The Promised Child Is Born (Gen 21:1-7)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.440 --> 00:00:06.440 Genesis, Chapter Twenty One, verses one through seven. The Lord visited Sarah, 2 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:10.390 as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had 3 00:00:10.470 --> 00:00:16.030 promised, and Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, 4 00:00:16.070 --> 00:00:21.429 at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name 5 00:00:21.460 --> 00:00:25.899 of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac, 6 00:00:26.579 --> 00:00:31.019 and Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as 7 00:00:31.179 --> 00:00:37.409 God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac 8 00:00:37.570 --> 00:00:42.170 was born to him. And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. 9 00:00:42.890 --> 00:00:48.250 Everyone who hears will laugh over me. And she said, who would 10 00:00:48.250 --> 00:00:54.320 have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him 11 00:00:54.359 --> 00:01:03.629 a son in his old age. Praise be to God. Well, here 12 00:01:03.750 --> 00:01:11.310 we come to the fulfillment of the great promise that God had promised to Abraham 13 00:01:11.430 --> 00:01:19.739 and to Sarah. The promised seed is born, the promised child is born, 14 00:01:21.540 --> 00:01:26.500 the one who was not Ishmael on, the one whom God would ring 15 00:01:26.620 --> 00:01:30.659 forth, not by human striving, not by maneuvering, not by all these 16 00:01:30.700 --> 00:01:36.409 things which we've reflected on, but by his own will and his own timing 17 00:01:36.450 --> 00:01:42.609 and his own and indeed miraculous way. A Hundred Years Old, a hundred 18 00:01:42.609 --> 00:01:53.599 years old Abraham was his wife and her old age nursing her son. The 19 00:01:53.680 --> 00:02:01.069 emphasis of these first few verses is most definitely that God keeps his promise. 20 00:02:02.510 --> 00:02:08.189 Want you to notice this. You could take away verse one and still have 21 00:02:08.389 --> 00:02:14.909 all the information you would need. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son 22 00:02:14.990 --> 00:02:19.819 in his own age. But now listen to verse one, which comes before 23 00:02:19.860 --> 00:02:23.259 that. The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did 24 00:02:23.419 --> 00:02:29.259 to Sarah as he had promised. Do you hear the repetition there, the 25 00:02:29.300 --> 00:02:35.449 kind of rolling of the words? The Lord visited to Sarah as he had 26 00:02:35.569 --> 00:02:39.569 said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised, and Sarah 27 00:02:39.610 --> 00:02:44.919 conceived and bore a son, or a conceived and bore Abraham a son in 28 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:51.439 his old age? Why this repetition? What's, of course, to call 29 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:54.560 us to sit with that for a moment, isn't it? We're not just 30 00:02:54.719 --> 00:03:00.469 getting bare information here. At the Lord is reminding us that he is faithful, 31 00:03:01.389 --> 00:03:07.150 that he's steadfast, that he he keeps his word. I want to 32 00:03:07.229 --> 00:03:14.259 turn back just a couple chapters and read you from chapter seventeen, verse nineteen. 33 00:03:14.340 --> 00:03:17.659 The promise God Says No, but Sarah, your wife, shall bear 34 00:03:17.780 --> 00:03:22.580 you a son and you shall call his name Isaac. I Will Astat, 35 00:03:22.740 --> 00:03:28.050 I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after 36 00:03:28.129 --> 00:03:34.330 him. And then in genesis eighteen, verse ten, the Lord said, 37 00:03:34.330 --> 00:03:38.689 I will surely return to you about this time next year and your and Sarah, 38 00:03:38.810 --> 00:03:42.520 your wife, shall have a son. And Sarah was listening at the 39 00:03:42.599 --> 00:03:46.080 tent door behind him. Goes on to say. Now Abraham and Sarah were 40 00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:50.080 old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with 41 00:03:50.159 --> 00:03:53.439 Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, after I'm worn out and 42 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:59.310 my Lord is old, Shall I have pleasure? Then the Lord said to 43 00:03:59.349 --> 00:04:01.830 Abraham, why did Sarah Laugh and say, shall I indeed bear a child 44 00:04:02.189 --> 00:04:06.669 now that I'm old? Is Anything too hard for the Lord? At the 45 00:04:06.750 --> 00:04:11.699 appointed time, I will return to you about this time next year and Sarah 46 00:04:12.219 --> 00:04:15.899 shall have a son. Sarah denied it, saying I did not laugh, 47 00:04:16.180 --> 00:04:24.649 for she was afraid. He said no, but you did laugh. Amazing. 48 00:04:26.050 --> 00:04:29.569 And so now here we come to chapter twenty one, and the Lord 49 00:04:29.610 --> 00:04:32.689 visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he 50 00:04:32.850 --> 00:04:38.569 had promised, and Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age. 51 00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:45.879 As we sit with us, as we remember that, despite our doubting, 52 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:50.279 despite our disbelief, and what God is capable of doing, God's work 53 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:59.790 is not dependent on us, it's not even dependent on our faith. God's 54 00:04:59.790 --> 00:05:03.029 going to do what God is going to do. He can accomplish what he 55 00:05:03.110 --> 00:05:08.899 wants to accomplish, whether we're doubting or believing, and of course he can 56 00:05:08.980 --> 00:05:15.379 bring us to belief. He can accomplish that as well. So often we 57 00:05:15.660 --> 00:05:20.810 attribute to God and his promises what we know is true of us, that 58 00:05:20.970 --> 00:05:29.569 our word is so so our word, our promises are mixed, confused, 59 00:05:30.889 --> 00:05:38.040 not quite a fully developed but God in his word is always true, always 60 00:05:38.199 --> 00:05:44.560 perfect. He always does what he says. Listen to Psalm a twelve or 61 00:05:44.759 --> 00:05:49.189 six, just as a one reminder of one many that we might think about 62 00:05:49.189 --> 00:05:55.790 when it comes to the word of the Lord. Psalm twelve or six says 63 00:05:55.829 --> 00:06:01.790 the words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace 64 00:06:01.949 --> 00:06:09.259 on the ground, purified seven times. The words of the Lord are pure 65 00:06:09.459 --> 00:06:15.939 words, his promises are stead fast and he has done what he said he 66 00:06:15.060 --> 00:06:21.089 would do. Praise be to God. So the sun is born, this 67 00:06:21.370 --> 00:06:26.850 miraculous child, born to an old man and an old woman who are incapable 68 00:06:26.889 --> 00:06:30.490 of ch having children, and now here is a child, much like the 69 00:06:30.569 --> 00:06:39.879 the birth of Jesus, a woman incapable of having children, and yet there 70 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:46.079 as a child. Abraham responds to this by keeping the covenant. Verse Three, 71 00:06:46.149 --> 00:06:49.430 we read the Abraham called the name of his son who is born to 72 00:06:49.470 --> 00:06:57.910 him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac, which means he laughs. Right 73 00:06:57.990 --> 00:07:02.060 this. Those are calls to our minds how Sarah reacted the last time she 74 00:07:02.180 --> 00:07:05.540 heard this news. She laughed, she didn't believe it. Then, when 75 00:07:05.579 --> 00:07:09.740 she was called out, I say that right, didn't laugh. No, 76 00:07:10.019 --> 00:07:16.769 you did. Here, though, she owns it. She's happ this is 77 00:07:16.810 --> 00:07:23.970 a different kind of laughter. Sarah's derision and scoffing has turned into joys, 78 00:07:24.050 --> 00:07:27.930 turn into celebration. This kind of like, I can't believe this present is 79 00:07:28.089 --> 00:07:33.680 so good, thank you, kind of laughter. She even says this is 80 00:07:33.720 --> 00:07:41.360 a counter confession, we might say, a counter confession of faith. Instead, 81 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:45.029 of a denial which was before. Hear her. She says in her 82 00:07:45.110 --> 00:07:49.069 six God has made laughter for me. I like imagining her holding her son 83 00:07:49.189 --> 00:07:55.149 and she says this, here's laughter. He laughs. Little Isaac, so 84 00:07:55.589 --> 00:08:01.379 sweet, so precious. I'm an old, happy woman. God has made 85 00:08:01.420 --> 00:08:07.420 laughter for me and everyone who hears will laugh over me. There will be 86 00:08:07.579 --> 00:08:13.009 people who will share in her joy. I wonder if she knew how true 87 00:08:13.089 --> 00:08:20.930 that was. And this is what happens when God keeps his promises. There 88 00:08:20.089 --> 00:08:26.370 is joy and celebration, especially when it's his promises of grace that are fulfilled. 89 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:31.080 These as. This is God's good work to us, and of course 90 00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:37.279 it is to us. This is important to remember because when we think about 91 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:43.950 Abraham and Sarah, this is not just some distant person that we have no 92 00:08:43.149 --> 00:08:48.070 connection to and we just sort of hear their story and we smile along. 93 00:08:48.950 --> 00:08:54.269 This is our story, this is our family history. Right we're going through 94 00:08:54.350 --> 00:09:01.820 the scrap book together right now, the Lord's family album, and he's telling 95 00:09:01.019 --> 00:09:07.779 to us the story of our people as sons and daughters of Abraham and Sarah, 96 00:09:09.539 --> 00:09:13.730 by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, by believing those same promises that 97 00:09:13.889 --> 00:09:18.490 Abraham believed. We are children of faith, we are children of Abraham and 98 00:09:20.690 --> 00:09:26.480 of Sarah. We don't just identify with them emotionally, but this is our 99 00:09:26.679 --> 00:09:31.200 story, our miracle and our joy, and so we laugh along and we 100 00:09:31.399 --> 00:09:39.750 smile and we're thankful for what God has done. I want to impress this 101 00:09:39.149 --> 00:09:45.909 on you by reading some wonderful words from Isaiah Chapter Fifty One. If you 102 00:09:45.990 --> 00:09:48.990 have a Bible, you can turn there with me, or or just listen 103 00:09:48.070 --> 00:10:07.139 along Isaiah chapter fifty one, versus one through three. Listen to me, 104 00:10:07.330 --> 00:10:13.610 you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord. Look to the rock 105 00:10:13.850 --> 00:10:16.850 from which you were hewn and to the quarry from which you were dug. 106 00:10:18.370 --> 00:10:22.720 Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who bore you, 107 00:10:22.919 --> 00:10:28.159 for he was but one when I called him that I might bless him and 108 00:10:28.759 --> 00:10:37.350 multiply him. You see that the scriptures say read the story, look to 109 00:10:37.509 --> 00:10:41.629 it, pay attention to it. Why? Because this is this is you, 110 00:10:43.669 --> 00:10:46.710 this is the the quarry from which you are pulled out of. This 111 00:10:46.870 --> 00:10:50.820 is the this is the rock from which you were hewn or cut off from. 112 00:10:50.899 --> 00:10:56.539 This is our family, this is our history, and that's important to 113 00:10:56.659 --> 00:11:03.820 remember, because it's the Lord's promise that undergirds at all, which means his 114 00:11:03.940 --> 00:11:09.529 promises to them are his promises to us. His promise to bless Abraham and 115 00:11:09.649 --> 00:11:16.330 multiply him greatly. He are those children. His promises to Abraham, to 116 00:11:16.450 --> 00:11:20.919 bless even even the other nations, even families outside of his family, is, 117 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:26.200 of course, a promise to us. We are the promise itself. 118 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:30.840 In a way, this is the way in which we celebrate these things us 119 00:11:31.759 --> 00:11:37.230 and as we read these story and as we remember God's promises, it reminds 120 00:11:37.269 --> 00:11:41.990 us not only to share the joy, but it also brings us comfort in 121 00:11:41.029 --> 00:11:48.779 the hard times. Listen to verse three, for the Lord Comfort Zion. 122 00:11:48.860 --> 00:11:56.340 He comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert 123 00:11:58.340 --> 00:12:03.809 like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her 124 00:12:03.129 --> 00:12:11.730 Thanksgiving and the voice of Song. What is he saying? He's sang that 125 00:12:11.850 --> 00:12:18.200 when life is hard, when we find ourselves in the Wilderness, when we 126 00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:22.320 find ourselves in the heart and the desert places, we are to look, 127 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:30.309 we are to remember what God has done, to remember our family history, 128 00:12:30.470 --> 00:12:35.110 to remember the cory from which we came out of and to remember what God 129 00:12:35.269 --> 00:12:39.750 has done, and as we remember these things, we find comfort even in 130 00:12:39.870 --> 00:12:46.940 the very hard places. Joy and gladness will be found in her Thanksgiving and 131 00:12:46.659 --> 00:12:54.100 the voice of Song. This is God's a reminder to us, and it's 132 00:12:54.139 --> 00:12:56.860 my prayer that he would bless you with it