Two Sons

Well, over the last several months, we have been considering the life of Abraham in the book of Genesis. We have heard how God graciously called this man to leave his home country. And that call was accompanied with marvelous promises from God to him.

Even before he departed from his father's house, God had said, I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great so that you shall be a blessing. In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

And God further unfolded these promises throughout the years of Abraham's pilgrimage. To you and your offspring, God said, I will give this land forever. I will make your offspring as numerous as the dust of the earth.

I am your shield, your exceeding great reward. Now, at some point in his sojourn, Abraham raised something of an objection before God. In Genesis chapter 15, verse 2, we read that Abraham said, Oh, Lord God, what will you give me?

For I continue childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. And in Genesis 15, 3, Abraham says, Behold, you have given me no offspring. The question he raised appeared to be reasonable. If you consider these promises, you will see that they all required Abraham to have an heir.

None of them could possibly be fully accomplished in Abraham alone. Offspring would have to be raised up in order for all these promises to be fully realized. And yet herein was the problem, for Abraham's wife Sarah was barren.

She had been unable to conceive all their merry days. And so Abraham asks God, You have given me all these great promises, but what will you really give me, seeing I am childless? The Lord answers him in Genesis chapter 15, verse 4 and 5.

This man from Damascus shall not be your heir, your very own son shall be your heir. For your offspring shall be as the stars in heaven. We have then in verse 6, those majestic words said of Abraham, which apply to every justified child of God.

He believed the Lord and God counted it to him for righteousness. The Lord then enters into a covenant with Abraham, affirming all the promises. But although Abraham at this time was a justified man, he was not altogether a sinless man, of course.

God had promised him an heir. And that should have been enough for Abraham and Sarah to wait patiently for Sarah to conceive. But as time went on and Sarah continued to bear no children, Abraham decided to give God a helping hand by taking the slave woman Hagar to be his wife.

And the carnal scheme appeared to work. 11 years after first entering Canaan, Abraham in his 86th year of age had a son born to him, Ishmael. For 13 years after Ishmael's birth, the scriptures tell us nothing really about Abraham.

Silence. But in his 99th year, the Lord appears to him again, shedding further light on the covenant promises in Genesis 17 verses 1 through 8. After that, the right of circumcision is enjoined to him and his offspring.

And then this promise in Genesis 17 verse 16. I will give you a son by Sarah. I will bless her and she shall become nations. Kings of peoples shall come from her. In response, in verse 17, Abraham laughs in disbelief.

Shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old? Shall my 90-year-old wife bear a child? Indeed, in Genesis 18 verse 11, the scriptures state that both Abraham and Sarah were old and that the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.

Romans chapter 4 verse 19 is even more direct. At this time, Abraham's body was as good as dead. And Sarah's womb was dead. Abraham believes that he has a better idea. In Genesis chapter 17 verse 18, he commends his son Ishmael to God.

Oh, that Ishmael might live before you. But God's promise will stand. Verses 19 to 21 of chapter 17, God replies, Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and his offspring after him.

As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him. I will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father 12 princes. I will make him into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.

And not long after that, God repeats the same promise in the plains of Mamre in Genesis 18, 10. This time, it is Sarah that laughs in sinful unbelief. To which the Lord responds in verse 14 with those words which none of us should ever forget.

Is anything too hard for the Lord? In Genesis chapter 20, we see Abraham's shameful willingness to put his wife in jeopardy by letting the Philistine king Abimelech take her. God protected Sarah. The scriptures expressly record that God did not allow Abimelech to even touch her.

The king returned Sarah to Abraham with gifts and proposes that Abraham dwell in the land. And Abraham prays to God and God grants life to Abimelech and his family, healing Abimelech and his family such that the nation's women are able to conceive again.

The Birth of Isaac and the Expulsion of Ishmael

Now, not long after this, the events in Genesis chapter 21 occur. In Sarah's 90th year of age, she gives birth to Isaac. Look at verse 1 of chapter 21 with me again. The Lord visited Sarah as he had said.

And the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.

Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now, Sarah now laughs again, but it is no longer the laugh of unbelief.

It's the laughter of rejoicing. Verses 6 and 7. And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh over me. And she said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?

Yet I have born him a son in his old age. Verse 8 tells us that Isaac grew and he was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that he was weaned. But then verse 9 records that Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, whom she had born to Abraham, laughing.

King James translation says mocking. And Galatians chapter 4 verse 29 sheds further light on what transpired here. Ishmael was persecuting Isaac. Sarah's response is swift and seen in Genesis verse 10 of chapter 21.

So she said to Abraham, cast out this slave woman and her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. It appears that this is something that Abraham was unwilling to do, at least at the beginning.

Verse 11 says that the thing was displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God says to Abraham in verses 12 and 13, be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you.

For through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring. And Abraham obeys God. Verse 14, so Abraham rose early in the morning, took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder along with the child and sent her away.

And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bow shot.

For she said, let me not look on the death of the child. And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy. And the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, what troubles you, Hagar?

Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Up, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation. Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.

And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

The Abrahamic Covenant as Gospel Promise

Now I have taken the time to recount this scriptural record of Abraham's two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, because the scriptures use this history to illustrate eternal truths related to the kingdom of God and the relation of mankind to that kingdom.

For instance, the word of God uses this history to illustrate and answer the question to whom belong the covenant promises that God made to Abraham? You may think that is a question that is irrelevant for us today.

It is not irrelevant. Never mind the roughly two billion Muslims in this world who pervert the plain testimony of God and teach that Ishmael and his seed are the true children of promise. In the professing Christian church, there is a persistent confusion regarding to whom the covenant promises of Abraham belong.

And more than that, the scriptural record of Abraham and the unfolding of the Abrahamic covenant promises in history is essentially the gospel revealed. I trust you have already seen that over the past several months out of this pulpit.

Galatians chapter 3 verse 8 says the following, and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed.

The gospel is here in Genesis. For that reason alone, this is a worthy subject for us to consider. And so I intend to answer this question in three parts. First, I will explain what the covenant promises of God to Abraham actually are.

Second, I will confirm to whom these covenant promises belong. And last, I will confirm to whom these promises do not belong. First, then, what are the covenant promises of God that were given to Abraham?

They are promises of the coming of Christ Jesus, the promised seed. And they are promises of all the spiritual and eternal blessings that his people find in him. They are therefore gospel promises. They are eternal promises.

They are spiritual promises. This is why Jesus himself could say to the Jews, Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. And he saw it and was glad. How did Abraham see the day of Jesus Christ? He saw it through the promises that were given to him of Christ's coming and the everlasting blessings which he would purchase for his people and which he would bestow on them.

It is important to see this. The apostle tells us in Romans 15, 8, that it is Jesus Christ who became a servant to the circumcised. That is, he was made under the law of Moses and born a Jew of the seed of Abraham.

But why? In order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, it says. This word confirm means to make firm, to establish, to secure. In other words, without Christ, the promises to the patriarchs were unestablished.

They were insecure. They had no meaning. They had no efficacy apart from him. And that is because all of these promises concerned him and his people. And when he came in the fullness of time to redeem a sinful people by his atoning life and death, that is when the ancient promises to Abraham were secured and established and confirmed.

And so these promises to Abraham are, in their highest sense, gospel promises. They are spiritual and eternal promises concerning the kingdom of God and his Christ. Now, any student of scripture will be quick to point out that the promises to Abraham appear to be realized by the Old Testament people of God and in a way that falls far short of a spiritual or eternal realization.

Take the promise of the land of Canaan to be inherited by Abraham and his offspring. Was this promise not accomplished when Joshua and the Israelites conquered the land? Or the promise of a numerous offspring?

Was this promise not accomplished when the Israelites greatly multiplied in Egypt before embarking on the exodus? Or what about the promise to establish an everlasting covenant with Isaac and his seed?

Was this not accomplished 430 years later when God entered into those solemn covenant dealings with Israel at Mount Sinai? Or the promise that in Abraham and his seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed?

Was this not accomplished with Israel's rise and reign in the days of David and Solomon? All the promises to Abraham can be considered in a similar way. Their fulfillment seems to occur in the Old Testament along physical and temporal lines.

Physical land inherited. Millions of Jews descended from Abraham. The covenant sealed with the blood of oxen at Mount Sinai. And yet, when considering the promises in this way, who does not see how far short they come from having been actually fulfilled?

Take the promise of the inheritance of the land, which was made expressly to both Abraham and his offspring for an everlasting possession. Was the land of Canaan ever given to Abraham for an everlasting possession?

No. Acts chapter 7 verse 5 says that God gave Abraham no inheritance in that land whatsoever. Instead, Hebrews 11, 13 reveals that Abraham acknowledged all his days that he was a stranger and an exile on the earth.

What about the modern ethnic Jew? Have they been given the land for an everlasting possession? No. First of all, the borders of Israel today are reduced from what they were when Joshua and the Israelites conquered the land.

And even if those ancient borders were to be exactly restored, it would not belong to Israel forever. For all the race of mankind must spend forever either in hell or in heaven. And as for the earth as we currently know it, the word of God is clear.

It shall perish. It is, of course, true that this promise of an inheritance was fulfilled in a temporary way, in an inferior way, I would say, in the Old Testament. Yet that same promise remained to be fulfilled and in an eternal and a superior way through Christ.

And so it is written in Hebrews 11, verse 16, that although Abraham did not inherit the land of Canaan, yet God had prepared for him a better country, a heavenly one. And it was the promise of that heavenly country, along with the associated promises of a resurrection and eternal life that caused Abraham to acknowledge that he was a stranger and an exile in this earth.

Now, such promises are gospel promises. They are spiritual, heavenly, eternal promises in Christ Jesus. And I submit to you that it is such gospel promises that comprise the root and the kernel of the covenant promises to Abraham.

The lower and the temporary aspects of the promises, which the Old Testament people did realize in their time, are but the shell and the shadow of the higher and the superior aspects of the promises which are in Christ Jesus.

The same is to be said for the promise of a numerous offspring. The tribes of Israel were numerous in a physical sense. They numbered in the millions. But what is that compared to the promised church of God, consisting of a multitude which no one can number?

Or take the promise of an everlasting covenant with Isaac and his offspring. The covenant was established at Mount Sinai, but the history of Israel abundantly shows that the people broke it. Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 32, my covenant they broke though I was their husband.

Psalm 78, verse 10, they refused to walk in his law. And so what is that old covenant compared to the new covenant now made in Christ Jesus, where God puts his law within and writes it on the heart, where he shall forgive your iniquity and remember your sins no more, no more.

That is an everlasting covenant indeed. Or consider the promise that in Abraham, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. The Old Testament kingdom did leave room to a limited extent for the outsider and for the stranger to come in and join hands with the nation of Israel.

And what is that next to all the Gentile nations from all tribes and tongues now coming into the church of God to the mediation and the intercession of Christ Jesus? Again, I submit to you that all the covenant promises to Abraham are to be understood in a similar way.

They all may be said to find a temporary lower fulfillment in the Old Testament history, yet ultimately they all find their spiritual and their eternal fulfillment in Jesus Christ and the ransomed church of God.

The Promises Belong to Those United to Christ

I move on then to the second issue. To whom do the covenant promises to Abraham belong? They belong to those who belong to Christ. As it is written in Galatians chapter three, verse 29, if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

And those who belong to Christ are of faith. They walk in the steps of that faith which Abraham had and are therefore called the true seed of Abraham. Know then that it is those of faith who are of the sons of Abraham, Galatians 3, 7.

And further, those who belong to Christ are freely born again of God by the grace and the power of God in Christ. The scriptures use the circumstances associated with the birth of Isaac to teach us these great gospel truths.

The three leading features of Isaac's physical birth and their higher spiritual application regarding the believer's new birth are set forth in Galatians chapter four, verses 21 to 31. And they're set down as follows.

Three different features of Isaac's physical birth. First, Isaac was born by a free woman. Sarah, the proper free wife of Abraham. The higher spiritual application of this fact is that all true believers are freely accepted by God for Christ's sake and not for any works of the law which they have done.

Freely they are accepted. Second, Isaac was born according to God's promise. The scriptures make this very clear. Romans chapter nine, verse nine. For this is what the promise said about this time next year, I will return, that is God, and Sarah shall have a son.

Sarah shall have a son. Accordingly, Isaac is called a child of promise. Now the higher spiritual application of this fact is that all true believers are born again unto eternal life according to God's promise.

As first John chapter two, verse 25 declares, this is the promise that God has made to us eternal life. Believers are therefore also called the children of promise. As it says in Galatians four, verse 28, now you brothers like Isaac are children of promise.

Now third, Isaac's birth was a supernatural one. Accomplished when the bodies of his parents were as good as dead. Accordingly, Isaac's birth is said to have been supernaturally accomplished by the spirit of God.

And the higher spiritual application here is that all true believers are born again, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, or the will of man, but born of God. The believer is therefore born again by the spirit of God.

And without such a supernatural birth, no one savingly ever believes. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. You must therefore be born again by the spirit of God.

In summary, the covenant promises of Abraham belong to you who are savingly and eternally united to Christ Jesus, who believe on him who justifies the ungodly, and who are born again by the grace of God, according to the sovereign purpose and promise of God, and by the spirit of God.

And do not be surprised that the covenant promises belong to such a people. The promises, as you have heard, are spiritual ones. They are eternal ones. They are saving ones in Christ. And who else should be the recipients of such promises but those who are united to him?

Those Excluded from the Covenant Promises

Now I come to the third issue. To whom do the covenant promises to Abraham not belong? They do not belong to every one of the natural descendants of Abraham. The passage before us is so very clear on this point.

Who was Ishmael? He was a natural-born son of Abraham, but the covenant was not established with him. He therefore had no part or portion in the covenant promises. This was foretold even before Isaac was born in Genesis chapter 17.

Ishmael would not be the heir. And how this prophecy came to be accomplished is recorded in this chapter 21. The feast which Abraham makes for Isaac is the occasion of the teenager mocking his little brother.

Evidently, Ishmael, as the older first-born son, felt a certain superiority over Isaac. And maybe he, as the son of the slave woman, felt threatened by Abraham's proper wife, the free woman. She had finally given birth to a son.

Ishmael was no longer the only one. But whatever the precise reasons for his mocking, it seals his exclusion from the covenant promises. Cast out this slave woman with her son. The son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.

Ishmael and Hagar are therefore sent out into the wilderness, where he will live all his days. And he takes a wife from Egypt, the land of his mother, the slave woman. These facts in the scriptural record serve to emphasize Ishmael's complete exclusion from the covenant promises.

And the whole history here teaches that mere natural descent from Abraham does not entitle one to the promises that are given to Abraham. For Ishmael was Abraham's son, yet the word of God expressly states that Ishmael shall not be the heir.

The covenant promises will not run through Ishmael. They will run through Isaac. But will the covenant promises extend to all of Isaac's natural descendants? No. And the apostle proves this by showing a higher spiritual application from the physical history of those two sons.

Again, in Galatians chapter four, which we have already referred to, that passage declares that Abraham had two sons. Ishmael was born by a slave woman, and Isaac was born by a free woman. Ishmael was born according to the flesh, while Isaac was born according to God's promise.

Now again, the physical history of Hagar and Sarah and Ishmael and Isaac serve to illustrate the higher, the spiritual realities concerning the natural-born descendants of Isaac. Many of them, typified by the Pharisees and Judaizers of the New Testament day, were seeking to be justified by the works of the law.

They were therefore in bondage to that law, for the law demanded much of them, while at the same time it promised that work as hard as you may by the works of the law shall no one ever be justified. At best then, their obedience could be but an enslaved, hypocritical obedience according to the outward letter of things.

Such obedience is no acceptable obedience at all. Therefore, any of Isaac's descendants with this bondage frame of spirit proved themselves to be born merely after the flesh. That is, they only knew a natural birth, they did not know a spiritual birth.

All of these children of Isaac were therefore on the same level with Ishmael, excluded from the covenant promises even as Ishmael was. But this comparison between Ishmael and Isaac does not only serve to exclude from the promises those of Isaac's line who are born after the flesh.

The same comparison serves to exclude anyone, Jew or Gentile, who is born only after the flesh and not according to the spirit. With respect to the heart and nature of a man, there is little difference between the Jew born according to the flesh and the Gentile born according to the flesh.

In both cases, you have hopeless souls trying to justify themselves by the works of God's law. Only difference is the Jew's understanding and the Gentile's understanding of that law differ, but they're both seeking to be justified before a holy God by their works.

That's the point. They have not yet been convinced that it is only by the atoning work of another, the Lord Jesus Christ, that anyone can be forgiven their sins and accepted with God. So they labor on trying to merit God's favor, all the while being in bondage and being born again or born by the flesh that is only.

But all such still have their sins upon them. All such are spiritually dead in their sins and all such are fully excluded from the covenant promises given to Abraham. For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and the flesh is no help at all.

It is only the Spirit of God who gives life. Here then is the answer to the third issue that I have raised. The covenant of promises to Abraham do not belong to you, whether Jew or Gentile or whatever else you call yourself, who walk in the footsteps of Ishmael.

They do not belong to you who are in bondage to the law of God, who vainly strive to be justified by the works of that law, which already judges you worthy of death. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

They do not belong to you who are born according to the flesh only, who know only a natural birth and not a saving spiritual one. The original question that I had raised is now answered, at least in my own mind.

To whom belong the covenant promises which God gave to Abraham? They belong to Abraham and those who walk in the same faith that Abraham had. They belong to the children of promise, the born again children of God.

They belong to no one else. This is what the word of God teaches us through these two sons. And yet this word must be personally applied to you in order for you to have any benefit by it. Consider then the following and then I'm done.

Applying the Promises: Faith, Assurance, and Obedience

First, consider and meditate upon the greatness and the glory and the grace of these promises that are freely bestowed on all who believe. How undeserving all are of such promises. Promises of blessing, divine blessing, the chiefest blessing of all Christ Jesus himself for you and all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in him for you.

Promises of God for us, God with us, God dwelling in us. Promises of life, eternal life. Second, consider how these promises are not only for the ethnic Jew and for all the race of mankind, Jew and Gentile.

There is neither Jew nor Gentile for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3 verse 28. The Old Testament history hints at and it predicts this. The New Testament triumphantly proclaims it. Does not even the account in verses 22 to 32 of this chapter foreshadow this.

Abimelech, the Gentile king, what does he say to Abraham in verse 22? God is with you in all that you do. As I have dealt kindly with you, so deal with me. Oh, I know this is but a dim glow. Of things to come compared to the full realization of things in the gospel day.

But it is still a glow. As is the Ninevites repenting at Jonah's preaching and the prostitute Rahab and her family being rescued from the pagan city of Jericho and the requirement for the Israelites to remember the stranger for you were once strangers in the land of Egypt.

And Queen Sheba coming to sit in the courts of Solomon to meet with him. All these are but inferior and temporal fulfillments of that ultimate fulfillment in the gospel day where the command now comes to rejoice, O Gentiles, with all his people.

And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles and let all the peoples extol him. And again, the root of Jesse will come. Even he who arises to rule the Gentiles in him will the Gentiles trust. Now third, from what has been said here today, there is a great reason to examine yourself.

Regardless of how you see yourself, how does God see you? Are you reconciled to him through his son? Are you a child of promise? Are you born again? Or are you merely a child of the flesh? Remember that Ishmael was a son of Abraham.

He lived in Abraham's house for 17 years. He was circumcised too. And he was blessed with considerable natural blessings from God. And yet he was completely excluded from every one of the covenant promises.

Attending church services such as this one are good. More than that, it's necessary. And outward natural blessings are good ones. But these things are nothing if you do not have Christ. You must be born again with a new standing before God and a new nature in Christ.

Only then will the promises all be yours. Fourth, consider how you, whoever you are, whatever you've done, may take hold of these promises for yourself. You may take hold of them by taking hold of Jesus Christ, the son of God and the son of man, the savior of sinners, the name above all other names, who has purchased life and salvation for all who will call upon his name.

Believe on him then. Go to him then. Embrace him. Trust him. Whoever comes to him will never be cast out. And lastly, to you who are partakers of the divine nature through the covenant promises in Christ, consider the high obligations to obedience that you now have.

The saving grace of God towards you does not alter in any way the requirements of his eternal law. It's written on your heart. Rather, his grace enables you. His grace enables you to acceptably obey that law even though your best works are still marred with sin.

Oh, here is grace indeed. Go on then in the steps of faithful Abraham. Notice how at the end of this chapter, Abraham continues in the true worship and service of God by calling on the name of the Lord.

Go and do likewise, blessed pilgrim. Call upon the name of the Lord, your God, all the days of your sojourn. Let's bow in prayer. Oh, Lord, there is much here. Lord, I pray that I will not have been misunderstood.

Let your word prevail. I thank you for the eternal promises which have been purchased for us in Christ Jesus. Lord, where would we be without him? We would be all gone, lost in darkness forever. But here is a gospel light.

Even Christ Jesus and him crucified. Lord, write these things on our heart. Please continue with us in this place. Leave us not to ourselves. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Thank you for listening to this sermon from Grace Fellowship Church, Edmonton. To access additional sermons and other resources, visit our website at gfcedmonton .com.