Title: God Fulfills his Promises
Text: Genesis 21: 1-8
Date: October 21, 2012
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Genesis 21: 1: And the LORD visited Sarah as
he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son
in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son that
was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being
eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5
And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto
him. 6 And Sarah said, God hath made me
to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. 7 And she said, Who would have said unto
Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son
in his old age. 8 And the child grew,
and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was
weaned.
Title: God
Fulfills his Promise
Proposition: Salvation is according to the word of God’s promise and
the promise of God is sure because God himself fulfills every word himself.
It is
impossible for a natural man to believe God because everything God does is
impossible with man.
I. GOD DETERMINED THE END FROM THE
BEGINNING. EVERYTHING GOD DOES IN
SALVATION IS ACCORDING TO HIS EVERLASTING COVENANT OF GRACE
Our
text says this was the fulfillment of a promise AS GOD HAD SAID. The LORD did
unto Sarah AS HE HAD SPOKEN.
Not long ago we saw from Gal 4 that Sara
represents the everlasting covenant of grace.
Galatians 4: 22: For it is written, that Abraham had two
sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a FREEWOMAN. 23: But he who was of
the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was BY PROMISE.
24: Which things are an allegory: for these are the TWO COVENANTS.
Like as
God made this promise long before and brought it to pass through Sarah, In
eternity—before God made time, In eternity—before God made anything that was
made, God made a covenant promise with
God. And everything that comes to pass
in time is through and according to God everlasting covenant of grace-- AS GOD
HAD SAID
In
eternity each person in the divine Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—promised
to fulfill a part in the salvation of sinners.
By doing so the glory of God is manifest, by doing so all the work of
salvation is of the Lord and by doing so all who are called glory only in the
Lord, rather than in themselves or in other sinful men. Each person in the divine God-head agreed.
God the Father chose his Son and promised to give God the Son, Christ
Jesus all preeminence. He promised to
prepare a human body for him—a body hast
thou prepared me. The Father promised
him an elect people which make up his spiritual body, the church—that he might be the firstborn among many
brethren. He promised when his Son finished the work, the Father would
highly exalt him and give him a name above all other names, that every knee
would bow and confess that Jesus Christ is LORD of lords and King of
kings. God the Father, according to his
promise, has exalted him as promised and all shall confess Christ, either in
this life by the grace of God or in the day of judgment. Sarah is a type of
this everlasting covenant. This is the
promise GOD THE FATHER HAD SAID.
God the Son promised to become a man, like unto his brethren. He promised to
magnify and honor the law of God in precept and penalty which all his elect
broke in Adam so that in him they might be made the righteousness of God. Sarah is a type of this everlasting covenant
promise through which Christ came. This
is the promise GOD THE SON HAD SAID.
God the Holy Spirit promised to overshadow
the virgin, forming Christ in her womb. He
promised to be upon Christ as he walked this earth. And because all the elect would be born dead
in sins, the Spirit promised to regenerate each one: to convince us of our sin,
of Christ’s righteousness, of judgment accomplished. Sarah is a type of that everlasting covenant
promise through which God the Holy Spirit fulfills every word promised. This is the promise GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT HAD SAID.
Since
Sarah is a type of the everlasting covenant we can read verse 1 this way: Genesis 21: 1: And the LORD visited
(through the everlasting covenant) as he
had said, and the LORD did (according to the everlasting covenant) as he had spoken.
Application:
When have you and I ever been able to purpose anything from the beginning and
have absolute certainty we could bring it to pass? Never!
Of all our plans we have to say, “If the Lord will, we shall live, and
do this, or that.” Not our God. They asked the Lord, “Who then can be
saved?” He said, “With men it is
impossible.” God promises and works a
work in saving his people that is impossible with men. His covenant promise is sure because “he
doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of
the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” (Dan
4: 35) Believe God. Believe his word.
Numbers
23: 19: God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man,
that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he
spoken, and shall he not make it good?
II. CHRIST CAME AND ACCOMPLISHED THE WORK OF
REDEEMING HIS PEOPLE JUST AS GOD PROMISED FROM THE BEGINNING.
Genesis 21: 2: For Sarah conceived, and bare
Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.
3: And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah
bare to him, Isaac.
Isaac
is a type of Christ.
Galatians 3:16: Now to Abraham and his seed were the
promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to
thy seed, which is Christ;
What are some ways in which we see a type of Christ in
Isaac?
1. Both births were announced long before. Many years
before this, God promised Abraham that Isaac would be born. In the garden, God promised Christ would
come. Christ is pictured in the animals slain to make coats of skins—the lamb slain from the foundation of the
world.
2. God promised both would come
through the woman. Sara is a picture of
the church as the Spirit of God tells us through
Paul. Galatians 26: But Jerusalem which
is above is free, which is the mother of us all. Remember, in the garden, God promised Christ would be the Seed of Woman,
later God revealed Christ would come through the tribe of Judah, through the house
of Jesse, through the house of David
Matthew 1: 1: The book of the generation of Jesus
Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2: Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac
begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;… 5: And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed
of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; 6: And Jesse begat David the king; and David the
king begat Solomon…16: And Jacob begat
Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
3. Both births occurred at the time set by God. v2: For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham
a son in his old age, AT THE SET TIME of which GOD HAD SPOKEN TO HIM. So
was Christ—Galatians 4:4: But when the FULNESS OF TIME WAS COME, GOD SENT forth
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.
4. Both were named before their birth. Genesis 17:19: And
God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his
name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant,
and with his seed after him. The Angel
of the Lord told Joseph, Matthew 1: 21:
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he
shall save his people from their sins.
5. Both births were supernatural—a miracle of God.v7 And she said, Who would have said unto
Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son
in his old age. Of Christ’s conception--Lu 1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow
thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be
called the Son of God.
6. Both births were the occasion of great joy—Isaac means
laughter, rejoicing. v6: And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh,
so that all that hear will laugh with me.
Luke 1: 46: And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, 47:
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
7. Both births are
associated with life beyond. Genesis 21:
12…for in Isaac shall thy seed be called…22:18: And in thy seed shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed. Of Christ and
his elect we read in Revelation 5: 9: And they sung a new song, saying, Thou
art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast
slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and
tongue, and people, and nation; Romans 9: 6: Not as though the word of God hath
taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7:
Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8:
That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children
of God: but the children OF THE PROMISE
are counted for the seed. 9: For this is THE
WORD OF PROMISE, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.
8. Both
sons were offered of their father as a sacrifice. Of Isaac, God told Abraham--Genesis 22: 2: And
he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee
into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of
the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Of Christ--1 John 4:9: In this was manifested the love of God toward us,
because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live
through him.
9.
Isaac was offered on mount Moriah. Mt.
Calvary where Christ gave himself to be crucified is the same mountain or part
of the same.
10. Both
sons bore the wood on which they were to be offered. Of Isaac—Gen 22: 6: And Abraham took the wood
of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; Of Christ-- John 19:17: And he bearing his cross went forth into a
place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:…
11.
Isaac freely submitted to be bound and tied upon the altar. The Lord Jesus voluntarily
went forth to death AS HE HAD SPOKEN. By the obedience of ONE shall many be made righteous. In John 17 Christ prayed, “I have finished
the work.” I think the work of obeying
the law in precept was the work he had finished at that time. But his promise included not only obeying
the law in precept, but also paying the penalty justice demands. So being
proven under the law a spotless and perfectly just Man, with no sin of his own,
he was fit to be the Lamb to make atonement to God for his people. Christ promised in the everlasting covenant to
willingly be made the sin his people are—to bear in his body the sins of his
people—and having been made sin to bear divine justice which his people owed, to
redeem his children from the curse of the law.
It is a
great mystery how that Christ could be made sin, made a curse for us. Christ is
preeminent in our hearts. We want
nothing to taint the perfection of Christ our Redeemer who we love. But we must remember that the very purpose
for which Christ came is to declare the righteousness of God. The very purpose for which God prepared him a
body, the very necessity of Christ going to the cross, was to manifest the
righteousness of God in justifying a guilty people. God is the holy and just God.
Proverbs 17: 15: He that justifieth the wicked, and he
that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD. (Let me
read that again)
Because
God is righteous, he will by no means clear the guilty and because God is
righteous he will by no means condemn the just. If God ever did so, he ceases to be the Just
Judge. The very confidence we have in
God is that our God is righteous. Shall
not the judge of all the earth do right!
From
the womb, Christ Jesus is the Just One. So
the righteousness of God required that before Christ could bear the punishment
for our sin, he first had to be made sin. Only then could the just Judge
execute Christ justly and thereby remain just in justifying his people. THE VERY ISSUE IS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. And because Christ satisfied justice for the
elect as he promised, God is just in showing mercy and forgiveness to all his
elect.
12. In
both cases, with Isaac and with Christ,
God provided himself a sacrifice.
With Isaac—God provided himself one to take Isaac’s place—typifying
Christ our Substitute. With
Christ—Christ is God providing himself to be the sacrifice. And because Christ is God, God is the Justifier.
Ro 3:26: To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be
just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. This is Christ’s work which he finished, when
he cried from the cross, “It is finished” and gave up the Ghost. By the
obedience of ONE shall many be made righteous.
Application: What I want you to see is that, God does nothing by accident. He does all according to the word of his
promise, exactly according to his purpose—as
he had said—as he has spoken
III. WE SEE THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD
TO REGENERATE AND BRING ALL CHRIST’S REDEEMED TO FAITH IN CHRIST
Isaac
is also a picture of a born again child of God.
Galatians 4: 28: Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the
children of promise.
Ishmael
was a type of those born after the flesh. Isaac was born of divine grace and
power according to the promise of God--v2: For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a
son in his old age, at the SET TIME of which God had spoken to him. To bear fruit would have been impossible
for Abraham and Sara to do. So our salvation from the beginning unto our old
age is a miracle of God’s grace. The word
of God’s promise is to regenerate each of his children at the set time.
Ezekiel 16:8: Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon
thee, behold, THY TIME was THE TIME OF LOVE; and I spread my skirt over thee,
and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered INTO A COVENANT with
thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.
Abraham
circumcised Isaac--v4: And Abraham
circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him. Circumcision was a picture of the work of the
Spirit in regeneration wherein God writes his everlasting covenant of grace on
the heart of his child making us to see Christ put away the filth of our flesh
by his one offering.
Deuteronomy 30:6: And the LORD thy God will circumcise
thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine
heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
Romans 2: 28 For
he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is
outward in the flesh: 29: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and
circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose
praise is not of men, but of God.
Colossians 2: 10: And ye are complete in him, which is
the head of all principality and power: 11: In whom also ye are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins
of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
Isaac
had nothing to do with being circumcised—neither do we have anything to do with being born again. It was a time of rejoicing when this child
was born—so it is we rejoice when we are given faith to believe on Christ
Application: Do you see how sure the promise of God is? How I pray he will circumcise someone’s heart
here and make you see what great things God has done according to his
promise. Believe his word!
IV. WE SEE A PICTURE OF GOD’S PROMISE TO KEEP
US AND BRING EACH OF BELIEVING CHILDREN TO THE MARRIAGE FEAST WITH CHRIST--V8 And the child grew, and was weaned: and
Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.
Every
child born of the Spirit shall grow by the milk of the word—v8: and the child grew. Isaac grew by feeding upon his mother’s
breast. Sara is a picture of the church of
God through whom his children are fed the sincere milk of the word through the
preaching of the gospel.
1 Peter 2: 2 As
newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord
is gracious.
Christ
our Head is feeding each member of his body, through the preaching of his word—the Head, from which all the body by joints
and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the
increase of God. (colossians)
Eventually,
we shall be weaned—v8… and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same
day that Isaac was weaned. The apostle Paul compared the foolishness of preaching,
these gifts we have below, as childish things. But when we grow up—in the day
we are brought into Christ’s presence—we shall put away childish things. Then we shall truly feast upon the strong
meat with Christ forever. Every word God promises God fulfills. Do
you see why David said,
2 Samuel 23:5: Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, and
sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire,
although he make it not to grow.
All the
promises of God are in Christ yea and in Christ amen, to the praise of the
glory of God’s grace. Rest in the promise
of God as did Abraham, Sarah and Isaac, and you shall rejoice in the Lord and you
shall be saved.
Amen!