We're reading in Genesis chapter 16, beginning at verse 1, looking at the life of Abram, looking at the authentic Christian life through him, historically and biblically, follow the reading in Genesis chapter 16 at verse 1. Now Sarah I, Abram's wife, had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid servant whose name was Hegar. So, Sarah I said to Abram, seeing how the Lord has restrained me from burying children, please, go into my maid, perhaps I shall obtain children by her, and Abram heated the voice of Sarah, and Sarah I Abram's wife took Hegar, her maid Egyptian, and gave her to her husband, Abram, to be his wife. After Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, so I went into Hegar and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. And Sarah I said to Abram, my wrong be upon you, I gave my maid into your embrace and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me. So Abram said to Sarah, indeed your maid is in your hand due to her as you please. And when Sarah I dealt partly with her, she fled from her presence. Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness by the spring on the way to shore. And he said, hey, Gar, Sarah's maid, where have you come from and where are you going? And she said, I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress, Sarah. So the angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress and submit yourself under her hand. Then the angel of the Lord said to her, I will multiply your descendants exceedingly so that they shall not be counted for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said to her, be hold, you are with child and you shall bear a son, you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction. She'll be a wild man. His hand shall be against every man and every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. Let us pray for just a moment. Speak to our own hearts as we have shut the door spiritually, O Father, and in the quiet of this evening time and the freedom of it and the blessedness of this sanctuary. And above all, around that sacred page that we call the Holy Scriptures,
speak to our hearts for Jesus's sake. Amen. It's quite a contrivance, isn't it? That's the first and obvious thing, the contrivance they came up with. I want to say, and I've wrestled with this and find only one person agreeing with me, Matthew, Henry, but he's enough. This is understandable. It's not right. But it's understandable. They've been 10 years in Canaan, and Sarah cannot yet bear a son. They've been through the LA Azar thing. Is it he? This one from Damascus, this Syrian, Lord, I thought you said it would be one born in my own household. When I say this is understandable, it does not mean it is excusable. When I say it is understandable contrivance, I am saying that we understand the difference between evil intent and acting finely out of weariness of wafing. There is a difference. They turn on each other, they accuse each other, and as our younger son said hours before he was deployed to Kuwait, oh, if Abraham just hadn't done it. But this is understandable. Commit your ways of the Lord. Trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass decades later. And we have moved more and more and more into the mode of everything instantly now, and it's infecting us in our Christian walk. It is me, and therefore I know it is you. I mean, I'm ahead of you. I have some Nova sympathy for Abraham and Sarah. Wonderful promise, little evidence that it is coming to pass, the contrivance of having him marry a second wife, this Egyptian handmade, it's not born out of sitting and thinking, how can we do evil and get away with it? Rather, what can we do in light of our frustration? Christian life has like that. Even the authentic life, even the life of overcoming has its episodes, doesn't it? That's not excusable, but it's understandable. We don't want to think of the authentic Christian life, the life of overcoming the life of victory in our risen Lord Jesus is a life somehow that is not ever bothered or perturbed or difficult or even without episodes such as these. That's what I mean by understandable. It was also acceptable in the custom of that society,
the Lord God, while he had given initial revelation and truth concerning monogamy, nonetheless, in the long suffering of God, not the compromise of God, but the long suffering of God is willing to use crooked sticks if you please to strike a straight blow. He used in the days of revelation as he was moving from the awful fallen condition of man into a pure state of sanctification and living. He was willing, never to endorse, never to excuse, but in that era, not now, to use an Abram, a David with multiple wives. It was the custom of the day and fully acceptable, but it is wrong. It comes out this way now and you have to evaluate authentic Christian living and life of this. Nobody thinks anything of that anymore. Oh, therefore it's right, customs accommodate themselves to culture and are a part of it. This is a capitulation to custom. It is compromised and it is wrong. Understandable, acceptable in that day. There are things the church would not have tolerated in your grandparents generation, and it doesn't matter whether the culture and custom make it acceptable. Think that through. This contrivance is deplorable. Yes, it was understandable. Yes, it was acceptable according to custom and culture, but it is deplorable. That was the soldier son said, if only Abram hadn't done it. We're living it out. Depending on your eschatological understanding of prophecies, it will all be a part of the last days concerning our Lord's return. The great conflict Israel, sons of Isaac, Arabs, sons of Israel. The problem with the United States is not nice alibamy and perspiterian Americans in the meeting tonight. It is that we're on Israel's side.
Politically, it was Truman who acted summarily and instantly in 1948 and settled the issue of whether or not Palestine would be an Israeli state. This is deplorable on the part of Abram in light of 156. He believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness. What a wonderful testimony. After the testimony, the test and this deplorable contrivance. I have heard clergymen say they're worst temptations of mind and spirit are after the meeting, after preaching and I don't know in what area they who have said that to me are speaking of. I will be honest enough to say I never evaluate the Sunday when I get home on Sunday night, never. The enemy would come and put me in the pit of despair and darkness, rehearsing every mistake, every good thought that came to me after the benediction that I had intended to say from the pulpit. You know what I used to do? Some of you are not old enough, but some of you remember. Understanding the Sabbath ends with the benediction of the evening service. I used to go home and watch manics. I liked him, cocky, smarting off to the bad guys and always winning but just consumed my interest as I relaxed. That's all passed and so I get absorbed in the New York Times crossword puzzle. It's a little bit of a challenge. The temptation, the test, after the testimony, that's all part of it, the authentic Christian life. Doesn't mean absolute defeat and despair. It means also not to have contrivances,
but to use acceptable means to ward off the enemy. You do that don't you? You're alert to that, testimony, test, contrivance. It's deplorable and light of 15, 17 and 18. Remember last Sunday night we looked at these strange ceremonies by which Almighty God was not only affirming the covenant again to Abram but adding to it and this ceremony that said in essence, as the visible token of God in a smoking oven and a burning torch passed between the parts of the animals that were severed, they were in halves and laid out by instruction from God to Abram as the symbol of Almighty God came down and passed through in ceremony and symboled in token. God is saying, I can sooner cease to exist and fail to do what I promised. So this contrivance of Sarah and Abram with Hagar, understandable as it is, acceptable as it was in the culture, it's deplorable. It speaks to us of the futility of man's schemes, contrivances, to obtain God's blessing and to make our own earthly, carnal schemes appear to be God's blessing. Trust the day will come if the Lord carries where every seat in this sanctuary is filled morning and evening on the Lord's day. Why not? We could fill it in the hurry to contrivances and make it all acceptable and look as though the blessing of Almighty God is upon us, not against large numbers, read the lives of footfield of moody and others and God gave them great thralls of chorus. But there's a lot of noise, a lot of numbers in our day that don't seem to transform,
watch out for contrivances that may be understandable, may be acceptable, but if there are only carnal schemes and methods, cleverly hidden behind a veneer of the blessing of God, remember this such are deplorable. I don't agree with everything, A.W. Pink wrote, and I must say that before I quote him, his book on the sovereignty of God is excellent. Some of his earlier writings, well, he's just a bit too dispensational, you know that. But he said this concerning this contrivance, waiting is just what the natural heart finds so hard to endure, doesn't he years?
Rather than wait, man prefers to take the management of his affairs into his own hands and use human expediencies to give effect, to divine promise. And even remember this, that God had said that you will have an heir, born of your own household, born from you Abram, but God had not identified Sarah as the mate, and so they brought his male by Hagar and Sarah turned on Abram. After Hagar turned on Sarah, and the conflict that ensued was in fact a wrong attitude on the part of Hagar, fault the accusation by Sarah against Abram and a washing of his hands and abdication by Abram. Get rid of her, don't bother me with it, not wanting the responsibility
of a conflict to hurt the ethnic enmity to this hour. It warns me that in the authentic Christian life it can sound so plausible, acceptable, but in God's sight if it is carnalty as opposed to faith, if it is the attempt to use man's expediency instead of true waiting on the Lord, unless you do it Lord, will not pretend. Remember that in the authentic Christian life there is that time after testimony and truth and triumph, trial and testing of awful consequences, enmity, husband, wife, parents, children, nation, nation, my soul, beyond God. We don't do this sort of thing and go scoff free. The whole generation is lost in the church. We do these things, people are confounded all the way. Here's a man who walked by faith, who is the father of the faith. It isn't all over,
but it is a warning, isn't it? To which I believe we should respond to that chorus that I defended theologically, just the other Sunday. I've decided to follow Jesus, a determination, a decision, a direction. They seem foolish to some. I may even be counseled by others to do something differently, but when the pledge and promise of God are given, we commit our way to it. We trust in Him to bring it to pass. So the end result is, and don't you love this old English, none can gain say, but that it is of the Lord. Oh, to have such an authentic restoration work here, that no gain sayer can speak. So let us say and mean it this night as we close the Lord's day. I've decided to follow Jesus. It's in our book. It's number 451. No turning back, no expediencies, no substitutes, no contrivances, 451. Let us have those things in mind as we stand and sing all the standards of this chorus.