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sought and found in the wilderness.
And this is something I should think that would cause the heart
of each child of God to leap within. Because the truth of
the matter is, brother in Christ, sister in Christ, you have been
sought and you have been found in the wilderness. I'm so glad
to be able to tell you tonight that our God is a seeking God
But I can go further. I can tell you that our God is
a finding God. And if you're saved tonight,
you not only have been sought, but you have been found. And
I oftentimes seek and I can't find. But God seeks and finds. I have a filing system, and sometimes
things get lost in my files. In fact, I have coined my own
definition for a filing system. It is an organized way of losing
things. And when I file, I try to reference
as much as I can. I try to put on my index on every
index card I can possibly think of this particular document that
I'm filing. So that no matter what I look
under, it'll show up on that filing card and I still lose
things in my filing system. Have you ever had that annoying
thing happen where you got to looking for something and couldn't
find it? And you couldn't quit looking
for it. And you kept telling yourself, I'm sacrificing a lot
of time here and I don't really need it all that much anyway.
But it's just so doggone exasperating to not be able to lay a hand
on it. I often seek and don't find. But God seeks and finds. And you, if you're a child of
God, are living proof of this this evening, that God seeks
and finds. He sought you, and He found you. And you do not have reason to
rejoice in the seeking and finding grace of our God. Now, if I were
not to say anything else tonight, I think that you could leave
here feeling blessed. Don't get your hopes up, I'm going to say
more. But if I were just to say that and nothing else, you could
leave here and feel blessed tonight. Brother in Christ, Sister in
Christ, you have been sought and you have been found. And
the passage that I am dealing with tonight shows the seeking
and finding nature of our God And this seeking and finding
that God does is illustrated for us by none other than Ishmael. That's a shock, isn't it? That's
a surprise. That Ishmael would become, in
Scripture, a picture of the seeking and finding grace of our God. But that's what we have here.
in these verses that I'm about to read. And I call your attention
now to verse 8. And I'm going to read some verses
here from Genesis chapter 21. So the child grew and was weaned. This is a reference to Isaac.
And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was
weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar,
the Egyptian, She had borne to Abraham, scoffing. Therefore
she said to Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son. For the son of this bondwoman
shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac." And now go
down to verse 14. So Abraham rose early in the
morning and took bread. and a skin of water, and putting
it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent
her away." And of course the boy here is none other than Ishmael. Then she departed and wandered
in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water in the skin was
used up, and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs. Then
she, that is Hagar, went and sat down across from him at a
distance of about a bow shot, for she said to herself, let
me not see the death of the boy. So she sat opposite him and lifted
her voice and wept." Isn't this a heart-wrenching account that
we have here? We're not through yet, but you
can identify This arouses your feeling of sympathy, doesn't
it? Here Hagar and Ishmael are in
the wilderness, their water is used up, and Hagar cannot bear
to see her son die. And so here she sits, sobbing
in the wilderness, with Ishmael being right there at death's
door. Look at verse 17, And God heard
the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called
Hagar out of heaven and said to her, What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the
voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold
him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation. Then
God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. It was there
all along, but Hagar was not able to see it until God opened
her eyes. Some of you tonight are out in
a spiritual desert and there's a well of water nearby. It's
been there all along. May God open your eyes tonight
to see the well, that is nearby. God opened her eyes. She saw
a well of water and she went and filled the skin with water
to drink. So God was with the lad and he grew and dwelt in
the wilderness and became an archer. He dwelt in the wilderness
of Perun and his mother took a wife for him from the land
of Egypt. And these verses form the basis
for our thoughts this evening as we explore together this theme,
sought and found in the wilderness. Now, some of you may already
be a little disconcerted. You may be a little perturbed
at the direction that I'm taking here because you're, I can tell
by looking at you, a very shrewd and sagacious group of people.
And you may be saying, the pastor is planning to use this episode
from Genesis chapter 21 as a picture of salvation through Jesus Christ. And indeed, ladies and gentlemen,
you're correct. If you're thinking along those
lines, that's exactly what I plan to do. And you may be saying,
well, this cannot be, this is impossible, because you have
firmly fixed in your mind this principle, that once something
in the Bible is used to represent evil, it always has to represent
evil. And we've encountered Ishmael
before. Ishmael, the son of Abraham,
through the Hagar. And we have used Ishmael as a
symbol, as an emblem of reliance upon the flesh and the works
of the flesh. And indeed, Ishmael is exactly
that. And ladies and gentlemen, let
the Word go out clearly. that reliance on our own works
will never make us acceptable in the eyes of God. Depending
on our own good works, on our own efforts, will never, will
never qualify us to stand before this holy God. But I'm suggesting
to you tonight that Ishmael is used in a different way. And
while in previous messages I have said that he is an emblem of
something that is evil, depending on human effort, for right standing
with God, now I'm happy to be able to say to you that Ishmael
represents something good. And that something good is this
picture of salvation that I intend to draw. Now, I cannot tell you
whether Ishmael ever came to faith in God, true faith in the
true God. What I am saying to you is that
in this particular instance, he is an emblem of the sinner
coming to true faith in the true God. Now, I want to just deal
briefly with this idea that once something is used in the Bible
to represent evil, it always has to represent evil from that
point on. I just call your attention to
the fact that the Bible uses a serpent as an emblem of Satan. We find that back in Genesis
chapter 3, and we also find that in the book of Revelation, and
Satan is evil, right? But we also have the Lord Jesus
saying to his disciples, be wise as serpents. And so there, serpents
represent something good. And so you have the same emblem
representing in one scripture something evil, and in another
scripture representing something good. You know that the book
of 1 Peter, speaks of Satan as a lion. The lion is an emblem. He's like a lion going about
seeking whom he may devour. And so the lion is a symbol of
evil in that particular scripture. But then you get over into the
book of Revelation and you find that the Lord Jesus Christ is
referred to as the lion of the tribe of Judah. And so I'm simply
saying to you that in the Bible, A particular thing or a particular
person can be used at one point to represent something evil and
then be used at another point to represent something that is
good. I have debated this particular
issue with various ones down through the years and I seem
to recall debating it with one or two here. Most of you are
aware that leaven is used in the Word of God at some points
as an emblem of evil. And you remember perhaps the
Lord Jesus saying to his disciples, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And he was talking about their
teaching and that was evil teaching. But whenever you get into Matthew
chapter 13, you have the Lord Jesus Christ saying that his
kingdom is like leaven. And some people get into great
difficulty with that particular parable because knowing that
11 represents evil over here in this passage that I've already
mentioned, they come to the passage there, Matthew 13, and they say,
it must represent evil here as well. Well, you better hope and
pray that when Jesus talked about His kingdom being like leaven,
that it doesn't represent evil, because if you read that parable
carefully and closely, you will find that the whole thing is
going to be leavened, and what it amounts to is if leaven is
evil, then the whole kingdom is going to be overcome and overrun
with evil. It's going to be consumed by
evil. Evil is going to win the victory. Well, some of you might
be saying, what is all of this about? Well, it's about this.
I'm simply telling you that sometimes the Bible uses a particular thing
as an emblem of evil. Sometimes it uses that same thing
as an emblem of good. And here in this particular passage,
we encounter Ishmael. And in this passage, Ishmael
paints a glorious picture for us. And in other passages, He
is used as an emblem of what I've already talked about, relying
on our own good works for standing with God. And we tonight must
rejoice that we have from Ishmael this picture of a good thing. Now, you know that about what
we have here in this passage of Scripture, you know that The
episode that is described here finally brings to an end a very
sad and tragic chapter in the life of Abraham. You remember
how that Sarah is the one who suggested that Abraham father
a son through Hagar. And we've been over this ground,
how Sarah and Abraham thought that they were kind of getting
God off the hook. ever helping God fulfill his
promises. May I just simply say to you
tonight, brother in Christ, sister in Christ, that God doesn't need
your help in fulfilling his promises. He is one big God. He can take
care of himself. But as we have been noting, this
became a source of tension in Abraham's home after Isaac was
born. the tension mounted. And so finally
Sarah said, Abraham, this has got to end. You have got to send
Hagar and Ishmael packing. And so Abraham reluctantly did
this. And we have read how that he
supplied Hagar and Ishmael with water and how they began their
journey and they got out into this wilderness of Beersheba
and the water ran out, and the wilderness did its work, and
Ishmael is now at the point of death, dying from lack of water,
and Hagar is overcome here as she watches her son come down
to the door of death. And so this is the story. And then, ladies and gentlemen,
there in verse 17, God steps in. God steps in. We're told
that the angel of God called Hagar from heaven and said, What
ails you, Hagar? Fear not. for God has heard the
voice of the Lamb where He is." Now, it may interest you to know
that some commentators regard this as none other, this reference
here to the angel of God, as none other than an actual appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity.
We have talked about this previously, how that in the Old Testament,
the Lord Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, came in human
form at various times during the Old Testament. On those occasions,
he took human flesh temporarily. How very happy we should be that
when he came there to Bethlehem, In the fullness of the time,
He took human flesh permanently. He came to stay, and He's in
our flesh even this evening at the right hand of God. Yes, flesh
free from its limitations, fresh flesh free from its aches and
pains, but He's in our humanity. And the fact that Jesus is present
in heaven tonight in our humanity is the guarantee that all who
belong to him will finally be in the presence of God in heaven
in glorified humanity. I thought I'd just sneak that
in. Now, I don't know whether these
commentators are correct. in their assumption that this
is really an appearance of the second person of the Trinity
here in human flesh. They may be hanging too much
on this 17th verse because it doesn't say that the angel of
God appeared. It simply says that the angel
of God called Hagar out of heaven. But I thought you should know
what some of the commentators are saying. And this This angel
of God spoke from heaven, and as I said a while ago, pointed
Hagar to this well, the well that was there all along. Now, I've been laying the groundwork
here for what I want to do, and what I want to do is what I have
already indicated. I want to use Ishmael and Hagar's
experience in the wilderness. to just remind those of you who
are believers in Jesus Christ of how very blessed you are.
You have been rescued from perishing in the wilderness. And I also
tonight want to lay it upon the hearts of those of you who do
not know the Lord Jesus Christ, the importance of receiving Him
as your Lord. and your Savior. And so I ask
you tonight to consider two things with me. I want you to think
first of all tonight about perishing in the wilderness and then secondly
about the well of water in the wilderness. I don't need to say
a whole lot about this business of perishing in the wilderness.
Ishmael, you know, was perishing physically in the wilderness
of Beersheba. But I'm telling you, my friends,
that there is another kind of perishing that is just as real,
and it is far worse. And the kind of perishing that
I'm talking about now is not physically, is not perishing
physically, but it's rather perishing spiritually. And the Bible tells
us that we are all without exception in this condition. The Bible
tells us that we come into this world with a nature that is opposed
to God, with a nature that is bent away from God. And the Bible tells us because
of our sinful condition, we are perishing. Now, some of you might
be saying, well, what's all the fuss about? You talk about our
sin and all of that, what's all the fuss about? Well, the fuss
about it is this, ladies and gentlemen, we're dealing with
a holy God. And even as I said to you in
the message this morning, God's just and holy character requires
him to judge our sin. God cannot ignore sin. God cannot
just simply say, I'll pretend that I didn't see that. I'll
pretend that that doesn't exist. God's holy character requires
Him to pass judgment upon sin. And here's where this business
of perishing comes in. God has, in fact, pronounced
judgment upon sin. And that judgment that He has
pronounced upon sin means that we are separated from Him now
in this life, and if we go out of this life into the world to
come, without something being done about our condition, we'll
be separated from God forever and ever. This is the solemn
testimony of Scripture. And no, I don't give a hoot about
what the latest opinion poll has to say about what Americans
believe regarding God and what Americans believe regarding heaven
and regarding hell. I'm only interested in telling
you what this book has to say. And this book says that we are
all by nature sinners. It says that we are under the
condemnation of this holy God. It says that we are in this state
of living death. While we are alive physically,
we are already dead spiritually. And if we march through this
life, In that state of spiritual death, we will march straight
into eternal death. And the spiritual death that
we now have, this condition of separation from God, will be
perpetuated in eternity. That is, in fact, our condition. Now, having said that, I want
to talk with you about the well of water in the wilderness. God spoke from heaven and God
said to Hagar, look, there's a well right there near you. And Hagar went to the well and
she drew water and gave that water to Ishmael and he was saved. And ladies and gentlemen, just
as I connected Ishmael's perishing physically to our perishing spiritually. So now I want to draw a line
from that well of water in the wilderness to a well of water
for us. And I want to tell you that just
as that well there in the wilderness saved Ishmael physically, so
God has appointed a well of living water to save us spiritually. Now, some of you may say, well,
pastor, I really think you're reaching here. You're hanging
too much on this passage of scripture. Christ himself is our spiritual
well of water. And the Lord Jesus came to this
earth for the express purpose of saving us from our spiritual
death, saving us from perishing spiritually. Would you like some
scripture for that? Here's what the Lord Jesus himself
said in John chapter 7, verses 37 and 38. He said, If anyone
thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me
as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers
of living water." And you remember the account there in John chapter
4 of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman, and as he watched, she
was preparing to draw water there from Jacob's well, and he said
to her, These words, whoever drinks of this water will thirst
again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him
will never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become
in him a fountain of water springing up to everlasting life. And so Jesus, Jesus himself likened
himself to a well of spiritual water which quenches spiritual
thirst and which saves from spiritual death. And so I say to you again
that just as there was a well of water there in the wilderness
to save Ishmael physically, so there is a well of water appointed
to save us spiritually. And that well of water is Jesus
Christ. And Jesus says, he who drinks
of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. Now you may be saying, well,
pastor, how is it that Jesus can do this? How is it that he
is this well of spiritual water? Well, I'm very glad you asked.
Jesus is the well of life. for those who are perishing spiritually
in this way. He came to deal with the thing
that causes us to be perishing spiritually. And what causes
us to be perishing spiritually? I've already said. It's our sin. And Jesus Christ came to this
earth to deal with our sin, to take sin out of the way. Now, ladies and gentlemen, hear
me. I'm telling you tonight that
Jesus came to deal with sin, to take sin out of the way. And
I want to tell you now that there's only one way that sin can be
taken out of the way. God has pronounced judgment upon
sin, and that sin, that judgment that God has pronounced is death. It's spiritual death in this
life, and it's eternal death in the life to come. And I'm
saying to you now that Jesus came to deal with sin and take
that out of the way so we can have fellowship with God, and
there is only one way, only one way for sin to be taken out of
the way, and that is its penalty has to be paid. That's the only way sin can be
dealt with. The penalty has to be paid. Will you hear me tonight? Young people, listen to me whenever
I tell you that you will either bear the penalty for your own
sin or someone else will have to bear that penalty for you.
And there's only one in all of human history who can bear the
penalty. for our sins. I can't bear your
penalty. Here you are, young people, adults,
here you are facing an eternity of separation from God because
of your sin. And you either have to bear that
penalty yourself or someone has to bear it for you. And I can't
bear it for you. You might be saying, Pastor,
would you bear my penalty? I've got my own penalty to bear
because I'm guilty of sin. I was born in this world in the
same, with the same nature that you have. There's only one person
who ever lived that can bear the penalty for our sins, and
that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And He can bear the penalty for
our sins because He had no sins of His own. There is no sin in
Jesus. I have a hard time believing
that so many today are abandoning the sinlessness of Jesus. Don't
you dare abandon it. It's absolutely essential for
the whole scheme of salvation. There could be no salvation if
it were not for the sinlessness of Jesus. Some of you, as I've
said, you're pretty shrewd. You may be saying, well, Jesus
is just one person. It's like he could only bear
the sins of one person. Ah, but he was not an ordinary
person. He was God in human flesh. And so he's an infinite person.
And as an infinite person, he could bear the sins of many.
And this is, in fact, what he did on Calvary's cross. He went
there, and there he received in his own person the sentence
of God against our sins. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
He went there and bore the penalty for our sins. He endured there
on Calvary's cross an eternity's worth of separation from God
and now the penalty for sin has been paid and God's justice is
satisfied and now everyone who believes in Jesus can join the
Apostle Paul in saying there is therefore now no condemnation. to those who are in Christ Jesus. And so Jesus is the well of water
for those who are perishing spiritually. Will you hear me tonight? Jesus
is the well of water for those who are perishing spiritually.
It's never been put better than John 3, 16, for God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes
in him should not what? perish, that's what we've been
talking about, but rather have everlasting life. And this is
all due to the grace of God. But ladies and gentlemen, and
I wrap this up with just by calling this to your attention, the grace
of God, the grace of God did not stop with the coming of the
Lord Jesus and with the dying of the Lord Jesus. I've been
saying to you throughout this message that the well of water
in the wilderness was there all along. But Hagar had not seen
it and she could not see it until God opened her eyes. Look there
at your verse, verse 19. Then God opened her eyes and
she saw. She saw. You know what the Bible
says about those of us, about all of us? What the Bible says
about sinners? The Bible says that the God of
this world has blinded their minds. I'm so glad to be able
to tell you tonight that the Holy Spirit of God opens blind
eyes. He enlightens darkened minds
so that sinners are able to lay hold of the redeeming work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're a Christian tonight,
you are a recipient of this enlightening, regenerating work of the Spirit
of God. I tell you, if you're a child
of God tonight, it's because God opened your mind. And even
as we noticed last Sunday there in the book of Acts, He opened
your heart as He did with Lydia so long ago. There's no salvation
apart from God's enlightening work. You would not be saved
tonight if the Spirit of God had not enlightened you. And
you know about this. There you were, going along life's
way, and you were oblivious to your sin. You were oblivious
to the judgment of God. You thought everything was okay.
And it could very well be that you sat in church after church
after church and heard sermon after sermon after sermon and
these things were mentioned and they never did take any, any
root in your mind. They never meant anything to
you. And then one day you went into a church service perhaps
and the pastor stood and preached the message very much like a
hundred other messages that he had preached. And he began talking
about what I've talked about tonight, the reality of your
sin. And suddenly it began to pour
in on you. It began to flood your soul. He's telling me the truth. I
am a guilty sinner before a holy God. And the pastor began talking
about how you have to face this God. It's appointed on a man
who wants to die. And after death comes judgment.
And you began to tremble and you began to say, Oh yes, it's
true. I do have to face this God. this
God in judgment." And then the pastor began talking in this
situation, we're supposing, about Jesus, who alone can save sinners. And even though you'd heard it
many times before on this occasion, it all came home to your heart.
And you said, yes, I am that sinner. Yes, I am headed for
judgment. And yes, Jesus is a Savior sufficient
for me. And you laid hold that day with
saving faith of the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you were a recipient of God's
glorious and gracious, enlightening work. The well of water was there
all along, but God opened your eyes to see it, and you were
saved. I do hope and pray this will
be someone's experience tonight. The Bible tells the truth about
you. The Bible says that you're out
there in the wilderness of sin, and you're perishing because
of that. But the Bible also says there's a well of water that
can save you from perishing. His name is Jesus. He's right
there. nearby. May God open your eyes
to see him tonight. Let's bow together for prayer.
Sought And Found In The Wilderness
Series The Life Of Abraham
The experience of Hagar and Ishmael in these verses can be regarded as picture of salvation.
1-Perishing in the wilderness
2-The well of water
| Sermon ID | 91416171728 |
| Duration | 37:17 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Genesis 21:9-21 |
| Language | English |
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