we turn this morning in our bibles to genesis chapter 21 we are going through the book of genesis if you're visiting with us this is found on page 19 in your pew bibles genesis chapter 21 and in god's kind providence we come this morning to the birth of isaac the birth of isaac and we will read the first 21 verses let's give our attention this morning to god's word the lord visited sarah as he had said and the lord did to sarah as he had promised and sarah conceived and bore abraham a son in his old age at the time of which god had spoken to him abraham called the name of his son who was born to him whom sarah bore him 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 borne him a son in his old age. And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. So she said to Abraham, cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac, your offspring, shall your offspring be named, and I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring. So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder along with the child and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water and the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bow shot, and 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. And the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, what troubles you, 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 skin 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 the bow he lived in the wilderness of Paran. And his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. May the Lord bless this morning the hearing of his word. Last week we were challenged with looking into the life of Abraham and it was really eye-opening when we consider the whole of the Christian life. We tend to think as we have studied the life of Abraham and we look and compare our own lives and think about what the scriptures are telling us, we tend to think that the conversion of our lives only happens right at the beginning. And because of that, we really don't understand what the struggle is that we are facing throughout the course of life, throughout the whole course of the Christian life. What do I mean? We understand and we confess that salvation is by grace through faith alone. and there is a conscious point when we grasp this when we believe this when we repent of our way when we trust in the lord jesus christ and the lord announces to you his love the lord announces to you his free gospel acceptance you are justified by faith alone once and for all but then we go on from there and what we don't realize what we don't think about is how much the old nature is fighting against that very thing that has happened. And that this fight against the grace of God, and that's what I'm emphasizing this morning in Genesis, this fight against the grace of God and His gospel is not something that ends at our initial conversion. It's a fight. And we're learning that this conversion is a daily thing. It's a lifelong thing. In what way? That's what we're exploring today with Abraham. What is the way the struggle for the Christian is characterized in the Bible? The whole of the Christian walk, the whole of the Christian faith. Sure, we struggle against individual sin. All of us here today struggle with sins. It's particular sins that we all struggle with, no doubt. But how can your struggle be summarized today? in light of this text. How is the struggle summarized? It's a fight throughout the course of life. It's engaging in a warfare to let go of your own will. It's a warfare to let go of your own effort. It's a warfare that you're facing right now that goes on to deny yourself, to deny your own works, old works, and to live by faith in his gospel promises. All sin can be summarized in that kind of way, as departure from God, and summarized as an exerting of our own wills and not trusting the Lord, trying to find satisfaction in another way, trying to answer our problems in another way. And what Abraham's life is showing us is how alive and real this problem is. Remember last week, Abraham feared that in a lawless world, in a godless world, that people would kill him over his beautiful wife. And so he went around telling a little white lie. I mean, hey, it was a little white lie. Come on. But that little white lie, which even had a little bit of truth in it, attacked the whole plan. of God's redemption. Did you see the consequence of that little white lie? Twice he threw away his wife, who was the one God had appointed to bear the son Isaac. And had it all went its way, had these kings taken her, had these kings taken her and she became the wife of these kings, you wouldn't be here. Just from a little white lie, he almost wrecked everything. And every time in the story, God intervened, God delivered, God stepped in, God preserved, God kept Abraham because he could have never kept himself. And that's our story. But have you considered what God is really teaching us through this? Have you figured it out? Today we deal with the biggest failure of Abraham along the way. The biggest. And it ended up causing nothing but agony for him. it ended up causing a lot of pain for him. And the Lord is teaching us that these two ways show up in the course of one's life and these two ways have very severe consequences. One a real blessed way and the other a way of real agony. There is the way of faith and then there's the way of trying to do it yourself. Letting fear, letting discouragement, letting conflict dictate the way you are going to live and the decisions that you are going to make. And the Lord all along is saying, no, it is to be by faith. I want you living by faith. No matter how you're tried and tested, no matter what you're going through, I want it by faith. Are you beginning to understand what faith looks like? Genesis is a book teaching us this. And this morning we come to this pivotal moment in the life of Abraham. It's another crucial moment because God calls him here, and you'll notice this, God calls him to make a clear choice to break with his past for good. Break with it. Go in the way of faith. Break with your past. And the wonderful thing about it is, in God's strength and grace, it was the most freeing thing he could have ever done. The New Testament takes this whole account, which is remarkable, and it gives us this very message. Let's look at this this morning. In verse 1, chapter 18, the Lord had said, not verse 1, but in chapter 18, the Lord had made a promise. Remember what the Lord said? Next time of this year, your wife shall bear a son. Your wife, Sarah, shall have a son. And from the beginning of Abraham's life, God made this unilateral, this unconditional, this promise to Abraham that in the fullness of time, this son would come. And God kept saying it. God kept saying this over and over and over to Abraham. The son is coming. The son is coming. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. And what was amazing is back in chapter 12, right at the initial calling of Abraham's life, there were those seven promises, and God kept saying, I will, I will, I will, I will. And nothing could alter it. Nothing. But specifically what God was saying to Abraham is this, I am the one, Abraham, who will do the work. I'm the one. The blessing comes from me. I will bless you. And that's what's remarkable about God's gospel. That's what's remarkable about His calling upon us. It's the free grace blessing us all along the way of God. And God said, I will raise up a son, and this is going to be marvelous in your sight. But the whole way, Abraham has been fighting over this. The New Testament commends his faith, and he had faith, but it does not mean that when somebody has faith, there are not serious struggles and moments of doubts and fighting. Because the whole story of Abraham has been one of struggle. I love studying his life. The story of Abraham has been one of attempting over and over to take matters into his own hands. And so we can call Abraham the synergist. In other words, he's an American. God helps those who help themselves. Now, if you haven't figured this out by now, God doesn't like that. He doesn't like that. In fact, it seemed to me the more Abraham pulled this, the greater the delay. And every time Abraham pulled this, God would come along and he would clean it up, which itself illustrated how foolish it was to do the things that he was doing. But after years of struggle, after years of doubt, years of wondering, think of the scene that's presented to you now. Abraham, I'm going to make you a blessing to all the nations. I will. And in you, all the nations of the earth, and your seed will be blessed. At this point, things have gone so long. Do you realize that when we come to Genesis chapter 21, every human obstacle is in the way for this to be fulfilled? And to the greatest degree, it's built up to this. The tension building up to this is really strong. Think about it. you have, around the birth of Isaac, you have international conflict and tension going on. Nations are in uproar. Kingdoms. Tension. Conflict. And they don't like Abraham. He's not been much of a blessing. Sodom has just been toppled. His intercession is saved. Three. In fact, this whole scene is bracketed, did you notice chapter 21, is bracketed with the conflict with Abimelech, and then right after this, another conflict with Abimelech. Conflict, conflict, conflict. And then you have an absolutely human, impossible scenario that's been building here, that's been building. Abraham is how old now, boys and girls? 100. I heard somebody say it, good job. 100. Sarah's 90. that's far past childbearing age. The only way this could occur is a direct, miraculous intervention of God. You see all the setup for this? Everything's been building. And so now when you come to verse 1 of chapter 21, listen to it with all that in mind. Listen to what the text is telling you. And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said. And the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Three times in a few verses, he is telling, are you listening to this? Three times. As he said, as he promised, as he spoke. And we should all be sitting here today saying, that is overwhelming. That is overwhelming. here's why god kept saying all along i will i will i will you ever feel that the life you're living keeps lingering and it's going nowhere and all these things you believed are so slow to come to pass it happened it happened everything they believed everything they were looking for god did that's what the text is telling you he did as he promised he kept his word this is a huge moment in genesis this is a pivotal moment in genesis looking at the big book the whole book what was the very first question in the garden of eden that satan posed to eve did god really say come on eve did god really say he's not out for your best interest he doesn't have your best interest in mind his word can't be trusted that's the lie of the devil that has been propagated from genesis chapter 3 to this day on a massive scale he's not in your best interest you guys he doesn't really care for you and he said you know you're right i'm going to try the other way. God's lying. And so you see how these two ways are presented in the scriptures, these two ways right from the beginning, a way of believing God and trusting his word and not doubting that word that he would accomplish everything that he said to us. And then there's the other way of unbelief. There's the two ways. Now, what we've been studying in Genesis is Abraham kind of testing out the lie of the devil. How did that go? Did God really say, come on, Abraham? You know, this is the whole question in the history of redemption. I was thinking about Psalm 78 this past week. Listen to this language and listen to what caused the Lord to confront Israel. Marvelous things He did in the sight of their fathers. And the psalm rehearses all that God accomplished. But they sinned. How did they sin? They tested God in their hearts. How so? Listen to this. Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? Can he give bread? Can he really provide meat for his people? Therefore, the Lord heard this and was furious. Why? Because they didn't believe, it says. They didn't believe in God and did not trust his salvation. And the psalm says stuff like this. What do you mean? They ate angel's food the whole way. Marvelous things he did in the sight of their fathers, in the field of Zion, in the land of Egypt. He divided the sea and caused them to pass. He made waters stand up like a heap. In the daytime, he led them with the cloud and all the night with the light of fire. He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink in abundance. He brought streams out of the rock, cause waters to run. What do you mean, can God do this? Why would you ask that? That's unbelief, he said. Now, back to Abraham. Did all of their lack of trust, all of their worry, all of their attempts to take things into their own hands, How did that fare for them? That other way brought them a lot of sorrow. It made a mess. All of their worry never altered, never prevented what God was going to do, but look at what they had to go through. And this is such an important message for us. Why would anyone try to live this life in their own wisdom, in their own pursuits, thinking I'm going to do it my way and choose that? Why would anyone in their right mind do that? Did you notice the play in the text on the word laughter? There's a big message here. In chapter 17, right after the promise, what did Abraham do when God made the promise? He laughed. It was a laughter of doubt. And then Sarah in chapter 18 in the tent overhears and laughs, and God comes and God confronts us. He's not happy about this. You did laugh. Remember what God said because of all this laughter going on, a family laughing, the laughing problem of the Abrahams? You're going to name your son Laughter. This is how our God works. Okay. You're going to run around and every time you say your son's name, it's going to be, hey, Laughter, come here. Laughter, stop that. Laughter, you knock that off. Laughter. It's really interesting when you consider the scene that all of this laughter brought a lot of sorrow. And the point of Genesis has been to show us here these two kinds of laughter that's going on. There's a laughter of unbelief, there's a laughter of scoffing, and then there's a laughter of joy that God gives. Wait till tonight. I can't wait till tonight. I won't start. But the unbelief of laughter brought sorrow. Now the text is shining down this other kind of laughter now. After saying three times, God fulfilled his word. God did what he promised. God did what he said. What's the emphasis in the text? I want everyone to look at verse 3. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah born to him, laughter. That's what Isaac means. And then verse 6, and Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh with 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. Do you feel the joy? Do you feel the excitement? Do you feel the whole tent filled with just great joy. God has brought an entirely different kind of laughter to me. She is looking at her son and an incredible delight of God's faithfulness. That joy has overwhelmed her. He brought this powerful laughter. So much joy. The passage is an encouragement to us because the emphasis is that this is God's work. Look at what His work just brought. His gospel, His work brings this kind of laughter. Our work, our strength, our efforts bring the other. And that is such an important message for us. If you were to look over the course of your own lives, How much have you heard God say to you? I mean, think about today. How much have you heard God say to you, I gave my son for you. I collected all that I need in terms of my justice. I collected my righteous judgment from him, from that substitute. I took that from him. You don't have to fear that. I have forgiven you all of your trespasses. They're gone. I've forgiven them. you don't have to earn that you can trust me you are received i am your refuge and your strength a very present help in trouble whatever trouble it is you don't have to even fear i'm with you and then we get to the i wills right i will provide for you i will never leave you nor forsake you I will raise your very bodies up at the end. I will give you the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness shall dwell. And your life is a fight against that. You understand that? You're all fighting it. You're holding tight here to pursue happiness your way and with things. And what does that produce in your life? I'll tell you what it produces in your life. Your life's full of worry. Why do you think Jesus would say, I don't want you to worry? I don't want you to worry about anything. Be anxious for nothing. Why would he say that? Well, I don't want you to worry about your life. Anything having to do with your life. What you're putting on, how you're going to feed yourselves, how you're going to eat. Gentiles worry about all that stuff, not you. Why? Because I'm your Lord. And I'm with you. Why not seek first my kingdom and my righteousness? I'll take care of all that other stuff. I'll provide. Worry brings discouragement and fear and running. And we don't trust. We go in our own wisdom. And how many people, look at the sorrow at this time of year. What's supposed to be, isn't this supposed to be chestnuts roasting on an open fire? Is it? You know the sorrow. It's not laughter of joy. It's laughter of sorrow that's filled people today. people run to the bottle, people are running here, they're running there, they're all running around. And his joy in them? Two ways. The joy of the Lord's work has filled them. And at this moment, the Lord is now challenging Abraham. He's challenging us to let go of the past, to let go of everything that represents our own efforts. And he wants us to Cast away the laughter of unbelief. That's the message here. There's one major failure that happened in the life of Abraham that topped out everything else. Everything, by far. Remember it? The Lord doesn't let sin go. He makes us confront it head on. You never run against sin. You never run from your past. He's going to deal with it. There was one major failure in the course of Abraham's life that had big consequences. Angry and frustrated that God had closed her womb, Sarah said, let's do it our way. Remember? Let's raise up the seed ourselves. And they produced a natural seed. What was his name, boys and girls? Ishmael. And everything in that episode was directly in a direct antithesis. It was direct rebellion of what it meant to live by faith. This is why we're studying this. And so what happens? There they were for 16 years. This natural son grew up in front of them. Abraham loved him. He loved that son. But he was not the promised son. And the pain of that comes out right now. You have to feel this. Abraham throws a feast, big feast for Isaac. You've got a happy wife, happy wife, happy home. Sarah, though, is unhappy about one thing. Verse 9, and Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, whom she had born to Abraham. You ready? Laughing. Same word. It's the old kind of laughter that belonged to Abraham and Sarah before this kind of laughter. Sarah, hating this scenario, seeing this as a threat, makes a prophetic statement in verse 10 that the New Testament is going to highlight. And I want you to listen to verse 10. Cast out this slave woman with her son. for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. This really distresses Abraham. Can you imagine this? Can you imagine hearing this? Don't look over this too quickly. Regardless of the failure, this is a terribly difficult moment in the life of Abraham. The word here is distressing. He is completely distressed over this. He doesn't know what to do with this. And this is his son. This is his natural firstborn son. And we kind of think of Sarah maybe being a little irrational here. But the surprising action is the Lord, isn't it? He comes up to Abraham. What does he say? Do it. Cast him away. But God said to Abraham, do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the latter, because of your bondwoman. whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice. For in Isaac, your seed shall be called. God affirms this. I want you, Abraham, to cast out that son and the bond woman. It's painful. So imagine the scene. Abraham saddles up his son and he takes bread and water. Imagine the tears in this. And he puts it on the shoulder and he sees them right off in the distance. He'll never see them again. And the question that you all should have right now is, why would God make him do that? Why would God make him do that? Before I answer that, the text doesn't want you to at all think that God doesn't care about this son. That's what's overwhelming. The first thing God said to Abraham is, don't be distressed. This is how he treats us the whole way through. But then the rest of the narrative shows us this shocking action of Hagar and Ishmael out in the wilderness heading to Egypt, by the way, heading to Egypt. And who shows up again? It's the angel. Remember back in chapter 16, the angel of the Lord for the first time in Genesis shows up. This is bewildering. He is concerned. He is there to help. And what does he do? He cares for them in the wilderness. Verse 20, we read that God was with them and they took a wife. He took a wife from Egypt. Here's what I get. God said that Abraham would be a blessing to every nation and that meant Ishmael's sons too. But not just that. God would not forget that with regard to this son, His servant, whom he loved, couldn't provide for this son anymore. Do you know the burden the Lord just took upon himself? I will care for him. I will care for that son for you, Abraham. You trust me and you let him go. I've been over and over saying, you see the character of God in the Old Testament and look at the care by which he feeds them and provides for them and fulfills His Word to those who were not of the promises. What kindness is it of this God who cares for the oppressed and the poor and feeds them? I want to return to this question. Why did God require Abraham to cast out this son? Here's the answer. The promised son has come. The son that Sarah says God has filled her with the laughter of joy. This other son that Abraham made filled her with the laughter of sorrow. Now when you come to the New Testament, how does Paul apply this? Let me read this and listen carefully to Galatians 4. Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? Are you not listening to what that own way is telling you, what the law exposes? that's your own way. You're going to try your own way. You're not listening to what the law really demands. Now listen, for it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through the promise. Now, this may be interpreted allegorically saying, I want you to Look at this in a bigger teaching way. These women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. Now, Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem from above is free, and she is our mother, for it's written, rejoice, laugh, O barren, one who does not bear. Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband. Now you brothers, here's how he applies it. Like Isaac, are children of promise. But just at that time, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit. So it is now. That's why you have slaughtering going on right now. But what does the scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son. For the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman. So brothers, we are not children of the slave, but of the free woman. Here's what he just said. The whole episode was forever to be a teaching tool for you. How does this episode a teaching tool for you? It teaches us something symbolically. What does it teach you symbolically? It's this, really simple. Abraham tried to achieve the promise by producing his own natural son. And that wife and that son represents to us, it represents to you all of our own efforts in this life to achieve the promise, to do it by our own works, to live life our own way, to achieve our own dreams, to achieve eternal life our own way. That's what these people represent to us. Abraham's efforts. And what does that lead to? Bondage. That's why the law is brought in. But the son of promise is free. Who is that? It's God's son. This is God's son who is foreshadowed here. Abraham was called to make a choice that day. Here's the choice. Which son do you choose? Which way do you choose? The one God gave or the one you made? Natural son, eternal son. Each represents a different way. And the Lord wanted all the generations to see why we call Abraham the father of faith. Why do we call Abraham the father of faith? Because that day he made a conscious choice, painful as it was, and he sent away his natural son. That's the message. The biggest test for Abraham is not the birth of Isaac. The biggest test in the next chapter is what? The sacrifice of Isaac. You see the whole story of the gospel right here? The test had to do with the death of his son Isaac. God would test him with one final great test what was that test take your son your only son whom you love and sacrifice him and in faith he would take that son complete submission to god you see and he would lay him on the altar that son that only son ishmael's gone his own way is gone now he's got god's god's son that god gave how is this going to work he takes his son and he puts him on the altar and he raises up the knife and what does God say? Stop. Now I know you fear me. That's the place I want you. That's where I want you. Complete trust, complete reliance and instead he substitutes and you see what we celebrate today in the fullness of time is that from a lowly virgin, not a natural conception are we celebrating today. Not a natural conception from Joseph. We're celebrating a supernatural act of the Holy Spirit, overshadowing the womb. And God gave the supernatural conception by the Spirit. And what happened when that son came? All you get in Luke chapter 1 and 2 is the laughter of joy. Wait till tonight. Rejoice, laugh Mary, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, and you will bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus, for he will be called Son of the Most High. That's God's son. And the Lord says to you today, I want you to make a choice today. I want you to make a choice today. This son was put on the cross for sinners. And I want you to cast away anything in your life that is incompatible with the life of faith. Cast it away, this day. What is it? You know, what is it? It brings you sorrow. It brings you bondage. This way is the way of joy and I will give you peace. This is the peace that the Lord gives us, peace and joy. So that we can end with Psalm 126 today. Our mouth is filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy. We can say among all the nations, the Lord has done great things for us and for them. Praise the Lord. Laugh with me together today that God has sent His almighty and eternally begotten Son. Amen. Lord, we have the laughter of joy in our hearts. But with that comes the sadness that we have to confess of the old way. The sadness of trying to do this our way naturally. We can't, and we repent, and we ask for forgiveness for all the ways in our life that show forth that we don't trust you and give us the kind of childlike faith that believes us, no matter how we're tried and tested, no matter what we go through, that this kind of laughter of joy would fill our lives and that we would not look back. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your care. Thank you for teaching us in this way. In Jesus' name, we pray these things. Amen. Thank you.