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Alright, take your Bibles once again and go to Genesis chapter 21. Just for our visitors to know, on our first service on Sunday, we're going chapter by chapter through the book of Genesis currently. So we're up to Genesis chapter 21. And if you look at Genesis chapter 21 verse 1, Genesis 21 verse 1, and before I read it, Isabel, could you just get me a drink of water? Genesis chapter 21 verse 1, the Bible says, The title for the sermon this morning is, As He Had Spoken. You know what's wonderful about the God we serve? Once the Lord God speaks, He will do. And this is the theme of the chapter this morning. We see the things that the Lord had promised, things that the Lord had spoken. He now accomplishes those promises that He made. And that's what gives me the assurance to know that I'm saved. You know, the fact that Jesus Christ came 2000 years ago, sacrificed Himself, shed His blood on the cross, took my sins, became my substitute, and has given me eternal life, a home in heaven, promises that I can be a son of God, mansions on high, rewards in heaven, all those great things. I have the confidence in this because I see the God of the Bible as a God that fulfills His promises, that He does the things He says He will do. And this is what's great about our God, the God of the Bible. This is the theme that we have here in Genesis 21. God comes through many times. And if you guys, I'm just going to read a couple passages to you. What's great about us today, living in 2019, is we have a whole canon of Scripture available to us. All 66 books. Not even Abraham had the blessing. Not even Abraham had the privilege of having the Word of God, you know, in his hands the way we do. And the Bible tells us, Jesus Christ tells us in Luke 21, verse 33. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. How good is that? The words of Christ will never pass away. We can hold them right now in our hands. We can read them. We can meditate. We can memorize. We can preach from the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, the whole 66 books are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because he's the God, he's the author of the Bible. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 8 says, the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Forever. You know, we serve a God of eternity, and he gives us his eternal word for us. It will stand forever. Nothing will take it away. You know, I've heard recently about a conspiracy, apparently, that the Jews are trying to change our Bible. Look, it doesn't matter. People have tried to change the word of God through the centuries. From the very beginning, you know, as Satan in the Garden of Eden tried to change the words of God. Well, the promise is we'll have it forever. You know, that's a great promise that we know our children, long after we're passed away, our children will still have the word of God available to them and to our children's children as well. Psalm 138, verse 2 says, I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name and thy loving kindness and for thy truth. Look at this. This is so interesting. For thou, speaking to God, for thou has magnified thy word above all thy name. Now what's the name by which we are saved? The name of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has all these powerful, amazing names, doesn't he? You know, we look at some of these names here as we've been going through the book of Genesis and we see how men call upon the name of the Lord for salvation, yes, but call upon them the Lord just to go to him in prayer. You know, we ought to ask all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's power in his name. But the Lord magnifies his word, even above his own very name. What an amazing truth. You know, what an amazing truth. Let's look at Genesis chapter 21, verse 2. Genesis chapter 21, verse 2, we've been going chapter by chapter through the book of Genesis, haven't we? We're looking at the promise that God has given Abraham and Sarah, this child, this promised child of Isaac. We're finally now here. We finally made it, guys, in chapter 21 to see the promise come to fruition in verse number 2. For Sarah conceived, and remember, she was like 91 years old or something like this, 99 years old. For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age. Look at this, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. Not only the promise of the child, but the very set time that God said, you're going to have this child, it came true. Just turn back, keep your finger there in Genesis 21. Go back to Genesis 17 just as a refresher. Genesis chapter 17, verse 21. Genesis chapter 17, verse 21. And you might remember the doubts and the fears that came to Abraham and his wife about this child. God gives them this promise here in Genesis 17, verse 21. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. So as far as the timing goes, from Genesis 17, this promise of God, now to Genesis 21, how much time has elapsed? One year exactly, right? So this very set time, this very time to the next year, we see one year elapsed. Just as God said, it will happen. Not only the promise of the child, but the very timing that God promised. And this is hard for us as human beings to wrap our minds around. We know the promises of God. We know that we are to ask all things in faith. But the waiting is the hardest thing, right? We know the Lord's going to answer our prayer. Even if the answer is no, we know he's going to answer it. It might be yes, it might be, well, not just yet. And it's difficult because we want the answer now, don't we? We want to see the Lord answer immediately, but the Lord has a set time as to when he will answer that prayer. We need to hold the Lord God according to his word. We saw that he magnifies his word above his name. Anything we see, the promises that we see from the Lord God, he will come through that. Even the answering of your prayers, he will come through, but he's going to do it at his set time, okay? We don't always know that set time. And I think God doesn't tell us that set time all the time. So we can have our faith in him. So we can have our full trust in our Lord God. Keep your finger there in Genesis 17, back to Genesis 21. We're just going to compare these two chapters a little bit. Look at verse number three, Genesis 21 verse three. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, and whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. Now go back to Genesis 17, because this is what I love about Abraham, all right? Not only does he see that God comes through with his promise, but then we see Abraham encouraged Abraham, the father of faith. Why did he call him Isaac? You guys remember? Genesis 17 verse 19, Genesis 17 verse 19, and God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and his seed after him. So we see that God instructed Abraham, you're going to call him Isaac. So as soon as that son is born, what does Abraham do? Yes Lord, I'm going to obey you. Yes Lord, you've come through. I'm calling that boy Isaac, all right? Now I wish God would tell me, you know, we had a hard time naming number 10, right? I wish, I mean, we didn't have a name for him even after he was born. I wish God just said to me, call him Adrian from the very beginning. We would have called him Adrian from the, but you see what I love about Abraham is he follows through. He's got what God said, right? He sees the Lord has answered his prayer, and Abraham does his part in obedience to the command of God. Go back to Genesis 21, keep your finger there in Genesis 17, Genesis 21. Again we're seeing the fulfillment of the promises of God here, right? Genesis 21 verse number four, and Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old as God had commanded him. Where did God command him? Back in Genesis 17, go back there, Genesis 17 verse 12. Not only does Abraham obey in the naming of the child, but in Genesis chapter 17 verse 12, God says to Abraham, and he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the household, bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. So again, what do we see with Abraham? He's over the moon, isn't he? He's joyful. God has answered this prayer. God has come through his promise. So he calls him Isaac, and on the eighth day, just as God has commanded him a year ago, he circumcised his son at eight days old. And of course, we spoke about the circumcision of the flesh, representing the circumcision of the heart. You know, the putting away of the flesh, not having confidence in the flesh, but putting our full faith and trust and our confidence solely on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's what salvation is. It's not by the works of our flesh. It's not by the keeping of the law. It's basically, it's fully trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we see this as a sign in the Old Testament days, you know, of a physical circumcision representing a greater spiritual truth. And back in Genesis chapter 21, please, Genesis 21. We see many things. We're going to go to Genesis 18 soon, but Genesis 21, and Abraham wasn't 100 years old when his son Isaac was born unto him. Wow. 100 years old. All right, verse number six. And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. Right? And they find it. How old were you Sarah? Yeah. And people start laughing at it, right? Out of joy. They've been waiting so long. They have, you know, many servants that have great possessions, but they're missing something so important to this family that is having this child. And so Sarah says, look, I'm joyful. I'm laughing at this situation. I found joy in the Lord. Verse number seven. And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah should have given children suck? For I have borne him a son in his old age. So who would have thought at this age we would have children? And again, we see the answer of prayer. You know, sometimes the things that appear impossible are possible with God. You know, we might think they're impossible. People around us might think they're impossible, but they're possible with God. You know, we should take our prayers, even things that we may feel are impossible. But we need the Lord to answer those things. Even if we think they're impossible, hey, in faith, take them to the Lord God. Hey, here's the God of the impossible. All right? Here's the God that can change, you know, the very fabric of nature and come through with what would be a miracle here. You know, we've Sarah been able to give birth to this child. And please go to Genesis 18. Genesis 18, verse 12. We're doing a lot of comparison just to see how the Lord has answered these things. Genesis 18, verse 12. And you know, what you may not realize here is that Sarah, as she laughs, she's actually making fun of herself as well, okay? Because in Genesis 18, verse 12, remember when God came to Abraham and again promised, hey, Sarah's going to give birth, okay? And in Genesis 18, verse 12, when Sarah hears the Lord say this to Abraham, it says, Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of assurity bear a child which am old? So here in Genesis 18, Sarah laughs, kind of like mockingly, or a laugh of disbelief. You know, how am I going to have children at this age? You know, how am I going to give, you know, give children to my husband Abraham here? And it's a laugh of disbelief. You know, even the fact that God points it out to Abraham, why is she laughing, you know? And now in Genesis 21, the promises come through, God has come through with his word. Now he she points back to that, you know, she kind of makes fun of herself that she was laughing, you know, mocking at the situation, but now her laughter is of great joy. It's amazing how God can change those circumstances in our life can change our emotions, you know, can change how we see things, we might see something as impossible, we might mockingly see something, but the Lord God is able to change situations and make us laugh with joy, you know, having children should be a joyful experience. It's so sad to me, you know, to see our nation, our society hate children. You know, in Australia, in New South Wales, they're trying to legislate abortion, if you don't want that, you know, if you're having a boy, but you wanted a girl, if you're having a girl and you wanted a boy, you know, New South Wales right now is changing the laws so you can terminate that pregnancy, so you can abort that baby, you can destroy that little life in the womb of a mother. Our nation is heading down a bad path, you know, I mean, it's already been there, it's already been slaughtering the little children, you know, but they're just trying to find other reasons, other excuses to continue down this path, but if these women would just have those children, they would find great joy in that, you know, and I'm going to read to you from John 16, you don't need to turn there, John 16 verse 21, the words of Jesus Christ. He says a woman, when she is in travail, have sorrow, because her hour is come. But as soon as she's delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. That's what Jesus thinks of little children. That's what he thinks about having a child, he thinks it's joyful, you ought to celebrate that little child, you ought to enjoy that. It's not a curse. It's not a little creature to destroy, it has a life, it has a soul, God has a purpose for that child. And I'm so sad to think about our nation, you know, aborting roughly 250 babies every day, every day, 250 babies, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if the hand of the Lord comes upon this nation soon for the destruction of the little children that we have in our nation. Genesis 21 verse 8 please, Genesis 21 verse 8, and the child grew and was weaned. So I don't know how old, you know, I'm not sure how old the child was at this stage, you know, we tend to wean the child off, you know, the mother's milk about a year, roughly, some people maybe two years. So it gives you an idea of how old Isaac would have been here. And it says here, and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. He celebrates it, right? He sees these milestones of children. And you know, this is their first child, I remember when we had Isabel, you know, we would look at every little thing, you know, her first words, you know, her first steps, you know, those little things, we make a milestone, we take photographs, you know, Christina would put, you know, pictures and things up on the wall for different milestones. But then after the second and third and fourth, you don't really think about those milestones so much, right? There's so many things to remember. But again, it's something to rejoice in, you know, those little things that you see your child grow, how you rejoice in those things. That's why I'm against just taking your children and putting them into daycare, you know, putting them into the kitchen, there's so you're missing out on so many great, you know, things that you know, you could rejoice in seeing how they grow, seeing how developing you're giving that joy to somebody else, you know, somebody else that doesn't even love your children as much as you will. They're probably not even taking care of the needs of your children as much as you would, you know, I'm all I'm in favour of mothers being home. You know, I believe this is what the Bible teaches, mothers ought to be home, raising their children, being the homemaker, being that help meet suitable for their husband, you know, some husbands getting out there working hard, providing for himself provided for his family, you know, some mother can be there taking care of the children and enjoying all those little things, having the feasts when the child is weaned, having the feast when the child is taking its first steps, you know, enjoying that child as he grows. And verse number nine. So we have Ishmael now, we're over Ishmael, the son of Hagar, Ishmael would have been about 13 or 14 years old at this stage. And in verse number nine, it says, and Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking, okay, so this is a now, you know, like I said, roughly a young teenager, 13 or 14 years old Ishmael at this point in time, and what do we see him doing? Mocking Sarah, mocking the fact that she's had this child, mocking this feast, you know, that the celebrating of this child has been weaned. What do you take of Ishmael so far then, if he's at, you know, 13, 14 and mocking, he hasn't had, you know, he wasn't raised, he hasn't been raised very well, okay. You know, mom and dad have probably not been disciplined in that child very well. And you'll soon see this is a major issue for God, you know, to see a child of 13 or 14 years old mocking, being disrespectful, you know, parents, we need to make sure we discipline our children. We need to make sure when they are rude, when they mock, right, when they're not respecting the elders, we need to get that rod of correction and apply discipline. You know, Ishmael's not having a great upbringing here, all right. He should know better at this age not to be mocking, you know, Sarah, who's actually the employer of his own mother, okay. She's the one, her mother is the servant under Sarah and he's there making fun of this situation. And look at what happens in verse number 10. Wherefore she said, this is Sarah, said unto Abraham, cast out this bondwoman, Benhagar, and her son, for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. So the fact that his wife is saying, look, get rid of this woman, get rid of this child, you know, they're not being respectful of me, they're not, you know, enjoying, they're not rejoicing in this situation where, you know, Isaac has been born, you know, please cast them out. Verse number 11, you know, it's very grievous in the sight of Abraham to have his wife say these words and the thought of, you know, sending his son away, Ishmael, was something very hard. And Abraham has a great love for his son here. And then verse number 12, this is what God says, and God said unto Abraham, let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad and because of thy bondwoman. In all that Sarah have said unto thee, hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. See, see how serious God considers this? The fact that Ishmael was mocking, was being disrespectful to the elders, being disrespectful in this situation, God says, look, just hearken to the voice of your wife. Now Abraham has made a mistake in the past of hearkening to the voice of his wife. That's the whole reason why he ended up, you know, sleeping with Hagar and having this child. But now God says, look, hearken to the voice of your wife. She's right. You know, Ishmael is not going to inherit or be an heir together with Isaac. So parents, just be careful about your children. Make sure you raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. God does not want to see our teenagers, our children mocking or being disrespectful to the elders. Make sure you stamp that out very quickly. Stamp out when they're rebellious against authority, because they're going to have to learn how to deal with authority for the rest of their lives. Not just mums and dads, but girls, authority of their husbands, men, when you get out there and work, your employees are your authority in this church. Hey, I have the authority, I have the rule over you in this church, we need to make sure we respect the authorities that God puts in our lives. Verse number 13, please, verse number 13. And also of the son of the bond woman will I make a nation because he is thy seed. Now let me just refresh my memory here. I've got a few notes here. If you guys can go to Genesis 16 very quickly, Genesis 16 verse three, there was something I wanted to point out to you because it's quite unusual that God would say to Abraham, you know, you know, put away this bond woman, let her go, okay. And some people find this difficult because they believe Hagar was a wife unto Abraham, okay. And the teaching comes from Genesis 16 verse three, where it says, And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar who made the Egyptian after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And I had mentioned back in Genesis 16 how I do not believe that Hagar actually became a second wife to Abraham, okay. Even though the words here in Genesis 16 might appear that way, but what we see here is that it's Sarah that gave her to be her husband Abraham to be his wife. As far as Sarah was concerned back in this time in Genesis 16, she was seeing that Hagar could be that wife unto Abraham and have that child that was promised unto her, if you remember. But what we see here play out in Genesis 21, you know, here's the thing about taking multiple wives. First of all, you shouldn't do that, okay. The reason we made this mistake here in the Old Testament days, you know, when you made a vow, when you took a wife, you're still required to make sure you took care of the needs of that person, okay. We see this play out many times in the Old Testament. Many of these men made mistakes of taking multiple wives, okay. But here's the thing, if you make a vow like that, you know, you take on somebody like that, even when you're in the wrong, you're still required to be that provider for that person. And so some people find it challenging to understand, well, what happens now? Why in Genesis 21 is God commanding Abraham to let her go, to put her away, let her go? Well, it's because in God's eyes, you know, I believe, in God's eyes, she was not truly a wife unto Abraham. This was just an idea of Sarah that she wanted to have for her husband back there in Genesis 16. Genesis 21 verse 13, please, Genesis 21 verse 13, and I read this already, but it says here, And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation because he is thy seed. This is so important, because we must turn to Galatians chapter four right now, Galatians chapter four verse 22. And we have looked at Galatians chapter four not long ago when we're going through the seven churches in the book of Revelation, okay, but turn to Galatians chapter four please. This is so important. And basically what God is promising, look, if you let them go, you know, they're not going to die, okay, they're going to be taken care of. I've already made a promise, and we saw that this chapter, this theme is that God keeps to his word. He already made a promise to Hagar and to Ishmael that, you know, he would have many descendants. And here he's telling Abraham, he's going to be a great nation, okay. But let's go to Galatians chapter four verse 22, Galatians chapter four verse 22, because here, the Apostle Paul takes this story of Abraham putting away, you know, or letting her go, Hagar, he takes this as an allegory and illustration of a New Testament truth, okay. And many of my Baptist brethren find this very hard to swallow, this teaching here in Galatians chapter four. Let's have a look at it, Galatians chapter four verse 22, for it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, who was that, that was Ishmael, the other by a free woman. Who's the free woman? His wife, Sarah, the son, Isaac. Verse number 23, but he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. Again, reinforcing the fact that Isaac was the promised child, not Ishmael, okay. That Isaac would be born from Sarah, that was the promise that God gave, verse 24, which things are an allegory, okay. Now remember, what we're going to read now is just an allegory and illustration. It does not necessarily point to the truth of Hagar and Ishmael themselves as persons, okay. You know, the apostle Paul is just taking the story from Genesis 21 and he's making a truth of the New Testament here in Galatians chapter four, okay. Verse number 24, which things are an allegory, for these are the two covenants. Now let's stop for a moment. We've recently just started a new series, the Rightly Dividing Series. What's the first thing we covered? The two covenants, the two testaments, the old and the new, okay. So what he's saying is, these children that were born unto Abraham in this allegory represent these two covenants, represent these two testaments, okay. Here and then it says, the one from the Mount Sinai, so if you guys remember, Moses went to Mount Sinai, received the commandments of God, received the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments, okay, that's one. And it says here, Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answerth to Jerusalem, which now is, so what's the Jerusalem which now is? This was obviously at the time of Paul when he wrote these things. This is referring to earthly Jerusalem, okay. Earthly Jerusalem. And then it says, and is in bondage with her children, okay. So what's been taught here is that the first covenant, the first testament brings bondage to the children of that testament. And who's been represented in the story in Genesis 21 of this? It's Ishmael. Ishmael, okay. Now here's the thing. If you're trying to be saved, okay, Galatians is a huge book about salvation, about the gospel, how it applies. If you're seeking to be saved by the commandments, you're seeking to be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments, by keeping the law of God, by keeping the Old Testament practices. The Bible says here, you're in bondage, okay, you're in bondage, being represented by the, sorry, the bondmaid, being Hagar, okay. And then it says here, verse 26, but Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. Who's the us in this story? Paul and the Galatian church, okay, the New Testament believers here. He says, look, we have a Jerusalem as well, okay. We shouldn't be fixed upon the Jerusalem on this earth. And unfortunately, that's where a lot of Christians have set their sights. You know, a lot of my Baptist brethren have set their sights on Jerusalem of this earth, you know, about how, you know, they're seeking to basically, you know, travel there and to see the sights. And I think there's nothing wrong with that. But their hearts are set in the wrong place many times. Their hearts ought to be set on the Jerusalem, which is above. Hey, that's our Jerusalem, that's, you know, which is the mother of us all. That's mama, you know, that's mom right there, heavenly Jerusalem. That's what we're going to be one day when God creates the new heavens and the new earth. He's going to bring that heavenly Jerusalem down to the earth. Here it says in verse number 27, for it is written, rejoice thou barren, that bearest not. Who's that rejoicing? What did we cover? She was barren for, you know, for 90 some years, right? She was barren. And so look, she rejoiced, right, to have given birth of that promised child. And this is sort of a reference to this heavenly Jerusalem, that it will be this mother with many children. For it is written, rejoice thou barren, that bearest not. Break forth and cry, thou that travailest not, for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. The Bible says here, look, this heavenly Jerusalem will have many, many children. And I love this promise because, you know, there are some families that struggle to have children. We see that, you know, with Sarah, she was only able to have the one child. You know, I count myself so blessed to have as many kids as we do. You know, but Sarah was only able to have the one. Well, that's what God gave her. You know, that's fine. That's fine. That's what God allowed her to have. But you see, the desolate woman, the barren woman, can have many children, many children that make up that heavenly Jerusalem. And I'm reminded of soul winning. You know, here's the thing. If you don't have many children, guess what you're able to do? You're able to get out there, knock doors over our neighborhood, preach the gospel, and see people come to Christ. Hey, when they come to Christ, they're born again, born into God's family. Guess where they're going to be? They're going to be with you for all eternity. You know, the heavenly Jerusalem from above will be their mother, will be their home forever and ever. So let me encourage you guys, you know, if you're not being, you know, too tied down with responsibilities with a large family, hey, you've got the opportunity to be doing more soul winning than the average person. Okay, you know, if you have less responsibilities, children, as you grow up, use the opportunities before you get married to, you know, to get out there, you know, tell your friends of Jesus Christ. Tell them of the gospel. You're able to bear children spiritually to make up that new Jerusalem. Verse number 28, Galatians 4.28. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. And again, remember promise, why? The promise that was given to Abraham. Now I'm going to read to you from Genesis 16, verse 10. Genesis 16, verse 10. Actually, now I'm going to read it. Let's keep reading, verse 29. Galatians 4, let's not get distracted. Galatians 4.29. Galatians 4.29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now. Okay, so here, what do we see? We saw Ishmael mocking, right, mocking Sarah, mocking Isaac. He says, look, just like Isaac, Ishmael was mocking Isaac and mocking Sarah in the same way. It says he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born of the spirit, even so it is now. Again, in the writing of Paul to the Galatian church. Now was Isaac and Ishmael alive at that point in time? Of course not. But what do they represent? You know, Ishmael here represents earthly Jerusalem, represents Judaism, you know, the Jews which rejected Christ, the Jews which are seeking salvation through their law, the Jews which believe their special chosen people of God just because of their flesh, just because of their DNA. Hey, that's not what's right. And what Paul says here is they are persecuting the children of promise, okay? What do we see as we read through? We've been going through the Revelation, what do we see? We saw the Jews persecuting. The book of Acts is full of this, persecuting the believers of the Lord Jesus Christ, okay? And this is what this allegory is. In verse number 30, please, verse number 30. Nevertheless, what saith the scripture? Cast out the bond woman and the son. That's what God asked Abraham to do. Cast out the bond woman and the son. For the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. And this is where my Baptist brethren really suffer. They really struggle with this teaching. Because they believe that the Jews without Christ, Christ rejecting Jews, many, I'm not saying all of them, many of them, believe they still somehow are the people of God. They still somehow, even by rejecting Christ, that we ought to be blessing them. Now we ought to be blessing the promised child, the seed of Abraham, which Galatians chapter three tells us is the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're in Christ, what does the Bible say? Go to Galatians chapter three, please. Galatians chapter three very quickly. Galatians chapter, let me just turn there, I haven't got that in my notes. Galatians chapter three, Galatians chapter three, verse 29. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Are you in Christ, brethren? I hope you are. If you're saved, the Bible tells us here that you're Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Hey, this allegory, Isaac represents every believer because it's through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that the promise of the seed of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ, would come to be. And if you're in Christ, you're a partaker of the promises that God gave to Abraham, you know, and your home is heavenly Jerusalem, not this earthly Jerusalem, which is, you know, which is. But here's the thing, the Jews had the chance, they had the chance to receive Christ. He came to be the king. They were the Messiah. Many of them believed. Praise God. If not for those early Christians, many of them were Jews, you know, that started the apostles, many of them, you know, besides, you know, Simon the Canaanite, but the rest of them were all Israelites, right? They were all Jews. Hey, they started the first churches. Praise God for these guys. They were, you know, the seed of Abraham as well, not because of their flesh, but because by faith they had received the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay. But are you guys in Galatians four? Just go Galatians four. Galatians four, verse 31, so then brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Okay, but of the free. Now what's really important here, I want you guys to go to Matthew chapter eight, please. Matthew chapter eight, verse 11. Matthew chapter, I know I've got you guys bouncing around in different books, but Matthew chapter eight, verse 11. Matthew chapter eight, verse 11. This is a sobering thought, sobering truth, you know. In Matthew chapter eight, verse 11, Matthew chapter eight, these are the words of Jesus Christ. And you might know the story where the Gentile, Centurion, you know, came to Christ seeking for Christ to heal his servant, you know, and, you know, the Centurion basically says to Christ, look, all you have to say are the words, and I know they'll come true. I know you're a man of authority, the Centurion says to Jesus Christ. All you have to do is say your words. This is what we're seeing in the book of Genesis 21, that when God speaks, he will do what he says, and the Centurion was able to recognize this truth. And then Jesus Christ says this about the Centurion. He talks about how great his faith was in Matthew chapter eight, verse 11, then he says this, and I say unto you, speaking to the unbelieving Jews, he says to them, and I say unto you that many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Hey, who's that coming from the east and the west? All the Gentile nations, right? Everyone that believes in Christ will come and participate, sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Look at verse number 12. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. All right, look, the Jews that reject Jesus Christ, that through the centuries Judaism today, that reject Christ, those in Israel today, that have a religion that is anti-Christ, that hates Jesus Christ, guess what? They're not going to sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. They're going to be cast out into outer darkness, okay? This is a truth that we need to just realize, you know. I've been told my whole life there were two peoples of God today in the New Testament. Now when I read my Bible, there's one people of God, okay? You, Gentile, man, woman, bond and free, if you're in Christ, then you are the seed of Abraham and the heirs according to the promise, okay? I don't know why that teaching is rejected, to be honest. It's such a great truth. It's available to everyone regardless of your flesh, regardless of your DNA. Why do we reject this truth over and over in our churches? I do not understand. But Genesis 21 verse 14. So Abraham carries through with this request by God to send out this bondwoman, Genesis 21 verse 14. And Abraham rose up early in the morning and took bread and a bottle of water and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder and the child and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beisheba. Now this isn't the first time that Hagar has left the home of Abraham. Remember the story back in Genesis 21 verse 14? Remember the story back in Genesis, I can't remember the chapter right now, where she left and, you know, she called upon the Lord and the Lord came through and helped her. We see a similar story play out here. Verse number 15. You know, so they've run out of water. This is the wilderness. They can't find water. She puts him under the shrubs, a bit of shade to protect him from the sun. Verse 16. As it was a bowshot. And again, so we see the despair of Hagar, you know, her great love for Ishmael, her child. She doesn't want to see her child suffer. She doesn't want to see her child die. So she moves away from that situation. She forgotten the promise of God. Remember back then, God had promised that, you know, Ishmael will have many descendants, you know, and God told Abraham, hey, he will have a great nation, you know, he will have a great nation. You know, she's come to this point of despair once again. And again, we see the promise of God come through into fruition. Go to Genesis 16 verse 10, please. Genesis 16 verse 10. Just very quickly. Genesis 16 verse 10. Just again, a reminder to see how God keeps his word. Genesis 16 verse 10. See, this is to Hagar, that it shall not be numbered for multitude, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. That's the promise of God. If God had promised that Ishmael will have this great multitude, you think we're going to see him die in the wilderness? No. But it's hard, right? When we're going through that, when we're going through the wilderness, when we're not seeing that God's going to come through, but look, we know that God is one that keeps his word, the theme of the chapter. Of course God is going to come through. And we see it back in Genesis 21. Genesis 21 verse 17. And God heard the voice of the lad, and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aleth thee, Hagar? Says, Hagar, what's the problem? What's the problem, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand, for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. Another major theme in this chapter is this theme of water. And here, God is able to open her eyes, and I don't understand how she did not see this in the first place, right? But many times we're blinded. We're blinded by the truth, and we need the Lord God to open our eyes. She's in at a point of despair, but she was so close to a well of water. God reveals that truth to her, look, you're fine. You've got plenty of water here to get you through your journey. And I'm just reminded here, because I can see her anguish, I can understand. My heart feels for her, that she's in the wilderness, they've run out of water, they've run out of food, the sun is beating down on them. And this is what happens many times with us when we're going through trials, we're going through difficulties, saying, Lord, you know, help me, I don't know if I can go through this. See, the Lord always has that well of water ready for us so we can drink from it. And 1 Corinthians 10, 13 says, there have no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. What a promise from God. Let that be a promise to you. If you're going through some hardship at this point in time, the Bible tells us that he's not going to be let you be tempted above what you are able, and he's going to give you a way of escape, he's going to give you a way which you can overcome those temptations and those trials. In this story, we see the Lord showed her that well of water. And I just love the fact, you know, when Christ comes to this earth, how many times did he heal the blind? And how many times did he open the eyes of the blind? We see a very similar story here in the Old Testament. The Lord opening the eyes of Hagar, revealing that blessed water for her to drink and her son to drink. Look at verse number 20, Genesis 21 verse 20, and God was with the lad. So we see the Lord doesn't leave him, right? And he grew and dwelt in the wilderness and became an archer. We can see that this guy becomes a wild man. We also see why he couldn't get along. He was really mocking, you know, an adult at the age of 13 or 14. You know, the Bible tells us he grew up to be a wild man, you know, became an archer. Verse number 21, and he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran. And his mother took him, a wife, out of the land of Egypt. And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech, now, we now change stories to Abimelech. If you remember Abimelech from the previous chapter, he took Sarah to be his wife. He did not know that Sarah was the wife of Abraham. The Lord was going to curse him to death. You know, but he returned Sarah back to Abraham. And he says, look, you know, I had a clean heart. It was by the integrity of my heart. They had deceived me. You know, I didn't know she was a wife of another man. And so we have, you know, Abimelech here again in this story, verse number 22. And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Pithul, the chief captain of his host, spoke unto Abraham saying, if only God could say these words about us, or people would say this about us, God is with thee in all that thou doest. Wow. You know, we have this king and this chief captain, this mighty man, say to Abraham, they're observing Abraham, observing, you know, his great, you know, works, his great wealth, you know, the fact that, you know, he's leading people in the ways of the Lord. And he says, look, we can see that God is with you. You know, what a great thing. God is with thee in all that thou doest. That's what I would love for each one of us. Everything that we do, not just the door-to-door soul winning, not just coming to church, but your work, everything you do every day of your life, the job that you work, mothers raising your children. I hope that God can look down and say, yes, I'm with you. You're doing everything that I'm asking you to do. Man, what a great thing for God to be able to say about us. It's wonderful when you see the heathen, you know, point those things out about God's people. And of course, Abraham is growing in wealth, growing in possessions, all these things. Now he has a son, you know, from his own wife. And they're recognizing this, they're saying, wow, you're a powerful man. And you see that they want to cut a deal with Abraham because they start to become afraid. Maybe Abraham is going to destroy us one day. Maybe not in this generation, but in the following generations, you know, Abraham might come and hurt us. So they want to make this deal with Abraham here. So verse number 23. So Abraham agrees to make this agreement, this covenant with Abimelech and says, you've been good to me, you know, you returned my wife, you gave me all these other possessions. You know, I'll be good to you as well. We'll make sure we're not going to wipe you guys out or anything crazy like that, okay. But we see, you know, as this story plays out, we see here in verse number 25, it says here, and we have another well of water here. It says, So we'll soon see that this well of water was a well that Abraham had dug or his servants had dug, you know, for their purposes, you know, for their crops, for their animals, these kinds of things. And it says that the servants of Abimelech had violently and had violated this property that belonged to Abraham had taken it away. Maybe they destroyed it or maybe, you know, they had taken it for themselves, this kind of idea. And in verse number 26, it says, And Abimelech said, So I believe Abimelech. He said, look, I didn't even know this happened. Okay, verse number 27, Of course, Abraham has learned this from the Lord God, how the Lord had made that covenant with Abraham, and they was commanded to sacrifice these animals. He does something similar with this covenant, this agreement with Abimelech. Verse number 28, There is a lesson that I want to take out of this story here. Okay, and again, you know, we see Abimelech's practice, sorry, Abraham's continual practice of their calling upon the name of the Lord. This time, he planted a grove, you know, made like a nice garden. You know, something nice that, you know, would help him to come before the Lord and to pray to him. He there calls upon the name of the Lord once again, you know, in the name of the everlasting God. But the story that I want to take you guys is we see Abimelech wanting to make this covenant, this agreement with Abraham. Okay, but Abraham points out the fact, hey, your servants have violently taken away this well of water that belonged to me. And as I was thinking about these things, I was just thinking about how can we apply this in a, you know, a spiritual sense for us today? How can we take the lesson from Abraham? And, you know, Abimelech here, you know, was a good man. But, you know, what we're going to find today, guys, is that we have a well of water, you know, a spiritual well of water, don't we? Please turn to John chapter four, please, John chapter four. This is the last passage which turn into today, John chapter four, verse 12. And we're turning to the passage of the Samaritan woman, which Jesus Christ met at the well. Remember that story? And Jesus Christ asked the Samaritan woman if he could have a drink. And they start talking about the waters, and they talk about the well. And then Jesus Christ then changes it to a spiritual lesson about the waters of life, of everlasting life. Of course, speaking about the gospel, speaking about salvation. And in John chapter four, verse 12, the Samaritan woman says this to Jesus Christ. She says, Thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle. So we see here that the Samaritan woman points to this well, highlights the fact that this well came all the way back from Jacob. You know, Jacob gave us this well. You know, who are you in comparison to this water that we can drink out of this well? And then in verse number 13, Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Of course, that's the nature of things with water. It satisfies your thirst for a while, but then you need to drink again. Verse number 14, But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The lesson I want to take out of this story, guys, is that God has given us a drink of his everlasting water. We'll never thirst again. We just need to drink of it once. Once saved, always saved. Once you've believed on Christ, you can never lose it because it's everlasting. All right? If you could lose it, it was never everlasting to begin with. That's what's amazing about the gospel. Once you know it, once you understand it, once you believe it, now you no longer fear death, right? You're never thirsty anymore because you know, because we've seen this chapter, God keeps his promises. We know that we are eternally saved forever. And so when I look at the story there in Genesis 21, we have a bimlech wanting to make this agreement, this covenant with Abraham. But Abraham says, well, we need to sort out one issue. We need to make sure that well is returned back to me. It's been violently taken away from me. We need to make sure that it remains open, that I can have access to that well. And this is what I want to take for us today, guys, is that we need to make sure that we don't make compromise when it comes to the gospel, when it comes to the everlasting waters of life, when it comes to preaching out there. I never want to replace the door to the soul when we do some other activity, okay? We cannot compromise on that truth. You know, Abraham, before he makes the agreement, he goes, we need to sort out the issue of this well. And I'll tell you now, this world is going to try to stop us from getting the gospel out to our community, okay? The devil will try to stop us from getting the gospel out to our community. The devil will try to stop us from getting the gospel even to our own children. They want to take our children away, brainwash them with the philosophies of this world. You know, to deny God, to become atheist, that's what the world is trying to do. They're trying to take away the everlasting water. We cannot compromise on that, guys, no matter what it is. You know, if we have someone that turns up and says, hey, you guys have a church, I want to give you a building for free. But in order for me to give you that building, you need to stop going door to door soul winning. We cannot compromise on that agreement, okay? We cannot compromise. Before we make any deals, before we make any agreements with anybody in this world, we need to make sure that the freedom of preaching the gospel is always open to us, okay? That's the lesson I want to take from us this morning. Look, God has, you know, the lessons there, guys, two things. Number one, God keeps his promises. Praise God for that. God keeps his promises. Number two, let's never compromise on preaching the word of God. Let's pray.