All right, we're in Genesis 15. Now, last week we broke a record and got one whole chapter done in one week. And I think we can even beat it today. Well, maybe. You know how I am. Chase them rabbits. Unless I had no saliva, so I may spend half the class drinking water. But chapter 15. of Genesis. I love the book of Genesis. We see so many New Testament doctrines in the Old Testament. The Old Testament pointing towards Christ, the New Testament points back to Christ. You say, well, where's Christ in the Old Testament? Every book. Every book. I don't have the list here in front of me. It was interesting. A preacher sat there and he went through every book. And he showed Christ in every book of the Old Testament. And it's not hard to see if you look at all of the doctrines. Let's go ahead and read. In verse 1 it says, After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Wouldn't you love to have that promise from God? You do. You do have that promise. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? So a little bit of history there. If you did not have a son, then your eldest servant or slave would inherit your entire everything. Here's his servant Eliezer of Damascus. Remember where he got him? When he was up here in Haran. See, Abram picked up people wherever he went. He got Eliezer, his chiefest of servants in Haran, in Damascus. He picked up Hagar, we're gonna see, probably while he was sojourning in Egypt where he didn't belong. In verse three, It says, 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 unto him, saying, this shall not be thine heir, or Eliezer. He said, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad and said, look now toward heaven and tell the stars, "'If thou be able to number them,' he said, "'so shall thy seed be.'" And look how Abram was saved the same way you are. And he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, oh, I am the Lord that brought thee out of the earth of the Chaldees and to give thee this land to inherit. And he said, Lord God, where shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, take me a heifer and three years old and a she goat three years old and a ram three years old and a turtle dove and a young pigeon. And he took him all these and divided them in the midst. In other words, he cut them in half and laid each piece one against another, but the birds he divided not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcass, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo, a horror and a great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs. Wonder where that is, think about this. This is a prophecy. And shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400 years. Huh. This is Abram's day, but guess how long the Israelites were in Egypt? 400 years. He's telling them that, God's telling them this. And he said, also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, obviously the plagues, and afterwards they shall come out with great substance. It says, the Bible says in Exodus that they spoiled the Egyptians. I mean, they took them. They took everything that was left. Isn't that something? God told him that long time before it happened. And he says, but he's talking to Abraham. He said, now this isn't gonna happen to you. He said, and thou shalt go to thy father in peace, fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace. and a burning lamp, that's usually a symbol of the Holy Spirit, that passed between the pieces. And in the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and the Canaanites, and is not that little tiny section right there. And by the way, you can carve out Gaza Strip right there, but it doesn't mean it's of God. It may be of the UN. And you can carve out the West Bank right here and say half of Jerusalem belongs to the Muslims, but that's not what God's word says. And you can come up here and you can take out the Golan Heights, which Syria says is theirs, but that's not what God's word says. You can even say that Israel is right here, the size of Florida, but that's not what God's Word says. God's Word, we just read it from the river of Egypt. Right there is the Nile River, and right there is the Euphrates River. That's a little bit bigger than what they've got now, but that's what God told him. He says, that's what you got. So anyway, let's back up. It says Abraham, in verse six, believed. and it was counted unto him to righteousness. He was justified by faith. In every dispensation, salvation has come by faith. In every covenant, salvation has come by faith, never by works. Romans 5 says, therefore being justified, how? By faith. I'm not justified by my church membership, my baptism, by what I am. I'm justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have access by faith. Galatians says in chapter three that the law was our schoolmaster. I do not sit with Mrs. Israel today, my first grade teacher. I moved past that first grade. I don't sit with Miss Purcell, my third grade teacher, because I moved past the third grade, praise the Lord. And Miss Toledo in fourth grade and some of them other ladies. Anyway, why? Because they served a purpose. They taught me something that I could take to the next Great. The laws never has an individual been justified by the law, because the Bible says not one person's ever kept the law. The Bible says if you've missed in one spot, you've missed in the whole thing. And according to Romans, it says, there's none righteous, no, not one. In other words, not one of us has ever kept the law. And if you think you're saved by the law, I got news for you, you've already broken it. So the law's not our salvation. There's never been one saved by it. Abraham didn't have the law. It was long before the law was even written. But God said he was justified, that he was justified and that he was righteous. Now God confirms the covenant in verse eight through 21. Now this is, don't ask me. We can only go by what the Bible says. Obviously we did not do this today. Praise the Lord. We don't cut animals in half and sit in the dark. That would have been a scary thought, but this is how God did, he made this covenant in a very special time for him and Abraham. is more than a handshake. It was more than just, thus saith the Lord. God says, listen, I'm gonna do something special here. And as that Holy Spirit, or that lamp passed between there, God's making a covenant that's eternal. I mean, listen, the promises to Abram are unconditional. And God's doing something special here. And he's showing us, we can apply this to our life, that God takes this covenant and he's setting Abram apart. After the covenant, he says, now listen, again, I'm telling you again, Abram, this is what I'm promising you. After he made the covenant, after they did this, the Holy Spirit Today, the Bible says washes and regenerates us and renews us upon salvation. He sanctifies us. The word sanctify means he sets us apart. When we trust Christ as our savior, that we're washed and regenerated, are regened. Literally, that's what the word means. Regained, I'm a new creature, the Bible says in Corinthians. And then I'm sanctified or set apart. Now, that's what I picture this ritual that God and Abram are doing in this covenant, is God is saying, listen, Abram, I'm sanctifying you, I'm setting you apart, and again, I'm telling you what I'm setting you apart for. He even goes so far as to give him some, prophecy and telling him what his children and grandchildren are going to go through. But Abraham, you notice, did nothing. there in that covenant, isn't that like grace? You got nothing to do with grace, do you? It's all God. I'm glad that salvation is all God, not me. God's grace does it all. God finished it on Calvary. I can add nothing to take anything away from my salvation. God did it all. I'm glad God does it all, because I couldn't keep it for five seconds. So here he's making this unconditional promise between God and his friend. And I think, wow, what a, that's a great, great story. But let's go on to look there. We're already going to chapter 16. Now listen, Israel has never ruled that much land, ever. Not even in Solomon's day at the height of their glory, they never have ruled that much land. But one day they will. One day, we're gonna see it one day. Now here we go in chapter 16. It says, now Sarai, Abram's wife, bear him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar, which they probably picked up out of God's will when they went into Egypt. And Sarai said unto Abram, behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, go into my handmaid. It may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened unto the voice of Sarai. Now let me give you a little history. If, if, Your handmaid belonged to your wife. Her children were equal. I mean, you think of Jacob and all of his wives and handmaid's children and how he ended up with the twelve tribes. Some of those tribes weren't from his wife. They were from his wife's handmaid. But they literally were still considered his son. And that's what Sarah's trying to do. He says, look, let's back up for a second. Abraham's 85 years old right here. Sarah is 75 years old right here. And she's like, you know, I mean, I know what God promised, but obviously it's not coming through me. I'm 75 years old. I'm past childbirth in years. And listen, let's help God out here. Let's just give God a bump here. And he hearkened, in verse two, to the voice of Sarah. Now Sarah's doubting God's complete promise. He said, I'm not doubting that God's gonna do this for you, Abram, but I'm just doubting that God's gonna do it through me, because I'm an older woman. I'm not a young woman, and so I'm gonna try and help God out. Have you ever been there? Have you ever been where you think God needs a little help? Maybe he forgot about this part of your life that I need to remind him of. Listen, nothing ever occurred to God. He didn't go, oh, I forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me. That's not how our God is. Our God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and that means he's everywhere. He's all-powerful, and he's all-knowing. Nothing ever occurred to God. It didn't occur to God one day that, oh my, I let her get too old. She's 75. Whoops, I should have taken care of that 30 years ago. That's not what God did. God's trying to show them. Where would the miracle be in that? God says, just hang on, I'm gonna show you something amazing. But when we try to help God out and push God, or push a door open, usually doesn't work out real well for us, does it? She pushes Abram to take the Egyptian woman, Egypt in the Bible's usually a picture of the world, and Abram's sin is hearkening to his wife. Now, ladies, I'm not being mean, but if you look up Genesis 3, 17, when God is judging Adam, you know what he said his sin was? You hearken to your wife instead of me. Abram's sin right there was not going to God, but he went, he listened, let his wife, listen, ladies, be careful what you push your husbands to do. I'm not talking about you're not pushing them to another woman. I'm not saying that. But listen, be careful what you push your husband to do. You and your husband ought to pray about things and go over through God's word with things. But listen, men, we ought to lead according to God's word and God's guidance. And if anyone's advice goes contrary to God's word or God's guidance, then it's not good advice. And usually we're going to pay severely for it. We need to remember that scripture is the rule, not an opinion poll, not an election, not on a man's ideas or ideals, but scripture is our rule. Anything other than that is going to get us in trouble. Now Sarah knows she's made a big mistake immediately. Listen, it says there in verse two that Abram hearkened to his wife, and it says in verse three, Abram's wife took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land. So in other words, he started out 75, he's 85, and gave her husband, Abram, to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said unto Abram, my wrong be upon thee. I have given my maiden to thy bosom. And when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. So Hagar, that old worldly woman says, I'm going to supplant Sarah, I'm taking your place. As soon as she says I'm with child, hey look, I could give him something you can't. I bet that's what the world does. Doesn't the world tell you that, listen, I can give you something that God can't give you. I can give you pleasures that God won't allow you. Oh, just let me take care of it. I'll give you far more than God can take care of. Listen, you can't give me more than God has already given me. God's given me eternal life. What are you gonna do with that? You can't add to that. So Sarah, in verse four through six, she's already regretting the decision. She says, oh my goodness, what did I do? And verse six, it says, but Abram said unto Sarai, behold, thy maid is in thy hand, do unto her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarah dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. Oh, Sarai's attitude is wrong, but so was Hagar's. Do you know the time? Sarah's regret is a little late. Hagar's already conceived. She's already made a mess. And let me tell you, this mess is gonna go on for thousands of years and goes on to this day and the news in every channel you turn on. This problem happened right there. The father, I mean, the birth of Ishmael. You know, regret, the time to do something about a situation is before you do it. That's the time to think about it. You know, Judas regretted what he did, but he went out and hung himself. Cain regretted what he did, but it was too late, he'd already killed his brother. Esau regretted giving up the birthright, but it was too late. He had already done it and it would affect him. It would not only affect him, but it's gonna affect his descendants for the rest of history. Once the damage is done, there are consequences for doing wrong. Listen, the world can tell you, I got something I can add to the Bible. I can give you more than God. But let me tell you what, if you fall into that trap, what you fall into has consequences. I have scars from consequences of being out of God's will, and probably most of you can say the same thing, whether it's physical or psychological or spiritual. Listen, out of God's will, we got scars. And God says, listen, I forgive. I forgive and forget. But this old body don't. This old body don't forgive and forget. We live with some things, don't we? because we listen to the world telling us they've got more to offer us than God does. Consequences have long-term effects. Let's keep on reading real quick. Skip down there. I'm going to come back to this. But look down there at verse 12. Well, let's just go ahead. Let's just go ahead and read down through there. Verse seven. And the angel of the Lord, Hagar's fled from the face of Sarah. And it says in verse seven, the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way of Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarah's maid, what comest thou? Whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. Now listen, the angel of the Lord, this is important here, because the angel of the Lord Sometimes it's an angel. And sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's God. So we let the Bible interpret itself. And we're gonna do that here. This is interesting to see who's actually talking to Hagar. And verse nine, and the angel Lord said unto her, return to thy mistress and submit thyself under her hand. And the angel of the Lord said, here's the interpretation. Angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for the multitude. No angel can do that. That's the Lord Jesus Christ right there. Listen, she's promising Hagar a promise that we have to live with. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, behold, thou art with child, shall bear a son, thou should call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath heard thy affliction, and he will be a wild man, and his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him, and he shall dwell in the presence of his brethren. And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, thou God, there's again, Who's the angel of the Lord? The Bible interprets itself. She recognized him. He's God. Thou God seest me, for she said, I also here looked after him that seeth me. Wherefore, the well was called that word, and behold, it was between Kadesh and Bered, and Hagar bareth Abram a son, and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare Ishmael, and Abram was fourscore and six years old when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram. So now he is 86 years old. 86 years old when Ishmael is born. Now, Here we have this guy, Ishmael, who the definition of Ishmael is still the same today as it was then. It says there in verse 12 that he's a wild man. He's a terrorist. He's a terrorist. I mean, how do you define that? He's a wild man. His hands against every man. Every man's hands against him. And he dwells in the presence of his brother. Oh, Ishmael is the father of the Arab nations of the world. Islam came from the descendants of Ishmael. All that threatens Israel today, 4,000 years later, came from this mistake. Think about that for a minute. 4,000 years later, Israel is still surrounded and oppressed and attacked by the descendants of Ishmael. You think that was just, oh, well, I can go to sleep with my handmaiden. That's the big deal. I'm an old man. She's a young woman. God's not offering it to me. Maybe it'll be better than what God's got. I mean, I'm married to a 75-year-old woman. the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. I mean, that's what is going on here. Ladies, be careful what you plead with your husband. It may be dangerous for your entire household. What happened to we're gonna see down the road, what we're gonna see is that Sarah had the descendant, she had the seed, she had the fulfilled promise. If she would have just waited, but now her seed, her son, her descendants are gonna be oppressed by her bad decision forever. Now, again, I think we talked about this last week, a Theophany or a Christophany, I believe it's Jesus Christ appearing to Hagar. How can he bless the son of Hagar? How can he bless Ishmael? You know why? Because God keeps his promises whether we mess them up or not. And God promised to bless all the descendants of Abraham. Well, guess what? Ishmael's one of the descendants of Abraham, and God says, listen, I'm gonna keep my promise. It's not my perfect will, it's just my acceptable will, but I'm gonna be a God of my word. And so here we have God saying, I will multiply thy seed. Again, no angel can do that. Let me just briefly say this. The word angel in the Bible is used in many different ways. But the word angel literally just means messenger. That's what the word means. It's a messenger. Sometimes it's a man. Paul was called an angel at times. Satan, of course, is called an angel. His minions are called angels. Michael and Gabriel are called angels. Sometimes Jesus is called the angel of the Lord. I mean, I've had people get so upset. Oh, that's blasphemy calling Jesus an angel. You gotta let the Bible describe itself. Listen, when Gabriel or Michael come, they don't make promises that only God can make. When you look at what the description is, when it says the angel of the Lord, and if he's making a promise that only God can make, you know who it is, it's Jehovah. So we have Abram and Sarah. Wow, they've kind of messed God's plan up. But God is faithful in all of it. I don't know how much farther I want to go without messing you up. But let's go ahead. Man, we hit two chapters. We're moving right along. And some of this seems like it's repetitive, but I want you to see in chapter 17, God is repeating the covenant, repeating a covenant, repeating a covenant. When Jesus says, verily, verily, he's going, pay attention to what I'm saying here. He says, verily, verily, listen to what I'm saying. When God repeats a covenant over and over and over, I think God's pretty serious about the Abrahamic covenant. I mean, he's gonna bless the sons of Abraham. He called him, he's fixing to change his name. In chapter 17, it says, and when Abram was 90 years old, or 99, the Lord appeared unto Abram and said unto him, I am the almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. Now, we've got 14 years past now, and Abram's going, Lord, where's that promise at? He says, I will make, God says, I don't forget it. but in my time." You know, we may think, listen, Lord, I want it now. I want patience now. I want answers now. And God may say, listen, patience. Think about how long Abram's waiting for a promise. He's 99 years old. God promised him a son and not Ishmael. He said, I'll make my covenant between me and thee, and I will, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, wow, I tell you what, where's God meet you at? He met Abram on his face, not standing, pounding his chest, saying, I am the blessed of God, like the Pharisee would do. Abram fell on his face, and he says, God talked to him. We want to meet with God. We've got to humble ourselves before Almighty God. In verse 4 it says, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be father of many nations. That's his new name. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be called Abraham. So now he can quit slipping up. His name is Abraham now. For Father, many nations have I made thee, and I will make thee exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, and their generation, for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, and I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, and the land wherein thou art a stranger, all of land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. Remember, there it is. and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, thou shalt keep my covenant before thee and thy seed after thee in their generation. Now, father of many nations. Not father of many nations got a perfect will, but because of trying to help God out a little bit, Abraham is the father of some nations today, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates, some of the Turks, the Kurds, Israel, the so-called Palestinians, Iraq, there's large Arab populations all over Europe, and there's large Jewish populations in every country. I think God fulfilled that promise, didn't he? I mean, it's hard to say that some of these haven't been blessed because Abraham's descendants control the majority of the oil in the entire planet. Abraham's descendants. Abraham's descendants control most of the banks worldwide through the Jewish population. I think God kept his promise. The resources of the world are controlled by Abraham's descendants. And you think about, well, can God keep his promise? 4,000 years later, here we sit going, God does keep his promise. But you know what they also have, those two groups? They also have the most strife in the entire world. they have more wars and fighting between them. We'll get to more of that when we talk about Esau a little bit. But you think about just having earthly possessions does not make you a peaceful nation. When the Arabs control the oil and the Jews control the banking systems, And they're killing each other, and they're miserable. Just having physical possessions does not mean you're happy. I mean, God's going to keep his. You can't outdo God. But sometimes you get what you ask for. And sometimes what we ask for is not God's will. That's a whole other message. I'm just going to quit there with a new, you know, the song, the new name written down in glory, and it's mine. Here's Abraham. He got a new name, father of many nations. Sarah's fixing to get her new name farther on in the chapter. But Abram is now changed to Abraham, which means father of many nations. And you think about, you go through your globe. You know, and you flip around and you think about all the people in the world that are a descendant of Abraham. God said, if you could count the stars, that's how many your descendants will be. If you could count the sand on the shore, that's how your descendants will be. Then you go look at the map, and you realize, oh my. That really is true. How many billions of people have been descendants of Abraham? Let's stop there. Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for the blessings you've given us. Thank you for a Bible we can trust, Lord, and the exciting and historical things we see. The Bible proves everything that we see around us. not vice versa. Help us to depend on the Bible and nothing else. Help us to trust in you and nothing else. And Lord, if the world promises us something, Lord, let us look at the Scripture to see if it's true. Let us count on the promises in the Bible, not be distracted by the promises of the world, because the world has nothing to add to what you've already given us. Thank you for eternal life, Lord, and thank you for your Son. In Christ's name I pray, Lord. Amen. We're dismissed.