Heavenly Father, what a joy to finally come to hear in the narrative of the text that which we already knew was here. But what a joy now for our ears to hear yet again that the promise is not just something that will one day come. This promise has come. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. So here it is, chapter 21, the promise. It's no longer just words, is it? But listen, on the very beginning of this, when God promises something, it is as good as the day in which the promise is fulfilled. There's no possibly hoping. I hope He comes through with this. When God says to Abraham and Sarah, you will be the father of many nations and that He will bless all nations through Him, the day in which God spoke that is as confident as the day in which that we are reading of in the 21st chapter of Genesis. So chapter 21 will carry a span of time As the chapter begins, the Lord took note of Sarah as he had said. So we just track ourselves backwards. A few chapters ago, whenever the Lord and the two messengers were traveling to Sodom, they stopped by Abraham's tent. And there they assured Abraham and Sarah was listening from the kitchen that this time next year, when the Lord comes back, that Sarah will be with child. She will not just be pregnant, she'll be actually holding the baby in her arms. Well, that was some time ago. That was a long 12 months. And in that span of time, this chapter carries from the time of conception, to the time of His birth, to the time of His circumcision, to the time of His weaning. So it expands A swath of time, certainly including those nine months of pregnancy, and perhaps as long, it would carry as long as nine years, or excuse me, three, I'm gonna be bad with numbers today, aren't I? That'd be a long time before you wean a child, wouldn't it, mamas? That child better be weaned before he's nine years old. Okay, look at your notes, preacher. a span of nine months to three years. Now that's, even that seems like a little bit of a long time in some cases. That's not a fixed time of when the child will be spanned, but in this era, in this time, it would be a customary thing between two to three years of age that the child would be weaned. Now obviously there would be certain circumstances in which that would not be the case and could not be the case either or either for the the health of the mother or of the child or for other reasons. But in a general understanding of things and culturally of the time in which we're looking at here, it could be as long as three years from birth. So this is covering a span of time of just shy of four years from time of conception to time of weaning of the child. So from verse 1 through 8 is a span of time. So we have, it's a pretty simple format or pretty simple outline of the text. Each verse seems to bring about a significant and important thing to consider and lay down. Let me just lay it out in its totality and then as I told the boys and girls we're going to make way to the book of Romans in just a moment. But here in chapter 21 we see that the Lord has not forgotten Sarah. Now this is a real tender a tender moment for us in scripture. Can you imagine? Here's a woman who has who she's wanted to bear children for for all of her life. But in the Lord's providence, she would be would be considered a barren woman unable to conceive and bear a child. And you can just, as we unearth the narrative of Sarah's life in this bigger swath of time that we have in the Genesis narrative, that she's tried to think of other ways that she could be a mother. And certainly there are legitimate ways that a woman can become a mother, and that is through adoption, through fostering, through the care of abandoned children that a woman can. and is and should even be considered a mother of a child, but never, and this chapter 21 puts something of great significance here that Sarah has never nursed a child. And that's pretty beautiful that the Lord would make certain of it for us here to remind us that he has not forgotten what he's told Sarah, that Sarah would bear a son. And that's that the son that Sarah would bear would be from her husband, Abraham, that these two would bear a child. We see here that the Lord did for Sarah exactly as he promised. All of that's in the first verse. The Lord has taken note. He's not forgotten Sarah and he's not forgotten what he's told her. And the Lord has done for her exactly what he had promised. We also see here that the Lord did this for Sarah, for his glory, and for the advancement, and I will insert it here, for the advancement of the gospel to all peoples everywhere, of every tribe, of every nation, of every language, that God would bless all nations for those in which God will bring about the promise of this faith that Abraham has in God. that Abraham literally will be. Abraham's just not a figurative head for us. He's just not a prototypical father for us. Abraham is the father of our faith. The scriptures bear this out very clearly, and we will see this this morning. Sarah gave birth, as again as promised, to a son, and this son with Abraham. And, as we will read about in other places of Scripture, this kind of language, this is not original and it's not exclusive to the narrative of Abraham and Sarah. The text says, at the appointed time. Not at Sarah's picking. Not at Abraham's picking. Obviously not at their choosing, right? But at the appointed time. At whose appointed time? At God's appointed time. and this being that there would be no mistaking that this is the hand of God. This is indeed a miracle. Now, it's not the same kind of miracle that we will read about in the New Testament of the conceiving of Jesus the Messiah, but it is nonetheless a miracle. We see that in this text. We see that the naming of the child is given to us. We see this in the third verse. And again, the third verse kind of re-emphasizes that Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him whom Sarah bore. So you can't read verse 3 and wonder who the biological father and the mother are. Abraham and Sarah. And Abraham calls him, he gives him the name Isaac. This name, Isaac, we learned this in the Hebrew language. This is beautiful that this carries with it the meaning of laughter. This is of interest because laughter has been part of the Genesis narrative. Remember when the Lord showed up And there he is outside the tent of Abraham, and they're looking at the stars of the heavens, and God tells Abraham, you're going to be a great nation. A nation with so many descendants, nobody will even be able to count them. Oh, remember the text says Abraham laughed? But not like a laughter of, oh, you've got to be kidding me. Oh, that'll never happen kind of laughter. This is a believing laughter. This is, yes, it will, and won't it be glorious because I'm trusting God for this. And that doesn't make Abraham perfect. We know he's not. We have many examples of his imperfections. But one thing is certain is that Abraham believed God would do this. However, God would do it. Abraham believed. And then, remember, the next time the Lord comes to visit Abraham there at the tent, and there he's telling Abraham, when I come back next year, Sarah will have a child. And Sarah laughs. Now, Sarah's laughter at that moment was different than Abraham's laughter. This was a laughter of, oh, no, this isn't happening. This I mean, I appreciate what you're saying, but this just ain't happening. I mean, he's an old man. Remember, that's that's really how the text the emphasis Sarah wanted to emphasize how old Abraham was. Now she was barren, unable to bear children, but she wanted to make sure. Oh, don't forget, Abraham. He's he's a very old man. This was a laughter of disbelief. The Lord, the Lord, the Lord heard her laughter. But now, the name of the son being Laughter, Sarah's laughter has been transformed, by the way. And we see it in the narrative. The text will show that. We'll see that in just a moment. But his name literally meaning Laughter. Now, in the fourth verse, we see there's where Abraham circumcised his son. This would be Abraham fulfilling the commandment that God gave all the way back into the 17th chapter when God instructed Abraham to circumcise all the males in his family and those in his tribe, those in his nation. And so Abraham is circumcised and all the males of his household. And so now this here, even Ishmael, who was born to Hagar, was circumcised. But this circumcision is of his own biological offspring. And this he does, again, according to the commandment of God, is on the eighth day. In the fifth verse, we see that there's a span of time, not just that the narrative is dealing with about three and a half to just shy of four years. This is including the totality of the first word of God to Abraham and to Sarah, that Sarah will bear a son. And this is a 25-year promise. I want that to just sink in for just a moment. 25 years from the time when God said, you will be the father of a great nation. And that those who bless you, I will bless. And that the blessing from you will be a blessing to all nations. So this is to God's people, the people of Abraham, and to all nations who God will do the same thing with. Who will bless because of their belief in the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ, the promise of the coming Messiah. 25 years from the first time the sound of the covenant promise is spoken to the time in which Abraham will hold the promise in his own arms. 25 years. Isn't that interesting? How many times do you give up on something that God has secured within about a half an hour or a day or three days. No, this is 25 years, 25 years of waiting, 25 years of believing. And we get the complexity of this because in that believing, Abraham and Sarah will try to find other ways to give God help in bringing about this promise. God doesn't need any help. And Abraham and Sarah will grow in this. This will be a sanctifying, glorious work that we see in Abraham and Sarah. So some of you who have walked with the Lord for a day, and you're ready for it all to be finished. You're ready for all the promises to come home and roost in your life. They may come quicker on you than they do on others, but wait up on the Lord. Do not abandon any hope that we might have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so not only is there 25 years from the time of the first word to Abraham and to Sarah that they'll be that Abraham will be the father of a great nation. But think of this. There will be thousands of years between Abraham and today. The promise is not Isaac. However, Isaac will be the fulfillment and the start of this promise. That from this house, from this lineage, will come the Messiah. And then the promise that when the Lord goes and He ascends to the right hand of the Father, until today, thousands of years have gone by. The New Testament will tell us you must not think of The slowness of God has anything but the patience of God. God waiting. God not bringing judgment, a final judgment, upon all of His creation. Well, God is being merciful and gracious in all of this. In the sixth verse, we see a deeper understanding of this laughter. Sarah's laughter is of a different kind now, isn't it? Notice she doesn't use the description as they will all laugh at me. She says they'll be laughing with me. There is this laughter will be. The Lord has done exactly as he promised he would do. That laughter is glorious and beauty. Sarah's laughter is of a different kind now. We saw her first laughing of a disbelieving kind of a laughter in chapter 18. But now in the 21st chapter, they are laughing with her now, not at her. In the seventh verse, we see that nearly all people, and this we should say with rare exceptions, are nursed by a mother. Now, there would be extenuating circumstances in which that would not or could not happen. But by and large, nearly all people, at the least for a moment, and in many cases, in most of the normal cases, for a span of months or years, in which the child will nurse at the mother. Think of this, the patriarchs, they've all nursed. The kings, every one of them, most likely. Maybe a rare exception. The kings that we read about in the Bible, they too nursed at their mothers. Presidents of nations throughout all of time, most of them, most likely, under normal circumstances, had time being held closely and tightly and nursing intimately by their mother. This even including the Lord Jesus Christ. nursed by his mother, Mary. This is actually a very beautiful verse in the seventh verse. This is a tenderness of the way in which God has designed for humanity in its normal course of action that a child would be nurtured. This would be in a physical and in an emotional way by their mothers. Blessed be the name of the Lord for mothers. In the 8th verse, we see the shift. Several years of time will most likely pass by from conception to the 8th verse, and that is whenever Abraham will put on a party, a feast. So this is beautiful. They actually planned for the weaning to take place. I honestly can't remember. Renee remembers so much better than I do. But after I was reading this this week and meditating and thinking about it, I thought, man, I miss that moment. I did not throw a feast in my house for the days whenever my boys were weaned. I think it just kind of happened. Maybe the day decided it rather than we. But I think this is actually something if there are certain things that if I could go back in time that I would do differently, it's probably a very big list. And I wouldn't want you to know most of those things that are on that list. But this would definitely be on that. I would want to make the day of weaning a day of feasting. I would invite you to my house and say, this child is no longer sucking on his mother's breast. This child is doing what all children do. They naturally grow. There are stages in which they pass. No longer like this and now like that. So to those of you who have nursing children, maybe that needs to be a new feast in the church. I'll expect an invitation, by the way. I'll be hoping for one. Now you're really going to do it and it's going to be an awkward moment, but we're going to come and we're going to feast because the child has done. It is a significant stage in a child's life where the dependence and the intimateness with the mother is beginning to shift. It must happen. If it doesn't, unnatural conclusions at the end of the day. But what a glorious time. Now, obviously, it's not in the case of every child that there would be a span of time of about two and a half to three years. Others would be a fullness of that, and others would be less. And I know the Internet's full of all kinds of information for you about how long you should or how short of a time you should. but I think this is for certain. Enjoy the days of the nursing and enjoy the day of the weaning. And in all of it, we are actually participating in the natural course of humanity. So Genesis chapter 21, verses one through eight is actually backstory for Romans Chapter four. So let's make way to the New Testament. Romans chapter four. Hey, boys and girls, can you get me up to to the book of Romans? We'll start with the Gospels and let's get our way to the book of Romans. Can you can you do that out loud with me? We start with Matthew, Mark. And there you are, Romans chapter four. Genesis chapter 21 verses 1 through 8 is backstory for us. If we don't have the kindness of God of having this historic narrative in Genesis chapter 21, when we get to Romans chapter 4, some of that is like, well, that doesn't even make sense. I'm not even sure who this Abraham guy is. I'm not sure who this Isaac guy is. And I'm not even sure why this Sarah individual is critical and important. Romans chapter 4, needs Genesis 21. So let me begin the reading. We won't digest and work out and massage everything that's here. But keep Genesis chapter 21 fresh on the front of your mind as I'm reading through the narrative of this letter from the Apostle Paul to the church in Rome. What then shall we say that Abraham our forefather, according to the flesh, has found. Now, I told you I'm not going to dissect everything, but there are some things I want to stop and just say, well, let's not miss this. Here it is. The Apostle Paul, keep in mind who he's writing to. He's writing to believing Christians, of which most are converted Jews, in the city of Rome. So that's the back story of this letter, of the purpose of this letter to this church. These are believers and these are those who have believed the promise of the Messiah and they know about Abraham and they know that this promise comes from God through Abraham and Sarah. So what then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, So there it is. He's speaking to the flesh, to the Jew in the congregation. He's our Father. Our national identity is right there, Abraham. 4, verse 2, If Abraham was justified by works, he is something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now, the Apostle Paul's quoting from Roman from Genesis. The fourth verse now to him or excuse me now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work but believes in him who justified the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessings of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. So we just stop there. Connect what the apostle Paul is saying in a financial economy. All nations get this. You work, you get paid. This is how the economy works. I mean, who of you would go back to work if if your boss didn't pay you next week? Well, we might go back and say, well, I'm just kind of wondering when I'm going to get paid again. But by and large, if that's the consistent pattern of that economy, we're looking for new jobs. This is how this naturally works in the economy and financial economy. You work, you receive an equivalent, negotiated, bargained conclusion. My eight hours of work is worth this much income, or this many gallons of milk, or Jonathan, Edwards, the great pastor of the Great Awakening back in the in the 1600s before our nation is founded as a nation. We learn in biographies of him that his church paid him in winter months. They paid him with cords of firewood. And it was a negotiated agreement. I mean, you're not going to live. You're not going to survive a New England winter without wood in the woodshed. And so it was a OK, listen, I need that. You need that. There's our negotiated work. That was the agreement. You work, you get paid. You work, you receive. This is this is the economy of all of society. But we're talking about something different. Because this working for an eternal reward cannot be paid off. You cannot work enough hours to receive that benefit. This can't happen. So the Apostle Paul is bringing in what is common to us, and then he's saying, but this doesn't work like this. It does, but it doesn't. And here's how it's good. It's going to be paid off of the finished work of the promised seed of Abraham. Eventually down the line to the Lord Jesus Christ. So there is a work that is being done, but it's a work that you and I cannot work and achieve. So that economy is still intact here. But it's but it's very different. It's beautifully different. So verse eight. Actually, I can't remember what verse I stopped in. Well, let me just start back up in the sixth verse. Just as David also speaks of the blessings on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven. Now we sang about that this morning in the 32nd Psalm. How blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven. and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account. Verse 9, is this blessing then on the circumcised or on the uncircumcised also? For we say faith is credited to Abraham as righteousness. Verse 10, now then, or how then was it credited? while he was circumcised or uncircumcised. Oh boy, so it's going to get kind of dicey here for a minute. There's these who are arguing Abraham's entrance into heaven is because he's of the circumcised. There's this tension in the early church of those who were circumcised and uncircumcised. The tension was those who were circumcised believed that they cannot receive the full promises of God with Christ as the Messiah until they are circumcised. This is a very tense moment, isn't it? So in the 11th verse, for he received a sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of his faith, which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of those who believe without being circumcised. You see what Paul's doing? He's saying, listen, this promise that God gives to Abraham, the commandment that he gives him, it was right for Abraham to do everything. And it's right for everyone who is a biological offspring of Abraham that they be circumcised. But now, what do we do about the movement of the gospel outside of the house of Abraham? Notice what the Apostle Paul is going to do for it. He's going to help us. The Holy Spirit's going to help us through the Apostle Paul. Verse 13, for the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified. When the law brings about wrath, But where there is no law, there also is no violation. For this reason, it is by faith in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. So keeping in mind the context of this letter, it's written to who? The Christians in the city of Rome, who are largely made up of converted Jews, but also Gentiles. And to deal with this tension of how is salvation achieved and how is it apprehended, is it upon the work of a particular law or is it upon the work of God through faith? The Apostle Paul is making it very clear. It is faith that Abraham is our father, the father of our faith. The Apostle Paul is saying to both the circumcised and the uncircumcised, those who are of the law and those who are not of the law, those who are of the faith. The Apostle Paul is saying here, Abraham was a man of faith. His faith was credited to him as righteousness. His circumcision was not credited to him as righteousness. His faith was credited to him as righteousness. Furthermore, verse 16, for this reason it is by faith in order that it may be in accordance with grace so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants. Now the Apostle Paul here is including, and we've come over the threshold of what he's meaning. He's not implying He's saying that faith is the issue here. And so now everyone is included in this piece of the conversation. For this reason it is by faith, verse 16, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be applied or guaranteed to all the descendants. Now is Paul meaning the natural offspring of Abraham? The Jewish people? Or is he meaning of the faith? He's meaning of the faith, which includes those who are the biological offspring. The nation that God has birthed from Abraham and Sarah through Isaac, where this growth, this explosive growth will then come about, is to all the descendants. So the Apostle Paul is including here the descendants of the faith with the descendants of Abraham. and that the descendants of Abraham that are included in this are those who believe, not just circumcised, but believe. You see, the importance, the significance here, no one is going to enter into heaven just because they were circumcised. They will enter into and they will apprehend the promise that God has said thousands of years in the past on the day of On the great day of God's revelation of everything, all who are of the house of faith will apprehend the promise. It will be theirs. It will be made up of Jew and Gentile, of bond and free man, of male and female. And how is this? Because Abraham is... So not only those who are of the law, let me finish out verse 16, the latter end of it, but also those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, a father of many nations have I made you, in the presence of Him whom He believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. In hope against hope He believed, so that he might become a father of many nations. According to that which has been spoken, so shall your descendants be. Verse 19, without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body. Now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb, yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief. He grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. There's that language that when God is speaking of something He will do, you can count on it that it is as good as done the moment He speaks it. Because He's God. Verse 21. and being fully assured that what God had promised, he was able also to perform. Therefore, it was also credited to him as righteousness. Now, not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, both of the house of Israel and the Gentile world, for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, to those who believe in Him, who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered over because of our transgressions and was raised because of our justification. The gospel is dependent upon Genesis 21, the revelation of Genesis 21, the fulfillment of a promise that God had given to Abraham When we get to the gospel, we need it to help give clarity. Who is this gospel for? But to those who would believe and that they're believing would not just be believing whatever they want to believe. It would be believing what God had promised to Abraham. We need we need Abraham to be the father of our faith. Otherwise, our faith is in an empty hoping against hope. Genesis 21 is essentially broken down into what is referred to maybe as a second stanza of Sarah's song. We have other pieces of the book of Genesis that will be written in a very similar format. This is in an epic, poetic kind of a way. It's not in a rhyming, short stanzas of verse, but this is in an epic story revealing poem. And this will be referred to as, and by some in the scholarly world, as a second stanza of Sarah's song. This is the renewed, this is the rejuvenated, this is the saved, the rescued Sarah. I'm not saying this is the moment in which she was saved, but I'm saying this is the moment where the expression of her salvation is clearly being seen in Genesis chapter 21. And the Apostle Paul needs that song, that stanza of Sarah's song, to preach the gospel. What a beautiful way in which he does it. Think of Sarah. There was sorrow, wasn't there? Think of you. Before you were saved, there was sorrow. Think of Sarah. There was unbelief, no doubt, right? Attempts of doing things without God. Can you remember that far back in your own life? How often you attempt to do things without God? Maybe you're doing that right now. It seems as though Abraham and Sarah would do that from time to time. In Sarah's song, there is a promise. In this case, in Genesis 20-21, it's the reminder of the promise. We also see that there was no way to see how this could happen. God did this at a time in Sarah's life, in Abraham's life, when by everyone's perspective, impossible. Think of this. How is it possible that you will one day stand rejoicing in the throne room of heaven if not for the blood of Christ? Impossible. for that to happen. Unless God comes and intervenes in Abraham and Sarah's life, it's impossible. There was only one way that this could be done, and that'll be the Lord Jesus. We see the results being played out in Genesis 21 and the aid of Romans chapter 4 to the Christian, the importance of discipleship. We can see this by the transition of the nursing Isaac to the moment of feasting that no longer is he a nursing baby. He's a growing boy. He's always been a growing boy, hasn't he been? Even in his nursing. But no longer is he an infant. This is true of Christians. We ought to be advancing in our journey with the Lord. No longer infants in our journey with the Lord. Sarah's faith was made sure, so too has yours been made sure through Jesus Christ. And then there's this missed moment. Oh, missed by me. Not by the ancient scholarly world, but missed by me in previous decades of my life. That this feast of feasts that's referred to in the 21st chapter of Genesis of the stopping of the weaning of Isaac is in the poetic, natural application here. Think of the promise that Christ has given to us. A day of feasting will one day be ours. And it'll be a feasting of all. It'll be the feast of all feast. It'll be the feast that beats all the other feast. It'll be the feast that makes the other feast look like they're poor, they're dirt, poor, begging poor people. at a table with barely any food in comparison to the feast of the marriage feast of the lamb, the glorious revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's our hope, church, summed up for us. Chapters in Genesis 21 to finally get to the song that would lay out the gospel to us and that the apostle Paul would weigh heavy upon in preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth. It's as though the Apostle Paul is still preaching to us today from the pages of the sacred text, and he's borrowed from the ancient text in Genesis 21, and he's made it applicable to all of the house of Israel, the house of Abraham, and to all who would believe. in the Lord Jesus Christ. So there today we come with great reason to rejoice in the hope we have in Christ.