By Grace Through Faith

Introduction

Well, good morning! I hope that everyone is as excited as I am to dig into God’s word this morning. I feel so blessed to be part of such a great church family. You guys really are the best. It is such an honor and a privilege to be able to serve the youth here at FBC and to get to proclaim God’s word from the pulpit. So this morning let’s open our Bibles to Genesis Chapter 21.

For those of you who may be visiting us, we have been digging into the first book of the Bible the book of Genesis for almost 2 years now. Over the last few months, we have been looking specifically at the story of Abraham. Now Abraham is by far not a perfect man. Throughout his story, we have seen him mess up time and time again. But something that we have always seen is his faithfulness to God.

However even more important than the faithfulness of Abraham is the faithfulness of God. Every time that Abraham messed up and lost faith God was there with open arms. And none of the things that Abraham did could change the promise that God made to Abraham who at the time was known as Abram in Genesis Chapter 12. (vv. 1-3)

“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Way back in Genesis chapter 12 God promised that blessings would come from Abraham. And then again in Genesis Chapter 15 God reminds Abraham of his promise. He told Abraham that his offspring would outnumber the stars in the sky. And it said in Genesis 15:6 that Abraham believed the Lord and that the Lord counted it to him as righteousness. I bring all of this up because before we look at today’s Scripture we need to remember everything that has happened thus far.

Today we are going to see the long-awaited birth of Issac the child born of two unlikely people. Two people who were long past the prime age to have Children. We are going to see how this amazing miracle points to an even bigger miracle that was to come. So stand with me for the reading of God’s word starting in Genesis Chapter 21 verse 1.

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 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 in 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 bowshot, 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, 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 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.

You may be seated. Allow me to pray before we dive into our first point.

[Pray thanks for Gods word and that he would be proclaimed]

Grace Has Come (vv.1-7)

The first thing that we see here is that God blesses Abraham and Sarah with a Child. He blessed them with his Grace. Look back with me at verse 1. In verse one it says that the Lord visited Sarah just as he had promised. And then it says that Sarah conceived and bore Abraham’s son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Sarah and Abraham named the child Isaac. And when the child was eight days old Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded.

One thing that I noticed when I was studying this was just how many times Moses mentions that Abraham was old. I mean Moses was really making sure that the Israelites knew how old this guy was. It seems like after every sentence that Moses said he mentioned that Abraham was old. It says in verse 2 that it was in Abraham’s old age that Isaac was born. It says in verse five that Abraham was 100 years old when Issac was born. And then in verse 7 it says that Isaac was born when Abraham was in his old age.

Moses wasn't bringing this up for no reason. The reason that he kept bringing up the fact that Abraham was so old and that Sarah was no longer able to have children was because he was trying to display the fact that the birth of Isaac was only by the grace of God. Guys this was an impossible situation it was physically impossible for Sarah to have a child. And that makes it so much more grand and so much more amazing when we see that God met Sarah in her inability and blessed her with a child out of his grace.

Look being able to create children at all is a huge blessing from the Lord and it really does show that God is real. But even more so this situation shows us that God can do the impossible that he can take Sarah a 90 year old who is no longer able to have children and Abraham a man who is 100 years old And that he can use them both to bring about a child.

Now we know by looking at the rest of the Bible that this blessing wasn't just the child but that it was the continued line of Abraham. That it was the start of a great nation the nation of Israel. From Abraham we have Isaac and then from Isaac we had Jacob and from Jacob we had Joseph and all his brothers and that they would make up the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel.

We then see that these 12 tribes of Israelites would fall into slavery at the hand of pharaoh in Egypt. But that God would hear their cry and set them free in a mighty and powerful way. And that God would then lead them to the promised land. That he would bless by the defeating of their enemies. And providing them with food resources and power. And that time and time again even when the Israelites would disobey the Lord's orders and do things that hurt the Lord he never abandoned them he always remained faithful to them.

And eventually after hundreds and hundreds of years of the nation of Israel trying to live good enough to be able to be in the presence of the Lord they would be blessed with the greatest blessing of all. Jesus Christ would be born of the Virgin Mary live a perfect sinless life and die a death on the cross where he paid the price for our sins. And then after three days he would arise again victorious. He defeated sin and death. Guys listen this all starts with these verses that we're reading here in Genesis. God blessed Abraham and Isaac with a part in this story that leads into the biggest blessing of all time.

We cannot miss the fact that without this intervention of grace there was nothing special about Abraham. The only thing special was that God looked at Abraham and said I want to use you to bring about my son. This is grace. Abraham was a man who was unable to do what God said he would do. But by the mighty hand of God Sarah bore Abraham a son and they named him Isaac.

In some of your bibles you'll notice that there's a little footnote under the name Isaac. It says that Isaac means he laughs. This wasn't the kind of laughing that you do when someone says a funny joke. This was the kind of laughing that you do when you hear something that's unbelievable it's a laugh of disbelief. Guys Isaac’s name literally brings about a laugh of disbelief because of how impossible of a situation he arose from. Beyond the shadow of a doubt God intervened and that is the only way that Isaac was able to come into this world.

Mark your spot there in genesis but I want to flip over to Galatians to see what Paul has to say on this matter. Galatians chapter 4 verse 21-23 says,

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25

            Paul compares the difference of Isaac to Ishmael. If you recall a few months ago we learned about the story of Ishmael. Abraham in his time of waiting for this promised son decided that he was going to take it into his own hands and that God needed his help. And so with his wife sarah's permission he went and became intimate with one of his slaves Hagar. And Hagar bore Ishmael for Abraham.

Now this child Ishmael was not the promised child that would come from Sarah and Abraham. But still, God made a promise in Genesis 17 verse 20 that he was going to bless Abraham's son Ishmael but then again in verse 21, he reminds Abraham that he will have a son bore to him through Sarah who will be named Isaac.

Here in galatians Paul is comparing these two things. He's comparing the nation of Ishmael that was born out of slavery in sin. To the nation of Isaac that came about because of the divine intervention of the mighty hand of God. Ishmael was born of natural ways just like any of us. While Isaac was born because of a promise.

Paul then goes on to say,

Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 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.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

Guys Paul here is reminding believers that we are children of promise. That we are not like Ishmael we're not born of natural causes the things that make us alive are miracles. It's the very miracle Jesus did on the cross that allows us to be born again that sets us free from our sin and from our slavery to this world. We were all once dead in trespasses and our sins but because of the free gift of grace of Jesus Christ we have eternal life.

I hope that you can see that the story of Abraham and Isaac points to the story of us and Jesus. They're both stories of people experiencing the impossible because of the grace of God. Abraham experienced the birth of a child even when him and his wife had an inability to create one themselves, and for you and I it's the inability to keep the law in order to be in the presence of the Lord. However we don't have to keep the law because we are under grace instead. We can be in the presence of the Lord because of the blood of Jesus that covers us. Notice this comparison here, we are under this grace that Paul is referencing here. We are not children of slavery we are children of promise.

Grace does what the Law Cannot (vv. 8-14)

And so this brings me to my second point. This grace that we're talking about it does with the law cannot. The thing is that Ishmael could never do the thing Isaacs could do. Look with me back at verses 8 and 9 in Genesis chapter 21.

In verse 8 it says that when Isaac came to the age where he was weaned Abraham threw a party. In verse 9 it says that at the party Ishmael was laughing at Isaac. And that this hurts Sarah’s feelings and so Sarah does what any wife would do, She goes to her husband. She orders that Ishmael and Hagar be cast out.

So now I bet you're asking yourself how does this show the gospel? How does this show the promise of Jesus? This doesn't seem very christianly of Sarah to just kick these people out just because they couldn't get along. As I was wrestling with this very thought I thought about the different outcomes that could result of this.

After Sarah sees that Ishmael is laughing at her son she could just ignore it. However the problem is that because Ishmael is of the flesh without a miracle he will continue to act in a way that is fleshly. There’s a knew word for you. “Fleshy”

Ishmael will continue to butt heads with Isaac who is the more legitimate promised son of Abraham. And ultimately there will just be conflict through and through. There would have been jealousy and hatred.

Another scenario would be that Isaac could be sent away. Sarah could say ohh well Ishmael’s older and he's the first born of Abraham so he has dibs. Come on who doesn't respect dibs. But this couldn’t have happened because it would have denied the promise of Isaac. And rejected all that God had promised for the future of Issac.

The only solution was to send Ishmael and his mother Hagar out of the camp. Them being there with a nature that was so in opposition to the nature of Isaac just brought too much conflict. Now I'm not saying that Sarah wasn't sinful in this situation but I am saying that God had a plan throughout all of this, and that even Sarah’s sin was part of that plan.

Let's think about this by continuing to compare Ishmael being the law to Isaac being the grace of Jesus. Isaac was the original promise given to Abraham and Jesus was the original promise given to mankind. Jesus was always supposed to be the way the truth and the life. He was promised in Genesis 3 verse 15. However, in the waiting for Jesus God gave his people the law.

But this was never the original purpose. The law was never good enough and that's the point. We can't fulfill the law no matter how hard we try we cannot do the law good enough to receive the very blessing that we received through Jesus. In a similar way no matter how much Abraham tries to Ishmael is not his promised son Isaac is.

The thing is that Isaac did what Ishmael could not. Ishmael was a man who was born of a slave which made him a slave. And he was born out of the sin of Abraham. Back in Genesis 16 Abraham grew impatient and decided to take things into his own hands by having a child with Hagar.

Think about the law it's very similar. I've read the book of Leviticus a few times and I can tell you that there are plenty and plenty of laws in there. But The thing is that no matter how hard I try I cannot do all of them I just can't. It's impossible, I am unable to make myself clean in the eyes of God there aren't enough pigeons in the sky that I could kill in order to wipe me clean of my sin. No matter how hard Abraham tries Ishmael is not his promised son. Isaac is and so that's why Ishmael must be forced to leave.

Because the law cannot cleanse you. And really it was never meant to. The law was only ever meant to reveal our sin to us. If the law was meant to cleanse us of our sins then why would God have promised Jesus? You see the law it highlights our sin to us. It highlights the areas where we're sinful but it doesn't do anything about it. Whether I know that something is sinful or not I can't set myself free from it. And that's the point. Only Jesus can. The law cannot cleanse you only the blood of Jesus can. This is what Paul was getting at in Romans chapter 6 when he said:

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

We were all once slaves of sin. Paul says that because of us being slaves to sin we had fruit that was sinful that we are now ashamed of. But Paul says that we are no longer a slave of sin but that we are a slave of God instead and that this produces fruit that leads to sanctification and in its end eternal life. Instead of being a slave to sin and receiving death we are a slave to God and receive eternal life. This is what that famous verse that we always reference says

 Romans 6:23, 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The law cannot save but that only Jesus can. There’s not something we need to do it's something that's already been done all we must do is believe. And the results of this are eternal life, not only that but that we get to live an eternal life in servitude to the Lord of all, the creator of all things, the all-powerful, Yahweh!! We get to serve him because of his grace, not because of anything we did. I cannot thank any of my salvation to my works but only to Jesus Christ the one who died for my sins.

Now we do see in this that Abraham he feels for his son Ishmael. It says in verse 11 that Abraham was displeased because of what his wife Sarah asked him to do but God intervened. God reminded Abraham that he made a promise to take care of Ishmael and Hagar. God tells Abraham to listen to Sarah. And here again, God reminds him of the promise that he made to him about Isaac and what he was going to do through him.

This gives Abraham hope. So he gives Hagar and Ishmael some water and some food and sends her away into the wilderness of Beersheba. And this brings me to our 3rd and final point. When Hagar and Ishmael are in the wilderness we see that God is faithful to those who are under the covenant of grace.

God is faithful to those who are under the Covenant of Grace (vv. 15-21)

We talked about it before but there was nothing special about Hagar or Ishmael. They weren't even necessarily believers it didn’t say they were children of God it didn't say they had faith. But notice what happens here when they go into the wilderness. They eventually run out of food and water. Hagar has Ishmael go and sit in a far-off distance because she doesn't want to watch her own son die in front of her. So then she goes away, and she weeps but then notice what it says in verse 17 it says that God heard the cry of Ishmael.

A little side note to note here is that Ishmael he did call out to the Lord which means that the Lord had some sort of impact on him. The Lord was working in his heart prior to this. And so he leads Ishmael to the point where he cries out to the Lord in his dire need. And the Lord responds with grace and love. Not only was God’s response a display of grace and love we also see grace from God in the fact that Ishmael cared about God in the first place. God was at work in this situation.

We see that Hagar hears a voice from heaven that says fear not for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is up lift up the boy hold him fast with your hands for I will make him into a great nation. Notice the significance of this, Hagar and Ishmael experience the grace of God. He protects them he provides for them. Hagar's eyes are opened and she looks up and there's a well and she drinks water and gives some to Ishmael and they're able to survive. And then it kind of gives us a summary it says that Ishmael he grew he grew up and he lived in the wilderness of Paran. Then it says that he became an expert with the bow and that his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

The significance here isn't necessarily that Ishmael didn't die, the significance is that God was faithful to Abraham in this. Abraham was the one that was under grace it was abraham's faith that saved Hagar and Ishmael. God made a promise to Abraham that he would protect Ishmael and Hagar and that nothing bad would happen to them. He didn't do this because Hagar or Ishmael deserved it but because he was faithful to Abraham.

This is a very similar to the reason that God spared Lot and his daughters when he wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah. It wasn't because of Lot’s righteousness it was because God was faithful to Abraham. Abraham cared about Lot and God cared about Abraham. Similar things happening here, Abraham cared about his son Ishmael and so God in turn cares about Ishmael.

God is gracious to Ishmael because he's faithful to Abraham. It was Abraham's faith that was counted to him as righteousness that saved Ishmael. Guys this again just shows the extent of God's grace. It shows the sufficiency of God's grace. God is so gracious and so loving that if we have faith his grace towards us can affect the people that we love. Now don't hear me wrong I'm not saying that if you have faith in the Lord that nothing bad is ever going to happen to you or your family members. But I am saying that God cares about those who we care about. And that his grace it's sufficient for any problem.

Guys so often once we have made it through a trial we forget the very reason that we made it through in the first place. We're kind of like Hagar we're wandering hopelessly through the desert just weeping hoping that something will happen to make everything OK. And then when things work out we forget the very reason why they happened in the first place. It's because of the grace of God. Any trial that you've ever got through any hardship that you've ever endured you endured it because God allowed you to. You endured it because God was there strengthening you each and every step of the way. We can't take his glory away by saying that we did it on our own or by even saying that we had any part in it. We didn't and if it was up to us we'd fail time and time again. But luckily it's not, God's grace is sufficient.

Not only is this true in our lives but it's true in the lives of the other people in this world. When we look at this world we see a dark scary sinful place. When I look at my generation I just see people that are yearning and desiring to have a personal relationship and to find fulfillment. These aren't bad desires and their desires that I have as well. The difference between the majority of the world and us as believers is that we find that in fulfillment in Jesus. There's nothing special about you or me it's only by his grace that we found him. And so all the glory and all the praise be to him. His grace is sufficient to help anyone who's struggling in this broken world. No matter what you've been through no matter what you've experienced his grace is sufficient for you.

Closing

And so in closing here's what I want us to do. I want everyone to close their eyes and bow their heads and think about a verse. Ephesians 1:8 says,

“For by Grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is a gift from God.”

I have titled this sermon by grace through faith and there’s a very good reason as for why. Abraham is a man known for his faith. And Sarah represents grace according to Galations 4:26. So Issac was born by grace through faith. Just like Paul says in Ephesians. By grace through faith. In light of all that we’ve talked about here’s what I want us to.

As the worship team comes up and plays one more song I want you to do some evaluating. For those of you who have given your life to Christ Are you living in a way that shows 100% sufficiency on the grace of God? Or are you trying to rely on yourself in some way? Are you allowing his Grace to be enough for you?

And for the those who haven’t confessed your life to Christ what is holding you back from accepting the grace that Jesus offers? The Bible says that salvation is a free gift. Its free because of the grace of God. All one must do is repent and believe that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose again. It’s that simple. What it is stopping you from accepting Jesus into your heart this morning. Accept that his grace is enough for your sin and stop trying to be good enough because listen it’s never going to happen, but that’s okay because  he is good enough.

Listen wherever you’re in your walk with God I want you to evaluate yourself this morning. Think about where you stand with God. Are your relying on the promise of Grace? After you’ve had some time we will join together again in prayer. This is your time.