when he got me, y'all. But I got it all when I met him. Sure did. All right, I want you to take your Bibles tonight. We're going to the book of Genesis this evening. I'm gonna give you what I was gonna give you Sunday night before the Lord decided to show up and mess everything up. Praise God. The Lord knows I say that tongue in cheek. He can show up anytime he wants to and do whatever he wants to do, and I'm tickled to death with it. The Lord knows I'm joking when I say that. I appreciate the Lord's visitation. I got another thought on my heart that I really, really do wanna preach to you as well, out of the book of Genesis, totally unrelated to our study that we've been doing, but I believe I'm gonna sit on it until Sunday, and I believe I'm gonna give you this tonight. Man, when you got two messages that you're really excited about preaching, it's hard to figure out sometimes which one to preach. So I'm trying to follow the leadership of the Holy Ghost and give you what I believe the Lord would have us to have tonight. We've been dealing with this study. This is part six. on our study of finding Jesus in Genesis. I told you at the beginning of this study, I'll tell it to you again tonight, if you're not just absolutely crazy about Jesus, this study probably ain't gonna do a whole lot for you. But if you love him, I mean if your heart just beats Jesus loves me and oh how I love Jesus, then you'll like this study that we're doing because it's just all about him. And I find as I study the book of Genesis, the 50 chapters of Genesis, Jesus is just saturated on the pages, permeated through the pages. And if you've been here for the previous five installments that we have preached, you would have seen that. But tonight we're going to Genesis chapter number 21, Genesis in chapter 21, and we're going to look at one of the greatest types of Jesus Christ found in the Old Testament. Outside, outside of Joseph, who we will end up looking at here in a few weeks, outside of Joseph and outside of David, the next greatest picture of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, the next greatest type of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is the man that we find on the page before us, and his name is Isaac. Outside of Joseph and David, Isaac is the greatest picture or representation of the life of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. And I'm not gonna be able to give you everything about Isaac's life and how it pertains to Jesus just tonight. I'm gonna have to give you at least one more installment, maybe two. in his life, but tonight we're going to look at this miraculous birth of Isaac. That's what I'm really wanting to center on tonight. We're gonna start at his beginnings, at his birth tonight, and this miraculous birth of Isaac centers and mirrors and pictures that of the Lord Jesus Christ. Y'all realize tonight there has never been a birth like the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ did not have a natural birth as we would call natural with the seed of a man and the seed of a woman. It was the seed of the Holy Ghost in a virgin's womb. God in the flesh. He didn't have a birth like anybody else. And as I studied the birth of Isaac, we find his birth is also supernatural, if you will. His birth mirrors and pictures that of the Lord Jesus in many different ways. And so we've looked at Jesus in the beginning and Jesus in the boat and Jesus in the bloodshed and all those things. And tonight we're gonna look at Jesus in the birth. Jesus in the birth of Isaac and how it pictures our Lord. So let's look at our text here tonight. Genesis chapter 21, verse number one. If you're with me, say amen. And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said. I'm glad that God's word always comes to pass. If God says it, honey, you can take it to the bank tonight. And the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him whom Sarah bared to him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old as God had commanded him. And Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born unto him. And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh. That's what Isaac's name means, it means laughter. God hath made me to laugh so that all that hear will laugh with me. And she said, who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah would have given children suck? For I have born him a son in his old age. And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah the son of Hagar, Sarah Saul, excuse me, the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking, that'd be Ishmael. Wherefore, she said unto Abraham, cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. Now, Lord, we need your help tonight, and I pray that you would anoint me to preach. God, I pray that you would not just give me anointed preaching, but Lord, anoint the ears of the hearers tonight. Help us to receive what the Spirit would say. Help us to grab ahold of these truths tonight. God, I realize the Bible said in 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, but the foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, for they're spiritually discerned. Help us to have spiritual ears tonight to hear what the Spirit would say to the church. In Jesus' name we pray. Help me to magnify your Son. Amen and amen. There are three ways that I see Jesus is in this birth tonight. I see that it is a promised birth. It is a phenomenal birth. and it is a pardoning birth tonight. Tonight I'd like to start with number one. We'll look at these three things real quickly and we'll be done. Number one, we see Jesus in the birth because this is a promised birth. It is a promised birth. Now, I want y'all to understand something. I want you to go to chapter 12 with me. Go over to chapter 12, and while you're turning there, I'm gonna tell you something. Outside of the birth of Jesus Christ, there was not a promised or predicted birth anymore than the birth of Isaac. Now, there are other babies in the Bible that the Lord promises and predicts would come. Samson had a promised birth. John the Baptist. had a promised birth. Those guys had promised and predicted births. But there's not a predicted birth that's predicted or promised any more outside of Jesus than Isaac. There's just verse after verse after verse after verse where God promises Abraham a literal physical seed through his own body tonight. He starts in chapter 12. Look at chapter 12. And verse number two, chapter 12, verse two, this is when God first starts talking to Abraham. And he said, I will make of thee a great nation. Verse two, chapter 12, and I will bless thee, and shalt make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. I'll bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee. and in these shall all families of the earth be blessed. Did you notice what he said in verse two? He said, I'm gonna make of you a great nation. Well, you can't make of him a great nation unless you give him children tonight. That's the first time God has promised that he's gonna do something with Abraham. Turn to chapter 15. Turn to chapter 15. Go to the right. God's gonna do it again. He's gonna even get more specific. Chapter 15 in verse number two. And Abraham said to the Lord God in chapter 15 verse two, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus? And Abram said, behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came on him, saying, this shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he goes on down and tells him how much seed he's gonna give him. Come all the way to chapter 17. Look, God even gives this boy a name before he's born. Once again, a picture of Jesus. He gives him a name before he's ever even born. Chapter 17, verse number 19. Chapter 17, verse 19. 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. There's another reference in chapter 18. God just over and over says, Abraham, There's a son coming. Abraham, I'm going to give you a son. And Abraham, I'm going to establish my covenant with him. He's a promised seed. He's a predicted seed. God said, I'm going to give you this boy. He's going to come along and I'm going to establish an everlasting covenant with him. Now I want you to understand something, don't miss this tonight. In spite of the mess up of Abraham and Sarah, God's promise still came true tonight. Hey, y'all realize that the Bible said Abraham and Sarah messes up? They think they gotta help God out. God makes a promise and they think God ain't getting it done, so I'm gonna help God out with his promise. I'm getting old, Abraham's getting old, and Sarah comes to Abraham one day and she says, Abraham, Ain't neither one of us getting no younger. Here, take my handmaid Hagar. You go into her, and God's gonna raise up seed through Hagar and through you. That's how we're gonna get it done, but that's not how God said he was gonna do it. God said he was gonna use Sarah, and he was gonna use Abraham, and they had a son named Ishmael. Let me take a time out right there and say this. All of the wars that are being fought today in the Middle East, brother, with all them folk from Iran and Afghanistan and Iraq, those are all the children of Ishmael. The reason why this world has ISIS and Al-Qaeda and 9-11 and World Trade Center towers falling and terrorism is because Abraham run ahead of God and messed up because he thought he could help God out on his promise and we suffer for it today because one man messed up, That man seen, Ishmael, is still messing up this world today. When Ishmael was born, when Ishmael was born, God said he's gonna be a wild man. His hand will be against every man. You can't reason with them Muslims over there. They crazy. All they know is kill or be killed. You wanna know why there's a little bit of peace? Why there's at least, it's not really peace, why there's a tamping down of a lot of those Islamic regimes over there? Because we got a guy in the White House now that ain't trying to be buddies with them. He ain't trying to kiss up to them. He ain't sending them billions of dollars in the middle of the night to try and make them happy. He's telling them, you mess with us and we'll bomb you straight to hell. Amen. That's exactly right. That's all they know, Fred. That's all Ishmael knows. That's all he knows. He's crazy. And we find Abraham and Sarah, they gonna help God out with the promise. But I found God don't need no help with his promise. Let me pause and say this. If God's made you a promise, you can take that promise to the bank. Brother, the promises of God always come true. On the money tonight, you don't gotta worry about God's promises. They're right this evening. And can I say, this birth mirrors the birth of our Savior. Over and over and over and over again, The Bible promises and the Bible predicts that God was going to send a son, that God was going to send a son, that God would come in human flesh. Why the Bible said in Isaiah chapter seven, verse number 14, I give you a sign, God's talking. He said, I'll give you a sign. A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel, which means God with the Son. us tonight. Isaiah chapter 9, God said, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and of the peace and the increase of his government there shall be no end. and he was gonna sit on the throne of David, the book of Micah in chapter five. This is what the wise men were going off of when they come to see Herod in Matthew chapter two. In the book of Micah in chapter five, it said, and thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the nations, Yet out of thee shall come forth the ruler, whose foundations have been from old and from everlasting, said, God's coming in human flesh. And then one day God showed up to Joseph in a dream and said, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that thing which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and thou shalt call his name J-E-S-U-S. Holy Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. Luke chapter one, the angel showed up to Mary and said, Mary, that thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God. He shall be great. He shall be called the son of the highest. He'll sit upon the throne of his father David. Say what you're saying, preacher. I'm saying the promise of God came true. The miracle birth came true, just like God said it would. and I want y'all to understand something. Even though for all of those years, you realize that birth was predicted way even before any of that? Genesis chapter three, way back over there when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, brother Jeremiah, in Genesis chapter three, God told them this. God said, he said, I'm gonna put enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, and he said this to the serpent, and thou shalt bruise his heel and he shall bruise thy head. pointing to one was coming one day that was gonna bruise the head of the serpent. His heel got bruised on Calvary, but he's coming one day to plant his foot on the head of the serpent, friend. He was the promised one. Now I want y'all to realize something. From Genesis chapter three, when God made that promise and that prediction of that birth coming, you know what the devil started doing for all them thousands of years? For 4,000 years, you know what the devil started doing? He started trying to mess things up so the promise would not come true. He started, brother, he started deceiving and he started tempting and he started trying to mess up the bloodline like right here with Ishmael and Hagar. He started trying to mess things up and insert things into the life of those people where the bloodline was coming and he thought he got smart. But brother, all the mess ups of man and all the sin of man could not stop the promised birth. It could not stop God's word from coming true. And one night on the hillsides of Bethlehem, Judea, an angel choir struck up a G chord and said, unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. He was the promised birth tonight, brother. The Bible says about Jesus Christ, it says it's about Jesus Christ. Paul said, all the promises of God are in him, yea, and amen. In other words, it said all of God's promises are found in Jesus Christ, and they're all true. None of them's a lie. God cannot lie. He keeps his word tonight. Keeps his word tonight. And all the mess ups of man could not stop the word of God from coming true. I heard a story, I heard a fellow tell one time, I thought this was a great illustration of how man can't mess up the overall plan of God. He said, imagine if you will, Imagine two people sitting down at a chessboard. He said on one side of the chessboard is a rank amateur. He knows very little, Brother Cliff, about the game. As a matter of fact, he just barely knows the rules. He makes a lot of mistakes. He doesn't use his pieces wisely. He makes a lot of stupid moves on his side of the table. On the other side of the table is a seasoned professional. He's been playing the game since he came into the world. He knows the game inside and out. He can predict his move, five or six moves, before he ever does it. He sees the game unfold before it's even done. He said this, he said the seasoned professional does not reach across the table and move the amateur's pieces for him. He doesn't do that. He lets him of his free will make all the mistakes that he wants to make. But on the other side, while he's making all the mistakes on this side, The profession was setting everything up. He's working it all out, for what? So that he gets it all in the end. So he wins in the end. So he gets the king in the end. Can I tell you that's the way God's working things out? I mean, mankind may mess things up, mankind. may go off into depravity and sin, but it ain't gonna stop God from getting done what God wants to get done tonight. His promises will still come true. He's not robbing mankind of their free will. If you wanna go crazy, go crazy, but you ain't gonna stop God from getting done what God wants to get done tonight. He's the sovereign God of heaven. He's the king of kings and the Lord of lords, and his promise will come true tonight. Jesus in the birth, we see it's a promised birth. It's not only a promised birth, it's a phenomenal birth. It's a phenomenal birth. Pray God, I didn't mean to preach that hard on this first point, but I enjoyed myself on that. Look at chapter 17. Look what kind of phenomenal birth this is gonna be. Chapter 17 and verse number 17. Chapter 17, verse 17. Watch what it said. God is telling, well, we'll back up if you will. Back up to verse 15, verse 15. God said unto Abraham, as for Sarah thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. Verse 16, and I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her, yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations. Kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, and said in his heart, shall a child be born unto him that is 100 years old? shall Sarah that is 90 years old bear? And Abraham said unto God, watch what Abraham says. Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee. God said, I don't want an Ishmael, I want an Isaac. Verse 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. Do you see what happens here? God is not interested in the production of Abraham's ability. That's what Ishmael is. Ishmael is not an impossibility. Ishmael is the production of a natural course of action between Abraham and this young woman named Hagar. There ain't nothing supernatural about none of that tonight, Brother John. And Abraham stands before God and says, God, listen to this, I want you to accept my first birth. God said, Abraham, I'm not in the business of accepting your first birth. Your first birth ain't no good. Your first birth is a corruptible birth. Your first birth is a carnal birth. That first birth you got with Ishmael, it ain't no good. I tell you what I want. I want a second birth. I tell you what I want. I want somebody to be born a second time, and that's the birth I'll accept tonight. That's the birth that I want tonight. Can I say the Bible said this? I realize you must be born again, but let me say this as it relates to Jesus Christ. The Bible said over in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the first man from the earth was Adam. and he was a fleshly, earthly man. But it said the second man is the Lord from heaven. He said that first man born was Adam, and he was a carnal man, and he plunged us all into sin. But that last Adam that came, that second Adam that came, that second birth, that supernatural act of God that was born upon in Bethlehem, That one right there is what gets us in the family tonight. As a matter of fact, God said this. God said, I have no covenant for Ishmael, but he said in verse 19, I will establish my covenant with Isaac for an everlasting covenant, and watch this, and with his seed. Good God Almighty. Everybody in Isaac gets the everlasting covenant. His seed. Everybody that's in Isaac, they get the everlasting covenant. Because I'm making a covenant with Isaac. And everybody in Isaac gets the covenant. And you know what the Bible said? The Bible said, I'm in Christ. And Christ is in me. One day when I got saved, God put me in the chosen seed. God put me in the promised seed. And because I'm in Christ, now I lay claim to the everlasting covenant of God. Now I lay claim to heaven. Now I lay claim to glory. Cause I'm in him tonight. It's phenomenal. It's a phenomenal birth tonight. He establishes his everlasting covenant. If you'll come to Christ, God will include you in his everlasting covenant. You wanna get, the Bible said this in the book of Ephesians. The Bible said about us Gentiles, Brother Travis, in Ephesians chapter two, that at that time, ye were without Christ in the world, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. I wasn't in the covenant of promise. I'm a Gentile. You know who the covenant of promise was made with? Jesus Christ. You know what he is? A Jew. I got no claim to that covenant, Brother Keith. I'm an old Gentile dog. Got no reason to lay claim to none of that. But tonight I come to God and trust it in his son, the promised seed, the predicted seed, the phenomenal seed. When I come to God entrusted in him, God put me in him. And now God recognizes me just like I've always been in the family. Just like I'm part of the royal scene and the royal lineage. Brother, tonight, I'm kin to Abraham. I'm kin to Isaac. I'm kin to Jacob. I'm kin to David. Why? Because I'm in Christ. And everything he's got, I got tonight. Boy, if you really get a hold of that, you really get a hold of that, we'll catch you running down to the red light at Lane Street, praise God. You'll go shout your full head off, you realize everything that God has promised Jesus, you get in on it too tonight. I'm an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ tonight. Isn't that awesome to think about? It's a phenomenal birth. And this birth is not just phenomenal spiritually, that spiritual side I was looking at, it's phenomenal physically. Abraham, when he has this child, is 100 years old. You find that over in chapter 20, chapter 21. He's 100 years old, and Sarah is 90. 90! Can you imagine a 90-year-old woman having a baby? That don't happen. It can't happen. It is absolutely physically impossible. It is past childbearing age. You can't do it. But it happened. You say, how'd that happen? Because just what God told Sarah, he told Sarah, I believe it's in chapter 18, somewhere along in there, he said, with men, this is impossible, but not with God. For with God, nothing shall be impossible. He said, is anything too hard for the Lord? Oh, Sarah laughed about it. He said, Sarah, there ain't nothing too hard for me, honey. You might think it's crazy, but it ain't too hard for me, honey. I can get the job done. And he did. A 100-year-old man and a 90-year-old woman gives birth to a brand new baby. You say, what's that? That's phenomenal. That's phenomenal. And y'all realize Jesus Christ got here by phenomenal means tonight. There has never been a child and never will be a child ever again that was virgin born. Y'all realize that's impossible? I mean, look here, I'm not gonna get into biology and all that kind of stuff tonight and chemistry, but everybody understands that, you know, an adult in here, for a virgin to conceive and to bring forth a child is simply impossible. As a matter of fact, I'll tell you how impossible this is. When the Lord shows up to Mary, read it for yourself in Luke chapter one, when the Lord shows up to Mary and he starts talking with her, he said, I'm gonna give you a child, his name's gonna be called Jesus, he shall be great, I'm gonna give to him the throne of his father David. He tells her all of these great promises about what Jesus is gonna be. And this is the first question that Mary asked, the very first question, Brother Brandon, that Mary asked, she asked this. How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? She said, I'm not disputing with you that his name's gonna be Jesus. I ain't disputing with you that he's gonna be great. I ain't disputing with you he's gonna be king. I'm just curious how this is gonna happen, because I'm still a virgin. I don't even know a man. And the Lord said, it's not impossible with me. I'm gonna get the job done anyways. I'm telling you tonight, listen to what I'm about to tell you. The virgin birth is one of the bedrock foundational principles of being a Bible-believing Christian tonight. Listen to what I'm telling you. If Jesus, don't miss what I'm fixing to tell you, and I'm gonna move on to the last point and be done. If Jesus was not virgin born, every one of you are going to hell tonight. Look, look, no, no, all this stuff. Well, I don't, you know, all this garbage people say, well, I just believe Jesus was just a good man. No, no, if he's not virgin born and he's not God in the flesh, he ain't a good man. He's the biggest liar and lunatic that ever lived. Because he said he was God. He said he was the Lord. He said he's the king. He said he was what he is. He's the door to heaven. He's the way. He's the truth. He's the life. He's the vibe. He's all that. And if he's not that tonight, he ain't even a good man. He's a good for nothing liar if he wasn't that. But brother, he's all of that. He's all of that. You can't just have him as a good man but not God. You can't just have him as a good man but not Lord. No, you got to have him as Lord or he ain't nothing. But brother, he is everything he claimed to be and he did get here by supernatural means tonight. All this garbage and hogwash. You know, even in schools of supposed Christian higher learning today, that they are teaching people in colleges and seminaries. I'm talking about, Brother John, supposed Christian seminaries that are teaching young men to go into the gospel ministry. They are now teaching them that the virgin birth is not true. Don't even believe the virgin birth. The virgin birth is not true. Well, if he wasn't virgin born, you know what that means? That means the blood he shed on Calvary was the blood of a mortal man named Joseph. Because you get your blood from your daddy. And the blood that he shed on Calvary, that means it's the blood of a normal, average, everyday sinner named Joseph, and that means you didn't get your sins washed away, you didn't get bought, you didn't get redeemed, you didn't get adopted, you didn't get purchased, because his blood couldn't do none of it. You're still going to hell. But brother, he did have a phenomenal birth. He had one. You say, you really believe that? I believe it, brother, with all of my heart tonight. Your eternity hangs on things like that. I see Jesus in the birth. It's a promised birth. It's a phenomenal birth. And lastly, it is a pardoning birth. It's a pardoning birth. Look at what it said in chapter 21, and then we're gonna run to the New Testament and look at one verse of Scripture, and we're outta here. Look at chapter 21 and verse number 10. As soon as Ishmael was born, somebody else has got to go. Or excuse me, as soon as Isaac's born. As soon as Isaac is born, Somebody else gotta go. Watch what it says. Genesis 21 and verse number 10. 21, 10. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Sarah says unto Abraham, cast out this bond woman, Hagar, and her son, Ishmael, for the son of this bond woman shall not be heir with my son even with Ishmael. Isaac, you say, where's the pardoning of this at? All right, go to the New Testament and watch what Paul says in Galatians chapter four. We're gonna close right here tonight. Galatians chapter four. Look at what Paul says Hagar is a picture of tonight. Don't miss this. Man, this is a blessing to my soul. Look at what Paul said Hagar is a picture of this evening. Galatians chapter four and verse 21, Galatians 4.21. It's a promised birth, a phenomenal birth, and it's a pardoning birth. Galatians 4.21, Paul says this. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law. He is about to give you a tie-in between Hagar is a picture of the law. You that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it's written, Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, Hagar, the other by a free woman, Sarah. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. That's what I preached about tonight. Which things are an allegory. They're a picture. They're a type. That's what I'm doing tonight. For these are the two covenants. Oh, check it out. The bondwoman and her son and Sarah and her son. They're a picture of two covenants. the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar, or Agar, for this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now he is, and is in bondage with her children. You see what he said? He said Hagar is a picture of the law. That's where the law was given on Mount Sinai. It's where the Ten Commandments were given on Mount Sinai. He said Hagar is a picture of the law. Now I want you to understand something. Watch this. Watch this picture. This is beautiful. Every time Abraham saw Hagar, every time he would walk by Hagar, every time he'd see her in the tent, every time he'd see Hagar and Ishmael, you know what it would remind him of? It would remind him that he had messed up and sinned against God. That's what it reminded him of. Every time he saw that woman and saw that boy, God said, you're a sinner. You've messed up, Abraham. I told you just to wait and you didn't wait. And look what you've caught. Every time he saw her, it was bondage on him. It was a weight and a dark cloud over his head. You know what changed that? Isaac came along. And when Isaac came along, it gave the boot to the law. The Bible said the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. You know what got us out from under the curse of the law? I tell you, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it's written, cursing is everyone, that hangeth on a tree. Brother, you know how I got out from under the curse of the law? I couldn't get out from under it. Brother, the law said I was a thief. The law said I was a liar. The law said I was a rebel. The law said I was an idolater. The law said I was a murderer. The law said I was an adulterer. You said I ain't none of them things. Yes, you are. If you've looked after a woman to lust after in your heart, you've committed adultery with her already. and ditto to the women towards the men. And if you hate your brother without a cause, you've murdered him already in your heart. How many brother idolaters in this room? Murderers in this room? Rebels to mamas and daddies in this room? Cussers and god cussers in this room? You say, what got us out from under that? Thank God one day, when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son, made after a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. He came so that we might get out from under the condemnation of the law and be brought into grace this evening. That birth gave Abraham a pardon. It pardoned him from the mess of his former life. And because Jesus Christ has come, it has, Brother Clay, given me a pardon from what I used to be. And now I don't have to live under the dark cloud of the law. I can walk into the new glorious liberty as a son of God and live in the pardoning, free grace of the Lord Jesus Christ tonight. We used to sing an old song, it's not in our hymn book, but the old song said it like this. ♪ Free from the law, oh happy condition ♪ Jesus has bled and there is remission ♪ Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall ♪ But Christ hath redeemed us once for all, once for all Oh, brother, believe it. Once for all, sinner, receive it. Cling to the cross and your burden will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once for all. That's what happened, friend. Once for all, I got in on the parting because of this birth. It allows me to live under grace and not under the law anymore. Thank God for this birth of Christ. this birth of Isaac that points to Christ. Look at this verse. I just quoted it to you, but I'm gonna close right here. Look at chapter four and verse number four. Chapter four, verse four of Galatians. Look what it said, and I'm done. Chapter four, verse four. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them, to buy back, ransom, recover. That's what the word redeem means. To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Daddy, Papa Daddy, Abba Father, that right there is a personal term. Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. That's us tonight, friend. We're in. Say, how'd you get in? Because I had a second birth. I was born through the incorruptible seed of the word of God through the blood of Jesus Christ, and I got a new birth. And because he had a birth, it allowed me to have a birth. The Bible said he's the firstborn among many brethren. You realize this, I'm through. Do you realize there is no new birth in the Old Testament? Abraham's not born again. Isaac's not born again. Jacob, David. Solomon, Hosea, Daniel. Nobody in the Old Testament is born again. Not one of them. You say, why? He's the firstborn among many brethren. And after he comes in the world, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and he gets born in, then he opens up the door for you and I to get birthed in this evening. And I'm glad I'm in the family tonight. We've seen Jesus in the birth tonight. We'll go farther and look in Genesis chapter 22 the next time at Jesus and the burnt offering. The next time, it won't be Sunday, but it'll be the next time we get an opportunity to look at this. I hope you take us home and chew on it tonight. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for the word of God. God, it excites me. God, talking about this stuff, Lord, just absolutely fires my passions, and Lord, makes me thankful, makes me appreciative for what you did for me, and God, that you came into this world, and you didn't have to. You could have stayed in your robe of resplendent glory with a crown on your head, and on your throne with an angel choir praising you, but you chose to leave that world, come into this dark world, and die for an old sinner like me. Thank you, Lord, for being that promise seed. Thank you for being that phenomenal, pardoning birth that changed our life. Now, God, maybe there's somebody here tonight that's never been born again. They've never had a second birth, never been saved. Tonight, I pray they trust Christ and be born again. God, thank you for your church. Bless them this week, meet their needs, guide them, lead them, direct them, lead them not into temptation, but deliver them from evil. and we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name we humbly ask and pray, amen and amen. Thank you church, I'll see you Sunday morning. Lord willing the church don't rise, 10 o'clock.