The Exclusivity of God's Covenant Relationship - Genesis 21:8-21 (1.16.19) - Dr. Jordan N. Rogers

[Music] if you're not born of spiritual birth you're not born of the right stock it's not just that you're not included it is that you are actually excluded that's why I Jesus is saying you will find yourselves cast out this evening we're in Genesis chapter 21 verse 8 down through verse 29 or 21 pardon me what I want to talk to you about tonight is the exclusivity of God's covenant relationship the exclusivity of God's covenant relationship this is a thorny text this is a difficult text for us to look at because in this passage you see Hagar the slave woman who is living in Abraham's household and you see the son that she bore to Abraham Ishmael you see them both cast out of the home not just at the request of Sarah Abraham's wife but at the will of God himself you see that Sarah is is merely requesting the same thing that God in fact is demanding and so we're gonna have to come to terms with why it is that it was the will of God to have Ishmael cast out of the home we have to come to terms with those truths and we have to come to terms with the fact that the Covenant relationship with God is entirely exclusive if you can't if you can't come to grips with that truth you can't understand the rest of the Bible even Jesus says of himself I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the Father but by me if we can't accept this about Isaac and Ishmael that Ishmael was not the son of promised Ishmael was the son of a slave woman Ishmael had no business in the home he had no business inheriting the blessings of covenant promise because he was not the son of promise it was not his legal right inheriting covenant promise blessings is a legal right given to a person by birth that's what this passage teaches us I'll sum up the entirety of the sermon in this one sentence it's going to sound a little bit off maybe to you at the very beginning and I'll explain and you'll see exactly what is meant by this sentence so if you will take this take the pen and write this down with me and we'll talk about it for just a moment your birth will limit your participation in God's covenant your birth will limit your participation in God's covenant that's a tough sentence to swallow isn't it how many of us in here are physically descendant from Abraham Isaac and Jacob honestly I don't I don't think there are any ethnic Jews in this room right now and so in this passage we read that you read that sentence for me and that's very bothersome because when we read the Bible what do we do especially when we read we read narrative passages of Scripture that that recite to us the record of a story the record of history we like to see ourselves in the text don't we well Who am I in this passage and we like to look at it and say well I'm Isaac I get the covenant promises of God I'm Isaac but that's not the reality we're not Isaac every one of us every person born into this world is much more like Ishmael than they are Isaac we are born as children of Adam we are not born as children of God we are born as children of adam' children who have a sinful and corrupt nature by birth that is our birthright we're not inheritors of the Covenant promised by our birth when were born into this world no we have to be as Jesus said we have to be born again your birth will limit your participation in God's covenant now I'm just going to examine this passage in two different scenes there are two scenes that that are recorded here in this narrative in this historical document verse 8 through 14 it's a scene in the home verse 15 through 21 it is a scene in the wilderness so a scene in the home and a scene in the wilderness and what we'll do if you'll permit me to do this I normally give you whatever principles we're gonna see drawn out of the passage I normally give those to you as we go and say see this principle that comes out of verse 8 through 14 I'm not going to do that tonight if you'll permit me what I want to do is I want to save those two principles for the very end of the sermon and they're really not principled so to speak they are restrictions there are two restrictions of a coven mental relationship with God the two restrictions of a covenant 'el relationship with God one of them is stated positively and the other one is stated negatively but you can boil them together and come to this statement that your birth will limit your participation in God's covenant so let's look at this scene in the home remembering that Sarah had just in verses 1 through 7 Sarah the the elderly woman who had been barren all her life had just given birth to the son of promise his name was Isaac and his name conjured up all kinds of memories doesn't it they named him Isaac which means laughter or he laughs and you recall in Genesis 17 when Abraham was told that that Sarah would bear him a child in his old age you remember that Abraham laughs a laugh of faithful surprise he is shocked that God would give him a child through Sarah because he's old she was old she was barren Abraham doesn't laugh in disbelief it's a laugh of the surprise and then in chapter 18 sarah is told that she will give birth to this child in abraham's old age in her old age and you remember she doesn't laugh in faithful surprise she laughs in faithless disbelief and so you're constantly remembering how daddy acted when he was told how mama acted when she was told and then whenever at the end of verse 7 here in in our passage from last week in chapter 21 you see that the ultimate conclusion of Isaac's birth is that everybody who thinks of Sarah from now on will chuckle a little bit they'll laugh a little bit because God's blessing is such a surprise in her life she's an older woman she was a barren woman and yet she was nursing this child she was breastfeeding this child in her 90s and Sarah says everybody who hears of this is going to laugh over me it has resulted in joy God has removed her reproach he's removed her shame now she's no longer a fruitless barren woman and in those days that was a curse but now she is a fruitful woman she's provided for her husband and heir she knows that God has done this and everybody who hears about it it's just gonna be absolutely shocked even when we read verses 1 through 7 we get a little bit tickled about it don't wait what she's talking about her elderly age and the fact that she's nursing this child so it says this is just a scene in the home and you look down there at verse 8 it says and the child grew and was weaned don't you love how the Bible does this sometimes between verse 7 and that first sentence of verse 8 there's probably somewhere between 2 to 3 years that pass the child is born in verses 1 through 7 and now the child is in here when you get to verse eight so the child is probably growing a few teeth so you could understand why he would be weaned amen okay you can understand why he would be weaned don't want the baby nursing when they got teeth because they might you know so the babies weaned two to three years old and so Abraham is excited Abraham is happy about this this child is now strong enough to be separated from his mother the child has made it through his most vulnerable years God has not only provided them a child God has given them extreme health he's gotten them through difficult times and now the child is able to eat a little bit of table food so what's Abraham gonna do well my boy can eat some table food so I'm gonna throw a feast for everybody everybody gather around and everybody watch Isaac eat a little bit of this mashed up food he's so proud of his son so he holds a great feast in the home and the child grew and was weaned and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned now how old let me ask you this how old was Ishmael at this time you remember Ishmael being the elder brother the half-brother that is of Isaac Ishmael being the son of Hagar the slave woman you remember when Abraham and Sarah decided to help God out they decided to help God's will come to fulfillment you'll see in this passage that never works well for people we try to help out God's will Ishmael says in Genesis chapter 17 when Abraham was given the Covenant of circumcision it says the ape or that that Ishmael was 13 years old when Abraham took him and had him circumcised now since chapter 17 a full year had passed between that time and the birth of Isaac so Ishmael would have been in chapter 21 verse 1 through 7 he would have been at least 14 years old now the child is weaned which means two to three years have passed in this passage make no mistake Ishmael is somewhere between 16 and 17 years old he's somewhere between 16 and 17 years old that's going to play a little bit of an important part here when you get to the scene in the wilderness so it says in verse nine but Sara saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian whom she had born to Abraham laughing so it's the son of this Egyptian woman you'll see anytime Hagar is mentioned she's always mentioned as a slave woman she's always mentioned as an Egyptian I think it's very likely that were the first time that Abraham went down to Egypt Genesis chapter 12 you remember that he had handed his wife faithless Lea over to Pharaoh and because he had handed his wife over and said she's my sister and Abraham was going to take her as a wife you remember what Pharaoh did Pharaoh gave him a lot of possessions gold and silver and camels and donkeys it gave him male servants and female servants I'm under the impression to think that it would it's very likely that Hagar was given to Abraham in that exchange that's probably where Hagar came into the household not of her own volition I don't imagine any slave came into a household on their own volition and she was never really too faithful to her master who was Sarah but Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian whom she had born to Abraham laughing there it is again there's Isaac's name he laughs but now it's not a now it's not a laugh of Faithfull surprise or faithless disbelief now it's a laugh of sinister mocking now it's a laugh of malice you remember when when Hagar had conceived when she first came into the household and their plan was hatched when Hagar conceived and she saw that she was pregnant you remember that she looked she looked at Sarah and she started mocking her she started making fun of her because she was barren but she had conceived the child and you remember that Sarah got violently angry with her and Hagar fled for her life out into the wilderness it revealed just how angry Sarah was and it revealed just how much of an evil heart Haggar had so let's not forget that so it says that at this feast when everyone's supposed to be celebrating God's faithfulness in the birth of Isaac here's Hagar and here's Ishmael this sixteen or seventeen year old boy and they're sitting there laughing at young Isaac making fun of this family making fun of the son of promise revealing malice revealing malicious intent and it says so verse ten she said to Abraham cast out this slave woman with her son there's the first time she's called slave woman in four verses Hagar is referred to as that slave woman slave woman slave cast out this slave woman with her son for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac so cast this son this boy out he is not your son he is the son of that slave woman he is not a legal heir of your inheritance Abraham he should have no part no share in the Covenant promises of God he shouldn't have any share of the bank account and don't you think that that's on her mind that's clearly on her mind because she's in her 90s her husband is over a hundred years old and the grave is not too far off for them in their vantage point and so they are certainly thinking about how their inheritance is going to be divvied up and here is this 16 or 17 year old boy with Hagar the Egyptian the slave and they're thinking they have hit the jackpot Abraham's got no choice but to give him the lion's share of the inheritance because he is not only a son of Abraham according to the flesh he is also the firstborn son of Abraham according to the flesh and Sarah comes in and says this isn't going to happen they have a rotten heart and they have no legal claim to this inheritance so she says cast out this slave woman and her son this passage tells me one overarching truth if it reinforces anything it tells me one overarching truth is that the promises of God are exclusive promises of God are exclusive let's just look at one New Testament passage here for just a moment and see that phrase cast out and see who it's actually talking about the scribes and Pharisees they come to Jesus they're speaking with him they're challenging him constantly and listen to what Jesus says in Luke 13 verse 26 through 29 he says to them in the end then you will begin to say upon your death that is we ate and drank in your presence Jesus and you taught in our streets but he that is God but God will say I tell you I do not know where you come from depart from me all you workers of evil in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out and people will come from east and west from north and south and recline at table in the kingdom of God that that that passage right there is is chilling that here are people who saw Jesus face-to-face they by their own admission he taught in their streets they had complete access to his teaching but for some reason they will in the end find themselves cast out though they were physical descendants of Abraham he says Abraham and Isaac and Jacob they're gonna be at the table in the kingdom you won't you won't inherit the Covenant blessings you won't inherit a permanent eternal relationship favorable relationship with God you're gonna find yourself cast out but then that last verse there verse 29 it says and there will be people from east in west and north and south and they will come and recline at the table in the kingdom you know what I'm asking when I read that how can I be part of verse 29 because I'm not a physical descendant of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and there was something awry in these scribes and Pharisees persons that was keeping them cast out of the kingdom but there are people there are Gentiles north and south and east and west that they get to come and sit at the table in the kingdom so how do I participate in the kingdom of God how do I receive these covenant promises of God's blessings I can't do it by my physical birth I can't do it by my physical birth I will find myself cast out listen what Jesus says John chapter 6 verse 37 he says this all that the father gives me will come to me and I will never cast out that's good news all that the father gives to Jesus will indeed come to him and those that God gives to Jesus he'll never cast them out you know gonna be treated like Ishmael so Ishmael is treated like this in a temporal manner but those who are cast out of the kingdom that is an eternal verdict so I want to know I want to know how to be the one be one of those groups in in John 6:37 that Jesus has in his hand or in Luke 13 29 that sits at the table in the kingdom but you see the way that the son of the slave woman is treated here go back to verse 10 cast out this slave woman with her son for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac how would you feel about this I'm telling you I read this passage and I've just been disturbed by it I've been disturbed by it because God is about to confirm what Sarah is the main as his will you would probably feel the way that Abraham does I know I did when I'm reading this passage my flesh is tempted to feel the way that Abraham did listen to Abraham's reaction verse 12 or verse 11 and the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son and say it was very displeasing at two times it's gonna say displeasing in this passage thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son he's not wanting for his son he's raised this boy for sixteen or seventeen years he's the one that he's taken on the Hunts he's the one who's helped him around the house he's the one who's helped him do repairs he's the one that's gone with him on these travels I mean he he'd knows he spent more time with Ishmael than I have with my own sons and yet now he's having to cast this child out let me just tell you this shows the problem with polygamy apes are Abraham's problem is not that he has too many sons Abraham's problem is that he has too many wives that's his problem if Sarah would have been his only wife guess what Isaac would have been his only child and this wouldn't have been an issue Abraham's problem is not that he has too many sons he's got too many wives people in this world as as ridiculous as it is people in this world talking about having open relationships and multiple sexual partners and open you're opening up a can of worms that nobody in the Bible even knew how to deal with nobody in the Bible knew how to deal with that can of worms so what does God say one sentence solves it all you shall not commit adultery one sentence settles the whole issue see this was not God's problem this was Abraham's problem Abraham and Sarah tried to help God's will they tried to help God's will because he wasn't answering in the time limit that they had said and so they went outside of God's will we say it all the time the safest place to be is in the center of God's will while then contrapositive Lee what is the most dangerous place to be the most dangerous place to be is to be outside of God's will and now Abraham and Sarah Ishmael Hagar they are all dealing with the consequences of their faithlessness of Abraham and Sarah's faithlessness back a number of years 17 years ago and now they're dealing with it thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son verse 11 verse 12 now but God said to Abraham confirms it be not be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman see it's not just Sarah calling Hagar the slave woman God is confirming everything that Sarah has said yes she is a slave woman and yes this boy Ishmael is the son of a slave he has no right to the inheritance of these Covenant blessings that I've given to Abraham 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 as Genesis chapter 17 verse 19 that is the very promise that God made to Abraham before Isaac was ever born you remember in Genesis 17 God gives Abraham the Covenant of circumcision and he tells them I will establish this covenant with your offspring and what does Abraham say Abraham says Oh Lord that Ishmael might live before you and remember what God says he says no but through Isaac shall your offspring be named this decision of who receives covenant blessing is a decision of the sovereignty of God it is not for man to decide it is not for man to choose on how God fills his will or how God offers salvation to man or how God offers blessing to man it's always according to God's sovereign will know through Isaac shall your offspring be named so God has to remind Abraham Abraham already knew this but we seem to forget God's word sometimes especially when it seems to be convenient in order for us to satisfy our own desire so God reminds him of what he's already said for through Isaac shall your offspring be named verse 13 and I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also because he is your offspring just make a mental note of that we'll come to that I will make a great nation a nation of the son of the slave woman why because he is your offspring just make a note of that in your mind verse 14 what does Abraham do Abraham does what he's done from the beginning he hears the command of the Lord and he obeys it so Abraham rose early in the morning tells me that God was probably speaking to him through a dream so Abraham rose early in the morning and 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 Beersheba is south of Hebron where Abraham was living it was north of Egypt northeast of Egypt that is it is on the the northern border of the wilderness of sin that would be where Mount Sinai was so this is the borderlands of the wilderness where the people of Israel wandered for forty years trying to get into the promised land so make no mistake they're going out into the desert there's not going to be much opportunity to survive there there's really only a few kinds of animals that live out in the desert and most of them are donkeys take note of that too so it says Abraham rose early in the morning took a bread took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar and then she gives she gives her the boy and says leave get out you know you remember back in Genesis 18 whenever the angel of the Lord appears to Abraham at that point his name is Abram but the angel of the Lord appears to Abraham with the two other guests the two angels so you have pre-incarnate christ in my understanding and you have two angels that come and they visit and you remember what abraham does he reacts very shockingly he runs into the tent and he turns to Sarah and he says he says hurry bake some bread he runs to the young man and he says kill the fattened animal and bring it out slaughter it prepare it make a meal for these men abraham served his guests with more rations than he gave this slave woman and the child he gave them a little bread and a little bit of water there were there was an expiration date on their ability to survive on abraham's pocketbook he wasn't going to do anything tap his inheritance to give him anything he just sent him away and let me tell you when you read Genesis chapter 25 you're gonna realize that Ishmael is not the only child he sent away Abraham had other children because he had a concubine named cateura after Sarah had died and that that concubine bore him children and guess what he did in Genesis 25 he sent them away too because why what did God say in Genesis 17 24 through Isaac shall your offspring being named Abraham's having to do hard things because he kept disobeying God's will he kin made it hard on himself in this sense so that's the scene in the home now look at the scene in the wilderness when the water in the skin verse 15 when the water and 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 but we can sympathize greatly with Hagar here she's within the distance of a bow shot so who knows maybe 80 yards at the most you're shooting the bow in the air maybe that much so it's far enough where she might be able to see once he gets dehydrated and starved out enough that you see just this little figure in the distance kind of fall over and she'll know I'm not walking in that direction I'm just gonna die over here but she's not gonna be able to hear her child crying and and screaming for help she's not gonna be able to see things in detail because she thinks that's that's just too much for me look what it says let me not look on the death of my child and she sat opposite him she lifted up her voice and wept no doubt the child was weeping too and he's a 16 or 17 year old it's not a baby with her verse 17 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 wilderness and became an expert with the bow you see how God is God was ministering to Hagar and to Ishmael I mean they're paying for Abraham's mistakes but God was still merciful to them and notice how God is God is being merciful in fact God promises a blessing over Ishmael even though he was not participating in the Covenant blessings see the Covenant that God made with with Abraham and then to his son Isaac was an everlasting covenant it was a covenant but see Ishmael is not getting a covenant Ishmael is just getting a blessing he's getting a temporal earthly kind of blessing he's gonna have lots of kids and they're gonna turn into a great nation just as he lives in the wilderness and he became an expert with the bow verse 21 he lived in the wilderness of paran and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt from her home so she goes and makes the journey on through or maybe they sent a servant and they go on through the wilderness to Egypt finds an Egyptian woman brings her back and so now Ishmael the son of an Egyptian servant is also married to an Egyptian you see a number of things about Ishmael here Ishmael is a man who is going to live in the wilderness he's not a man who is allowed to live in the land of promise he's not a man living in the land of Canaan in fact the Ishmaelites will live in the wilderness of Paran just south there of Beersheba as I saw it told you a moment ago there there's really only a few kinds of animals that can live in the the wilderness in the desert for extended periods of time all of those animals don't need a whole lot of water it's interesting that one of those animals is in fact a desert mule it's a donkey that'll live out in the wilderness so it reminds you because this is what it reminds me of Genesis chapter 16 verse 12 you remember the word that the Lord had spoken concerning Ishmael the first time that Sarah had fled listen to what God said about Ishmael he said this Genesis 16 verse 12 he shall be a wild donkey of a man his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen seems to make sense why he would be an expert with a bow he'd end up using that in his occupation all his life he's going to have lots of kids but they're all gonna fight with one another they don't sound like the children of God they sound like heathens they sound like pagan people who just can't get along who just can't love one another constantly fighting constantly having civil wars constantly killing one another and God said this is going to be his destiny even from his birth he's gonna dwell over and against all his kinsmen and Friends these Ishmaelites still fight one another even to this day consequences of helping God's will consequences of trying to rush God's hand and those consequences are felt thousands of years after the fact it tells me one thing by implication tells me this wait on the Lord don't try to help him out because when you try to help God out you don't get God's will when you try to help God's will out you get bad consequences here now Abraham's suffering the heartache of the loss of a child and now Ishmael is going to grow up with war running through his veins and running through all of his lineage now when I look at that passage I say okay there's a lot of implications I can see here to apply to God's people to apply to us but but what are we supposed to see why is it that the Holy Spirit inspired Moses to record this passage of Scripture because the Bible says that all Scripture is god-breathed and is profitable for doctrine reproof correction and instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work he's complete ok so this passage is written down not just for the instruction of the Israelites it's written down for our instruction as well so what are those truths within this passage that are timeless and applicable to us the overarching principle I've already pointed to you which is that your birth will limit your participation in God's covenant that's what I see in this passage so Isaac is born of Abraham and Sarah he is a son of promise he is a son of spiritual blessing so what does he get he gets full participation in the Covenant promises he gets a full share in the inheritance of right relationship with God that is permanent what's what Isaac gets Ishmael on the other hand is an impostor he is a physical descendant of Abraham but he's not a legal inheritor of the promises he might have been born of Abraham according to the flesh but he's not born of Abraham according to the promise so he does not have covenant relationship with God he may have temporary blessings but he doesn't have relationship with God so there are restrictions to covenant relationship with God let me show you two of them one state of positively one state of neck negatively so two restrictions on your participation in God's covenant relationship restriction number one God's covenant relationship is attained only by spiritual birth when we're talking about a covenant relationship we're talking about a relationship that is defined by rules a covenant with God is you can't tear that contract up it's permanent it is eternal it is as God said to Abraham and everlasting covenant so then God's covenant relationship is attained only by spiritual birth in Galatians chapter 4 Paul makes this point very clear that Isaac was a son of promise he was a son born according to the spirit not saying he was conceived by the spirit but he was conceived by the will of God he is a son of promise ishmael on the other hand is not a son of spiritual birth he is a son of the flesh and paul says that that distinction is very clearly made here what do you see about Ishmael Isaac for sure he gets all the blessings he gets all the promises of God and forever we know Yahweh as the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in fact in Luke 13 the passage are referenced earlier how does Jesus refer to the kingdom he says the kingdom you'll see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets but you yourselves cast out forever God is known as the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and everlasting covenant Ishmael is blessed isn't he but he is not blessed with everlasting covenant --all relationship with God why because he is of illegitimate birth that pill is hard to swallow so Ishmael was blessed and why does it say that he's blessed it says that he is blessed I will bless him and make him a nation because he is your offspring that's what the Lord said to him because he is your offspring that's why I bless him so Ishmael is going to be blessed make this connection here in little Hill Ishmael is blessed because of his proximity his nearness to the man of God's choosing Ishmael experiences temporary blessings because he is close to Abraham but he does not receive eternal blessings because he is not a legal child of Abraham so he receives temporal blessings because of his proximity to Abraham friends there is a difference there is a difference between being near God's people and being one of God's people there's a big difference between the two you see there is a nearness to God's people that normally results in blessings that's the great deception of being an American the great deception of being an American is the fact that those countries found it on what kind of principles we say it all the time it's founded on judeo-christian principles so why do we think that we have enjoyed certain blessings of prosperity and peace for the most part sevilla civility compared to other nations and other political experiments through the millennia and so this country enjoys what kind of blessings temporary blessings peace on our borders peace within our borders economic prosperity and so on and so forth and you know what the further that a people gets away from god's doing the further a people gets away from God's will the more they remove themselves from temporary blessings those are the things that are being experienced now but don't make the mistake of thinking the way that certain colonists thought when they inhabited this land that being American means that you are God's people America is not God's nation Israel is God's nation we may have enjoyed certain prosperities because of our nearness to the Word of God but this country as a nation there's a difference between being near God's people and being one of God's people now let's zoom the scope in here just a little bit because let me tell you this there is a difference in being near God's church and being part of God's church you see the people that Jesus was talking to they're in Luke 13 they were very near to the people of God but they were not part of the people of God that's why Jesus says you will find yourselves cast out I'm afraid that there are many people Lord willing it's a very small number that's in membership here in this local body but you know as well as I do in the church in America there are many people who are on the membership roles and they are near God's people but they ain't one of God's people and they may experience certain blessing moreover think about this near the scope in a little bit more there are many people who born into this world to Christian parents and enjoy certain temporal benefits they enjoy benefits of peace in the home love in the home a good raising parents that do whatever they have to do to provide for their kids and there are children who believe that because they were born of their parents and their parents are Christian that they have inherited the covenant raised relationship promises of God but they have not it is not those who are born to Christian parents who are Christians it is those who are born of the Spirit it is those who are born of God it is not moreover those who are born this has been a deception in the Jewish world it is not those who have been born of Abraham physically that are the inheritors of God's everlasting covenant promises Ishmael was born of Abraham physically he was not inherit heir of the Covenant promises of God those men that were talking to Jesus in Luke 13 that will find themselves cast out you know what their one hope was they said we are children of Abraham and they said to Jesus and you don't know who your father is that's why you say that your father is God we know who our Father is that was their one hope but they were children of Abraham listen to what Paul says in Romans chapter nine verse seven and eight he says and not all our children of Abraham because they are his offspring but through Isaac shall your offspring be named this means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God but the children of the promise are counted as offspring it's the children of promise well that begs the question God's covenant relationship is attained only by spiritual earth so that begs the question now how do i attain spiritual birth how do I become part of God's family part of God's kingdom well look at the second restriction here restriction number two God's covenant relationship excludes all who are not born of the right stock not only does God's covenant relationship demand only includes those who are born of spiritual birth but the opposite of that is true as well if you're not born of spiritual birth you're not born of the right stock it's not just that you're not included it is that you are actually excluded that's why Jesus is saying you will find yourselves cast out you've got the wrong parents you got the wrong father you are sons of Adam Jesus in fact called the Pharisees and scribes he says you are of your father the devil and he says if god were your father what did he say if god were your father you would hear me and you would believe me my sheep know me and they hear my voice so spiritual birth means inclusion in God's covenant relationship it's not born of the right stock not included in this covenant relationship now as I said we're Gentiles in here we know our makeup none of us are born physically of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob we know that we are illegitimate by our physical birth moreover every one of us knows that we are sons and daughters of Adam we know that we are as it says in Ephesians two we are by nature children of Wrath no one mark this no one is born into covenant relationship with God and not born in the covenant relationship with God you have to enter into it we're all born into the world with the wrong parent Adam that's the difference that Paul points out in Romans chapter five that through the one-man death and sin entered into the whole world but through Jesus forgiveness life everlasting fellowship with God now I want you to listen to what Jesus says here in John chapter three when he's talking to a man a teacher of the Jews listen to what Jesus says to this man in John chapter 3 about entrance into the kingdom of God that is everlasting covenant ring into the new covenant with God he says this jesus answered him john 3 verse 3 truly truly i say to you unless one is what unless he is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God that's Jesus say you have an illegitimate parent Adam Nicodemus said to him how can a man be born when he is old can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born jesus answered truly truly I say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit do not marvel that I said to you you must be born again why does Jesus say do not marvel do you not marvel that I said to you you must be born again I think that he says something like that because back in Genesis chapter 21 even you saw that if you are not born of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob you are not born of the son of promise if you are not have if you have not had a spiritual birth you're not in right relationship with God so don't marvel at this and don't marvel to think that God can't do this Jesus is telling Nicodemus the solution to his question so that Nicodemus will believe in Jesus and be born again the apostles make it so simple when they're preaching there in the book of Acts and they're telling people to call on the name of Jesus repent everyone and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins born of water be born of the Spirit and you will receive forgiveness of your sins just say what does Jesus say all who call on the name of the Lord was what Paul says in Romans all who call on the name of the Lord they will be saved see a person is a child of Abraham it's what Paul gets to in Romans 9 a person is a child of Abraham when they believe the same way that Abraham did it's not just being born of Abraham according to the flesh it's having the kind of faith that Abraham had and that way you attain to a spiritual birth and you enter into the Covenant promises and the covenant relationship with God your birth will limit your participation in God's covenant did you pray with me [Music]

Channel: Dr. Jordan Neal Rogers

Views: 2,224

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: preaching, teaching, Bible, Scripture, biblical, expository, expository preaching, exposition, exegesis, Old Testament, OT, exegetical, truth, help, understand, Isaac, Ishmael, Hagar, Galatians, Genesis 21, banish, banishment, banished, slave, inheritance, covenant, theology, theological, Christian, Messiah, Messianic, Jesus, Christ, New Testament, Moses, salvation, born again, new birth, Hillcrest, Baptist, Church, Nederland, Texas, Jordan Rogers, Jordan, Neal, Rogers, Dr. Rogers

Id: 1QSIGi3t29o

Length: 49min 40sec (2980 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 24 2019