishmael wondering what his future is, and so, well, as a young child or as a spoiled or as a difficult sinner, no matter what the age, his response is ridiculing the child rather than participating in the celebration. It's unusual that Sarah would go, or a wife would go to Abraham the way Sarah did, but she goes and she commands, cast out the slave woman. Cast out this child who's ridiculing my child. Cast out the competition. And God tells Abraham, yeah, remove Hagar and Ishmael. Know that I will protect them. Know that I will keep them. But you need to remove them from the promised child. The promise needs to remain safe. If we look at Galatians 4, Paul gives a commentary on these two children, Isaac and Ishmael. Paul says that Ishmael represents the law. Ishmael represents the law and Isaac represents the promise. And he's contracting these two children in order to say Those of faith are following in the ways of Isaac. Those of the law are following the ways of Ishmael. It's interesting, if you look at that passage, what Paul is doing is saying, those of you who are trying to cling to your birth promise, you're really just like Ishmael, the child who gets separated. Because the true children of Abraham are children of faith. What he's saying in Galatians 4 with the allegory between Ishmael and Isaac, Hagar and Sarah, is that if you are holding firm to how you were born, and you're not holding firm in faith in what God has done, you're further enslaving yourself to sin. The major difference between Ishmael and Isaac is what the Spirit is doing there. The Spirit is the one who blessed Sarah's womb. The Spirit is the One who brought faith to Abraham and Sarah. The Spirit is the One who brought about every child after Isaac. The Spirit is the One who brought Jesus Christ. The Spirit is the One who allows us to see Him as our Savior by faith. The Spirit is working in this promised child so that faith and the promise is made effective. He was born in the right family. He has the right sign of the covenant. He has circumcision. But he doesn't have the promise and he doesn't have the faith because he doesn't have the Spirit. As we look at these two children, we must realize it's not a matter of who you are or what you've done. It's not a matter of where you were born or what you possess. That makes you a child of the promise. No, it's only your faith. Let me ask you this. If you're with us this morning, are you a Christian? Are you a Christian? If you are a Christian, what does it mean to be a Christian? What does that mean? If someone asks you, how do you know you're a Christian? What does it mean for you to be a Christian? What's your answer? Friends, if your answer is anything like, I attend church regularly. I've been a member of a church my entire life. I give a tent regularly to the church. I serve faithfully in the church. I've always been a Christian because my parents raised me to be a Christian. If those are your answers or if your answers are anything like that, if your answers have anything to do with what you do, repent. Because being a Christian has nothing to do with what you do. Being a Christian has nothing to do with how long and how hard and how much you serve. Being a Christian has everything to do with what Christ has done. Being a Christian has everything to do with what He did on the cross. If your answer as to how are you a Christian isn't, it's by faith in Jesus and His death and His resurrection, friend, repent. Don't count your righteous deeds of attendance and giving and service. Repent and believe. It's faith. You're like a child of Ishmael because you think it's your flesh that makes you a Christian. It's your flesh that makes you an heir to the promises. Friends, you're enslaving yourself to self-righteousness. It's faith and faith alone that makes us a Christian. And it's that faith and the beauty of seeing God's work in us that makes us want to gather together as the saints. It's our faith in Christ that makes us want to give generously. It's our faith in Christ that makes us want to serve and love each other. Our only faith, our only hope is in Christ. Now look at chapter 21 as it closes before the Abimelech account again, 15 through 21. When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. Remember, he's 12, 13. Then she went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about the distance of a bow shot, for she said, Let me not look on the death of the child. And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy. Remember, his name is God hears. Ishmael in Hebrew means God hears. And God heard the voice of the boy and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Up, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation. Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skim with water and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy. And he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with a bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran. And his wife took a wife for him from the land of Egypt." Here we see a family in need. God is still going to care for these people. God has not given Ishmael the eternal spiritual benefits of being in the covenant, but He's going to care for him physically. And it's interesting here that He hears Mom and the boy. God hears them because He loves His entire creation. He only loves the church with a special love that they receive in adoption. But God loves and blesses all of creation, and especially here with this family. They're in need, and the God who saw her before now opens her eyes so that she sees the well and God provides for them. We see God giving great care. If we look at chapter 21 in the bigger scope, we see two truths. First, God will save his children. God will save his children. God may have to confront us in the midst of our salvation. God will confront our sin. God will show us our sin. But God, being the God of all mercy, the God of all love, when he claims a child for his own, he is going to keep that child. We see God keeping His promises in verse 21. We see God saying, I told you I was going to do it. I've done it. Friends, we as His children receive all these promises and more when we hear Christ declaring, Come unto Me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest. We feel the comfort from God. We feel comfort in being heavy laden with our own sin and self-righteousness. We also hear Christ saying, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me to realize we must repent to follow him. God will save his children. God has saved his children. We received the real promised child, Jesus Christ, who died for us, who rose again. He's going to give true peace with God. Secondly, we see God will help his children. Here, especially with Hagar, God will help his children. If God is going to help Hagar, who's not part of the bigger promise, the most specific, essential promise, will God not help us, his adopted children in Christ? Will God hear our cries in his holy place and ignore them? For God is good. God is still good to Hagar and Ishmael, and God will still be good to us. We cannot doubt His goodness. When we're in the midst of trial, pray openly, pray honestly. Tell God what is truly burdening your heart and wait patiently for His goodness. When we pursue Him for an answer, He may not give us the answer we want. But He certainly always gives us the comfort and the care we need. Let's pray. Almighty God, You are good. We praise You, Lord, that we get to hear about Your goodness and Your faithfulness to us. We praise You, Lord, that after walking with Abraham over these years. We finally get to rejoice in the promised child of Isaac. And we can celebrate with Sarah that she has finally born the Son. And we get to laugh with her in celebration. But most of all, Lord, we desire to laugh and celebrate with You in the true promised child, Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, to be rejoicing always in Him. Help us, Lord, to not rejoice in our works. Help us to rejoice in Him and then let that have its proper effect. In rejoicing in our giving. Being a cheerful giver. Being a cheerful servant. Father, we thank You, Lord, for the sweet love we see from You to Hagar. Help us, Lord, to know that that is always the love we have from you as your children. We thank you, God, for your great promise and always being faithful to it even when we are faithless. In your name we pray. Amen.