May 29, 2022 – Sunday Service Live Stream

Psalm 121 and Singing the Tune of Amazing Grace

The insert that says Psalm 121.

And this is the point where music readers get confused. I can't read music, so it's very easy for me to sing this tune to Amazing Grace as we sing Psalm 121. So musically inclined, ignore the musical lines and sing the tune Amazing Grace.

Jeremiah 15 and the Lord’s Word of Judgment

Jeremiah 15,. Then the Lord said to me, Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, my mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of my sight and let them go forth. And it shall be if they say to you, Where should we go?

Then you shall tell them, Thus says the Lord, Such as are for death to death, and such as are for the sword to the sword, and such as are for the famine to the famine, and such as are for the captivity to the captivity.

And I will anoint over them four forms of destruction, says the Lord, the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem, or who will bemoan you, or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing? You have forsaken me, says the Lord. You have gone backward. Therefore, I will stretch out my hand against you and destroy you.

I am weary of relenting. And I now will willow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land. I will bereave them of children. I will destroy my people, since they do not return from their ways. Their widows will be increased to me more than the sand of the seas.

I will bring against them against the mother of young men, a plunderer at noonday. I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them suddenly. She languishes who has borne seven. She has breathed her last.

Her son has gone down while it was yet day. She has been ashamed and confounded. And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword before the enemy, says the Lord. Woe is me, my mother, that you should have borne me, a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth.

I have neither lent for interest, nor have men lent to me for interest. Every one of them curses me. The Lord said, surely it will be well with your remnant. Surely I will cause the enemy to intercede with you in the time of adversity, in the time of affliction.

Can anyone break iron, the northern iron and the bronze? Your wealth and your treasures I will give as plunder without price. Because of all your sins throughout your territories, I will make you cross over with your enemies into a land which you do not know.

For a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn upon you. O Lord, you know. Remember me and visit me and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. And your enduring patience do not take me away. Know that for your sake I have suffered rebuke.

Your words were found and I ate them. And your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. For I am called by your name, O Lord God of hosts. I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers, nor did I rejoice.

I sat alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will you surely be to me like an unreliable stream as waters that fail?

Therefore, thus says the Lord, if you return, then I will bring you back. You shall stand before me if you take out the precious from the vial. You shall be as my mouth, let them return to you. But you must not return to them.

And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall. And they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you to save you and deliver you, says the Lord. I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Confessing the Apostles' Creed

Let us now confess our faith in the singing of the Apostles' Creed.

I believe in God the Father, almighty maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified dead and buried.

He descended into hell, and is seated at the right hand to judge the world. I believe in the saints, the forgiven.

Singing Psalm 24 as the Hymn of Ascension

Please take up the hymnal and turn to number 292. Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord? Sounds like Psalm 24 to me. Psalm number 292, who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord? DJ, if you could get us started, sir.

The Beatitudes and the Life of Repentance

In seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him, that he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Lord, lead us in a life of repentance.

We pray, Father, for their salvation, that you would help us to flee from sin, flee from what is wicked, and pursue that which is good, and holy, and right in your eyes.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Lord, help us to find.

Gracious God and Father, the world would have us to believe that power comes through strength, and that by exercising that strength against them to gain an advantage for ourselves, and to put them into a place of bondage.

But that is not the case with you, oh Lord. You have taught us to seek our strength not in the power of this world, but in the power that comes from your spirit. We pray, Father, that as we remember that we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, that we would turn to you, oh Lord, in love, and ask for the grace to humble ourselves before you, that you may lift us up.

We ask this in Christ's name, amen.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Lord, may we always seek first your kingdom.

Hearts that are hungry for your word, Lord God, as we hunger after bread or water, Lord God, let us hunger after your word and your truth, if not more so. Father God, for it's this truth that gives us life or the last thing.

Father, create in us hearts that are starving for your word and your gospel.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Lord, keep us mindful of what forgiveness means.

Recognizing our own worthiness to receive more forgiveness. And the grace you've so promised in Christ. We pray, Father, that you would help us to live in understanding of the great gift you have given us.

That we would be people who do not take the gift lightly. And are willing to share that forgiveness with others. And extend it to others when we are wrong. We have wronged you greatly, Father, and you've forgiven us anyway.

We thank you for that, Father, that you'd be with us.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Lord, create in us clean hearts.

The blood of goats and lambs and sheep and oxen, then create clean hearts and give you great thanks and our joy for that Christ. The purpose of sacrifice is blood, made our hearts clean. We pray, God, that in that effectual work that you have continued by your spirit.

To lead us in righteousness, in faith, in obedience to you, in Christ's name, amen.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Lord, help us to pursue peace.

God, give each other a sense of selfish ambition. And help people in self-righteousness to work with grace, and to show us your Christ.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Amen, please stand and take up the psalm of the month, Psalm 8. We have a sadness every end of the month because we grow to love our psalm of the month, and then it passes away from us for a short time.

We're going to sing heartily to the Lord, Psalm 8, DJ, if you'd start us. Standing for the reading of the word, Pastor Michael Ware. We are in a closer relationship, him now formally, but we love this brother, and we are the second closest church to him geographically.

The other South Carolina church, of course, is closer, but we're going to be a close congregation and friend to you, brother. And we welcome your folks to call upon us in any need they have, and let us know if we can help in any way, okay, brother?

Welcome, Pastor Ware, come on, brother.

Genesis 16: Hagar, Sarah, and the Sin of Grasping

Genesis chapter 16, our text this morning.

Genesis chapter 16, starting in verse 1, now let us hear the word of God. Now Sarah, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maid servant whose name was Hagar. So Sarah said to Abram, see now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children.

Please go into my maid, perhaps I shall obtain children by her. And Abram heeded the voice of Sarah. Then Sarah, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband, Abram, to be his wife.

After Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress gave my maid into your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes.

The Lord judged between you and me. So Abram said to Sarah, indeed your maid is in your hand, do to her as you please. And when Sarah dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence. Now the angel of the Lord found her by the spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.

And he said, Hagar, Sarah's maid, where have you come from, and where are you going? She said, I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress, Sarah. The angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.

Then the angel of the Lord said to her, I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said to her, behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son.

You shall call his name Immanuel because the Lord has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man. His hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, you are the God who sees. For she said, have I also here seen him who sees me? Therefore, the well was called Be 'er Lehi Rohi. Observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered.

So Herod bore Abram a son, and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore Ishmael. Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. Thus far the reading of God's word. Let us now go to the Lord in prayer.

Blessed and holy God, we thank you. Father, that Lord, you're not only the God who sees us, but God, you are the God who hears in our affliction. We praise you, Father, that if we humble ourselves, we can come unto you at any time.

And Father, you bless us. We pray, dear God, that you will bless this congregation, and you will bless the preaching of the word of God, that your people will be fed, that they will be encouraged, and they will be made mighty in the face of all their adversities, and, Father, that you would be glorified in this, your body of people.

And we pray, Lord God, these things in your blessed son, Jesus Christ, holy name, amen. You may be seated. So as I pretend that I know what I'm doing with this technology, see, it's upside down. I'm going to make some kind remarks.

I love being with you guys. And I jokingly told Christopher, he said, how do you think Presbyterian's going to go? I said, well, it may be hot and humid. He laughed. And now I know what he was laughing at.

So it's great to be with you. I appreciate it. It takes faith in God to give up your pulpit to men. And so I appreciate the confidence that Christopher has in Christ. So this morning, we will look at chapter 16 of Genesis.

And thus far, Abram has come a long way with God. In chapter 11, we are given the Tower of Babel incident, which is then contrasted with the call of Abram. God tells Abram, in contrast to Babel, who was trying to make their own name, God says, I'm going to make a name for you, right?

And so we see the things that man was trying to do by his own strength, God was going to do by his power. And so this is contrasted in chapter 12, and Abram leaves his father's house after his death and tours the land as kind of a victory tour or a claiming of the land.

And as he goes, God promises him every place his foot touches would be his. So Abram sets up altars and his little community of about 2 ,000 people set up true worship in the land. There is a famine in the land and they move to Egypt.

Sarai is saved from Pharaoh by Yahweh, and they exodus from Egypt after plundering the Egyptians. And Abram, once again, figuratively conquers the land by going through it and setting up altars and worshiping.

He and Lot separate, with Lot choosing his dwelling place with his eyes rather than by faith. Next, Lot is captured in the War of the Kings, and Abram saves him and refuses to give his glory to the wicked king of Sodom after receiving blessings from Melchizedek, the priest of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth.

Then Christ comes to Abram in a vision and formally makes covenant with him. Abram asked what inheritance he would have as his home-born slave was going to inherit all that he had. But Christ promised a seed from his own body would be his heir.

Not only that, but taking him outside, Christ promised to make his seed as numerous as the stars, pointing to the fact that they would be rulers of the world one day. Then Christ orders that animals representing this innumerable people be brought and divided, as was the normal way of cutting covenant.

Abram drove off the birds of prey, signifying the protection that the law and this covenant would provide to God's people in the future and their salvation. Then Christ places him in a death sleep. The Godhead passes through the pieces, both as a self-maledictory oath and as a sign that he would walk in the midst of his people and seal the eternal covenant with Father Abraham and all his children, of whom we are, by God's grace, members.

This brings us to our text. We are going to see that Abram will pass through another false situation. He wakes to a new bride and grasps at something that is not his yet. His wife gives him forbidden fruit and he listens to her voice.

This opens their eyes to their sin and Hagar is driven from the garden of God. Christ comes to Hagar and shows here that leaving the garden that was Abram's house was not the answer. She needed to humble herself under the authority he had placed over her.

Then he would bless her. And we learn that the way back to the garden of God is through a broken and contrite spirit. So the first thing that we see is when we leave Abram in chapter 15, he's asleep. He's in a death sleep.

The same word that is used for Adam when he is placed in a deep sleep in Genesis chapter 2, where his wife is given to him and he's woke up. God brings Eve to him, right, and they're introduced. Here's your wife, right?

And he says, woohoo, finally, right? Well, this is not a woohoo moment. He has brought someone who doesn't belong to him, and it's an illegitimate wife, but she is still a wife. And so when he wakes, he is introduced to a new wife.

And this should be clear that at this point, this is a parallel with the history of the fall and the taking of Hagar as his wife. Sarah points out that God had restrained her from bearing children. And in the culture, there was nothing outrageous about multiple wives or maidservants bearing for their mistress.

Do not misunderstand what I'm saying. You cannot have a second wife. That's unlawful, right? Jesus has made that clear. But what we do see is that with Ruth and Naomi, her first child was Naomi's. How did that happen?

She gave birth on Naomi's knee. It was called her son. This was the idea that they had. And it was common in this culture to bear continual children through maids in this fashion. It was ungodly, but this was normal.

This was not something that she invented. It should be clear at this point that this is, of course, sin, and that they're not working within the bounds of faith, right? They're not believing what God had just said.

God had just said, from your body, I'm going to bring four children. Now, a lot of times we do this, right? We get in our heads how we're going to fix God's problem, right? As one brother, Tom, actually told me the other week, Michael, quit trying to be Jesus.

Let Jesus be Jesus, and you be Michael, right? And we do that by trying to manipulate, by trying to twist things, do things our way. We go, well, maybe it'll come this way. And this is what Sarah is doing.

She's going, I'm barren. I have this maidservant that my husband can bear children through. And maybe this is how God's going to do it, right? We also should see the irony of the situation, which we'll be bore out in a moment with her being an Egyptian.

Much is made of that fact. God had promised a child to be heir from Abram's body, but Sarah could not give that to him. So what is the solution? Here, take my maidservant as wife. Now, many don't like this language.

They want to substitute it for concubine. But that's not the word here. It's wife. She was legally his wife. They married, and that's what it was. And the reason that they don't like it is because it makes then Hagar Sarah's equal.

But that's not what Sarah wanted. And we'll see as we go through the text, that was not her intention. It's the actual opposite, right? She wanted to make sure that she wasn't replaced. And so she manipulates, right?

You know what manipulation means, don't you? It's a nice way of saying you're lying. And so when you manipulate, you're lying. You're doing things for your motives, but you're hiding them from others.

So it's a lot. Same as flattery, right? And so we have to be careful with that. But so what she was trying to do, she knew that she was going to be replaced. If God's will was going to be done in Abram's life, in her husband's life, she's thinking, then what I have to do is I have to make sure that I'm there, I'm present, I'm in control of this.

So here, take my maidservant, take my slave, the person I have most control over in all the world, take that person and make her your wife so that she can still have this semblance of control. But we need to understand God doesn't honor lying in any sense, for any reason, except to save life.

But we want to be true, right? Maybe we'll talk about that at lunch. So what we see is she is seeking to assure that she was not replaced. If her servant was the one who was the surrogate, she would still maintain a level of control.

And so we see, then, in chapter 16, a parallel with chapter 3, 16 .2 says, so Sarah said to, and then 3 .2 says, the woman said to. 16 .2b, and Abram heeded the voice of Sarah. 3 .17 says, you have heeded the voice of your wife.

16 .3a, Sarah took, and 3 .6a, she took of its fruit. And then 16 .3 says, and she gave her to her husband. And 3 .6b says, she also gave to her husband with her. It is clear that the same thing is going on here.

God placed Abram in a death sleep, and when he woke, his new wife is brought to him, and he is tempted. He listens to the voice of his wife. Now, we have to be careful, because we have some people who will tell us, look, you're not to listen to your wife.

No, you're a fool if you don't listen to your wife. But you don't heed your wife when she's calling you to sin. That's what's being said here. Not, don't listen to your wife. She's your greatest counselor.

She should love you more than anybody in the whole world, right? And she should want your success and blessing more than any other person in the whole world. So if you don't listen to your wife, you're not being obedient, you're being a fool.

So let's be clear what I'm saying here. I want to make sure that we get out what's happening. You, husband and wife, should be becoming one flesh. You should be one person. You're no longer two, you're one.

And so if you are becoming one, then the greatest counselor you have is your wife. So it's not don't heed what she says, it's don't heed her when she calls you to be disobedient. There's a difference.

There's a difference. So their eyes were opened by the fruit, verses 4 through 6a. Abram goes into Hagar and she conceives. Now, this made Sarai despised in Hagar's eyes. At this point, we should think of other women who gained the upper hand on the barren.

We should think first of Leah, as she was not loved by her husband, but was very fruitful. But more than anything, we should think of Hannah and Mary. Samuel's mother was childless, or barren, and her rival provoked her.

1 Samuel 1, 1 through 7 says, now there was a certain man in Ramahath Zophim of the mountain of Ephraim. His name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elahu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuth, an Ephraimite.

And he had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other was Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. This man went up from his city every year to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh.

Also, the two sons of Elah, Hophni and Phanihas, I always get that bad, the priests of the Lord were there. And whenever the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions to Peninnah, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters.

But to Hannah, he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the Lord had closed her womb. And her rival also provoked her severely to make her miserable, because the Lord had closed her womb.

So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, that she provoked her, therefore, she wept and did not eat. We see here that this barrenness was used against this woman to make her feel worthless, to make her feel unloved.

Well, it's the same thing here, because Hagar felt as though she was going to take the place of her mistress. So why was Sarai despised in Hagar's eyes? Because we do not live in a vacuum. You cannot bring fire into your bosom and not be burned.

Men and women cannot have casual sex and not have an effect. It not affect both men and women, right? We're not machines. Making love does just that. It causes us to be jealous. It causes us to long for that person.

And we give ourselves to them, not just physically, but spiritually. Hagar wanted Sarai's position and status and the love of Sarai's husband. She thought she could bring down her mistress, being a child.

Her pride told her that she would not be controlled by Sarai, as she would be the mother of the heir. She was queen mother now, she thought. This opened the eyes of Sarai and Abram to their sin. This is the reason for so many references to seeing, right?

She was despised in her eyes. Seeing that this, behold, constantly, language of seeing is in throughout this text. Sarai tells Abram the situation and sets the guilt where it belongs, with her head. All right, so I ask my congregation when I preach this to them, I'm gonna ask you.

Men, if your wife sins, who's guilty? Your wife is guilty, but who's responsible? You are, right? If my wife sins, her sin is her sin, she's guilty of it. But I'm responsible because I'm her head. So Sarai sinned here, and so did Abram.

But he was not only guilty for his sin, he was also responsible for his wife's sin. And she comes to him rightly and says, you've misled me. This wrong that is being done to me by this maid is your fault.

Now, this again connects us to chapter three, as the opening of their eyes causes blame shifting. Sarai blames Abram for the wrong she suffered. And though Abram failed to lead and protect his wife in this situation, Sarah's manipulation is a breaking of the ninth commandment, and she also bears blame here.

She's trying to get out of all guilt. This is your fault. Well, yeah, but you sin too. You can't blame shift. We have to own it. When we're confronted with sin, our first response should not be just to seek out, did I do this specific thing?

But to recognize, I am a sinful human being, and I am guilty before God, if it were not for Jesus Christ. When you come at it that way, you're not likely to be so haughty, how dare you say I do that, right?

That's our first response. Who do you think you are to tell me I did that? You're not sinless, right? But when you recognize that absent the grace of God, you are guilty before God. And so, it shouldn't be a big thing to be guilty of sin.

You know that you are. We all know that we are. I mean, for goodness sake, we kneel and ask God for forgiveness every week as a congregation, right? It shouldn't be a big thing to go, okay, well, let's humbly look at this.

Did I do these things? Am I guilty of these things? And we take them a lot better. Just like Adam and Eve here, though they were grasping at something that didn't belong to them. They wanted fruit. Now they get the fruit.

And this is the gracious thing about God. God allows us at times to act outside of his will to mature us, to help us grow. But he also lets us bear out those consequences. And that's what's happened here.

So they get the fruit they wanted, but it's not the fruit they wanted, right? Just like Adam and Eve, right? I wanna be like God, but then all the pain and death that comes with that. All the pain and death that comes with that.

Rather than waiting and trusting, they sought to snatch at it through sinful means. And this is our greatest struggle. I think as Christians, we know the right, but we're not patient for the right way.

We want instant righteousness. We want instant joy. God help us, we stick grits in the microwave, brother. And we think that's gonna turn out good, right? As Southerners, we ought to know better. It takes 20 minutes to do a grip, period, right?

Calm down, it's just 20 minutes. And it's the same thing, right? We have young men and young women who get married and they want the same kind of marriage, the same kind of situation, the same kind of home that their parents have.

But they don't realize that their parents have struggled and fought for 20 years to get to where they are financially and maritally, right? Why doesn't my marriage look like yours? Well, you've been married 10 days, it's not going to, you know?

And so instead of grasping at things sinfully and trying to do things in a sinful manner, we need to seek God's word and then have faith to trust it. And what that takes, and we're gonna see this with Hagar, she leaves the garden of God.

And the reason that she does that is because she thinks all hope is lost. Again, a lack of faith. So we see that she leaves the garden of God. In verses 6 through 8, Abram reminds Sarah of her authority over her maidservant and gives permission to handle her.

So Sarah is reminded that she can't punish her even though she's carrying the heir. Her status as wife and supposed queen mother of Abram's heir did not exempt her from being a slave. Sarah deals harshly with her and she runs away.

Much like our first parents, once God exercised his authority and began to punish them, they're forced out of the garden. To this Egyptian slave, Abram's household was like the garden of God. Now, think about what she's come from.

She has come from an Egyptian culture with all these gods, these false gods that are ugly and mean because they're demons. And now she's placed into a home of a Christian. Now, is he a perfect Christian?

No, but neither are you. And so, neither am I. So what we need to understand is what it would have been like for this woman to enter this environment. Now there's true worship of God. There's grace. There's abundance.

There's joy. There's singing, right? All this other things that she's experienced in her life have changed. And I'll argue with this over dinner, over lunch if you'd like. I think she's a believer. I think she repents and believes.

So she's leaving the garden and there was riches and food beyond all that she could imagine. There was the true worship of God where idol worship dominated outside. Would our houses then be thought of as gardens of God, right?

If someone from outside come into your house, would they see such a contrast? Would they say, man, this is utterly different than any place, any household I've ever seen, right? There's grace. There's working for forgiveness.

There's joy. There's singing. There's worshiping God together as a family. Teaching of the catechism and those things. Joyful things, good things. Would they see that? Would your house be something that would make them thirsty?

My old pastor used to say, the gospel should be like salt. It should make everybody else thirst for Christ. It should make them thirst for what you have. Rosario Butterfield says that our homes should be such that cause others to fall in love with Jesus as they see us loving Christ.

And so that's the question. Are we living such a life out in our homes? Is there beauty and glory? Is there singing and praising God? Outside of that paradise, on the way back to Egypt, the angel of the Lord comes to her.