When you follow the reading for our evening lesson in Genesis chapter 17 at verse 15, Genesis chapter 17 at verse 15, then God said to Abraham, as for Sarah your wife, you shall not call her name, Sarah, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her. Then I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations, kings of peoples, shall be from her. The neighbor had thrown its face and left and said in his heart, so a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old. And shall Sarah, who was ninety-nine years old, bear a child. And Abraham said to God, oh, the dish male, might live before you. Then God said, no, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for never lasting covenant and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you, behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall be get twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year. Then he finished talking with him and God went up from Abraham. Let us pray. As we have sung now, so we speak in supplication, O Father, that eyes and ears of the heart may be open, attuned, speak, Lord, for thy servants listen. And we do so a glad expectation through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. The emphasis here is names, as it is. The point is the chapter where the names are changed, names are significant. Somebody asked me in this congregation just today, they thought I was wise, it would be wise to give a son for names. Now what's a question like that being close to me? Well, it's all right, isn't it? I mean, the computers can't handle it. Of course, this can't handle our son as a junior. And I get all sorts of combinations, but it gives somebody a little something to play with, I guess, and so I ignore it except it's my name. I like people to get it right. You like people to get your name right. Spell it right. Speak it correctly. Names are important, and that's the emphasis here. The changing of Sarah's name is a landmark, consider that with me, a landmark, an event, a development which indeed marks the turning point, or a stage, and it surely does here. It introduces her specifically and individually as a covenant member. She has been secondary to this point as far as covenant arrangements. But here, in verses 15 through 22, her being called Sarah, it's really just the newer form of the old name that she had had all along. But it's a landmark, the name. Christ's one is a landmark, despite what Steve Falen said in this church at the College Night Service this Sunday evening following Christmas Day. It's easy, advantageous, acceptable, preferable in this culture to use the name. I wonder if the ranks would be thinned in Sudan. A name, Christ's one, individuality, indeed, identification, isn't it? And so her name is Sarah. This is a landmark in the covenant. And when they are first called Christians, as we have in the New Testament record, it is a landmark. And it ought to be a landmark in every life that bears that name. The trouble is, it isn't. And I say, as I preach this old dog, the one our name's actress, but easily do we name Christ. Christ's one, Sarah. And then one has to refer briefly and quickly, and I ask you to turn to it in Revelation chapter 2 to name, especially in the letter to the church at Pergamus, this whole matter of name, the new name, the church at Pergamus, had been very nice. Very nice. The Nicolaians, not only with their doctrine, but their practice, were tolerated. It's a divided congregation, as denominations are divided. And I don't mean simply organizationally. Verse 17, he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches, to him who overcomes. I will give some of the hidden menace to eat, promise one. I will give him a white stone, promise two. And on the stone, a new name written, promise three, which no one knows except him who receives it. When I was converted, I left the fashionable church in which I was reared on Capitol Avenue in the Capitol City of Illinois, and went across towns geographically and socially to a faithful congregation. Others were beginning to do that as God claimed their hearts and lies,
but it was an embarrassment in some circles to go out there. I found it invigorating, it was wonderful. And I've learned some songs I've never heard before. One of them was, and it's a good old foot padding Sunday night in there, the new name written down in glory in its mind. I've never heard it. We never saw saying songs like that on Capitol Avenue, I tell you.
So I couldn't hold tears back. A new name. I remember hurrying after the evening service to read that passage. A new name. What does that mean? We don't know for sure, but it has to do with individuality and identification. There's a new name written in glory. It isn't an issue whether in our American culture it's easy and preferable to take the name Christ. The issue is, is your name written in glory, and is there a new name? Sarah had a new name. Abram had a new name. And every true believer who doesn't play with names, and disregard the accurate use of names, has a new name. And even in that church, where there was an acceptance and a tolerance for the Nicolaisians, and for their awful practices, there were people who were true and faithful. And God would give manna, and this white stone, and the new name, a landmark. And we take up the name of Christ one, and it just takes fully from our living Lord Jesus Christ, a new name in heaven. Incidentally, I believe it speaks to creative ability of Almighty God to have a new name and individual name for every believer who appears in glory without duplicates. Embarrassing sometimes to have the same name as somebody else, this is there. That's an advantage to four names. And so I said to the prospective father, go for it, giving four. A second thing for us to look at in this passage laughter, that's the immediate reaction. It's the first reaction distant. Verse 17, Abraham fell on its face and laughed. Set in his heart, 100 years old, 90 years old, the credulous. But God saw that as a struggle of faith, not the scorn of derision, and we would understand that because link to the laughter is the lament for Ishmael. Oh, that Ishmael might live. That he might be the promised child, this laughter, God's understanding of it when it's an authentic struggle in faith, disinterest, scorn, making life of spiritual things, careful, but a true struggle with understanding and seeing what our friends shared this night that we're crucified with Christ, God honors that, and be honored by giving the name Isaac. You know what it means, don't you? Laughter. Abraham laughed, God said, the promised son of the covenant laughter. The pattern of the day was to give names. Not only with meaning, but in this era, at least in the biblical record, of God answering prayer. For example, Ishmael may God here, or Jacob may God protect Isaac may God smile. Abraham laughed, he had the smile of God if you please, because it was an authentic struggle of faith. It was not sorn, disinterest. Failure to recognize need. Isaac, but lordship. In the midst of this with this landmark, the changing of the names, and with the laughter of Abraham, the Lord God is making it abundantly clear it is his choice, not Abraham's. He pled for Ishmael. God said, no, will not be Ishmael. It will be the sons that I give you, it will be laughter, it will be Isaac. Seven times in this chapter are the I wills of a sovereign God. I am a convinced Presbyterian, reformed in my theology, but I weary of theoretical theology only. I don't want to argue with the holiness people. I have no heart for it. We need the I wills of a sovereign God to come out of the theological debating halls and down into the pavement of everyday living. Follow the I wills, verse 6, chapter 17, I will make you exceedingly fruitful. Number one, I will make nations of you, number two, verse 7, I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and your descendants after you. Number three, verse 8, I will give as a proper translation to you and your descendants after you, the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. And then again, I will be there God in those three verses five of them, verse 19 again. I will establish my covenant, verse 20, I will, I will, in this section with name as landmark. The thruster, which God endorses in the naming of Isaac. He is establishing again, this will be according to my will. These things are mentioned in the New Testament and in part in Romans. And for just a moment, look there briefly with maybe before we go this night. Romans chapter 9. Thinking of the eye wills, the sovereign exercise, the working out of God's sovereignty, it isn't just the debate topic for this century within the Christian church. So whenever we get with somebody of the Westland heritage, we get right into a debate. No, it's for living out these realities. Romans chapter 9 and verse 9. This is the word of promise, at this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father, Isaac, for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election might stand, not of work, but of him who called, it was said to her, the older shall serve the younger, as it is written Jacob, I have loved, but Easter have I hated. God makes the decisions and chooses. No, it will not be Ishmael. It will not be Easter. Verse 24 of this saying, chapter, even not to me call, not to this use only, but also the Gentiles. Has he said also in Hosea, that I will call them my people, who are the them, Gentiles. I'm not asking, if you have a Jewish relative or ancestor anywhere in your genealogy, I'm asking, if you are, by birth, mainly Jewish, let's see all the Jews in the meeting tonight. All the lights aren't on, but I don't see one hand. The Gentile making. The old days when I was at former theological seminary, in the late 50s, in Southern California, J. Vernon McGee was in his heyday at the Church of the Open Door in the heart of Los Angeles. I've mentioned that before here. In my appreciation, not by way of decor so much, but the declaration of truth, of those huge red neon signs on top of the buildings. You couldn't miss them at any interchange in any of all of those expressways in the heart of Los Angeles. Jesus says they started in the morning and had one service after the other, all day long, Sunday School, the morning service, to 30, the Bible Institute of Los Angeles rally, four o'clock, the Jewish Gentile meeting. What's the Jews there? Christian endeavor at 530, evening worship at 7. It was the Lord's Day in the Church of the Open Door. Jewish Gentile meeting. But the interesting thing was, we were not moving into Judaism with Gentiles. The remnants of Judaism was moving into the Covenant of Grace in Jesus Christ and they owned as Messiah. God made the choice, not as male, as Isaac. And the Covenant line will continue, not simply on the basis of racial identity, by physical birth. The Covenant line will continue through the sons of Abraham, who were not my people, Romans 9.25, not my people, verse 28, but they shall be called sons of the living God. His choice, isn't it? Isn't it? Whom he will use in the great work of Grace and the gathering of his chosen ones. I think of that when I ask the Lord to use us. Just the pose he chooses not to use Trinity. Stagger's me. He chooses. The old Gospel him from Tanny Crosley, while on the other's lower bowler calling, do not pass me by. Do you ever pray that? Or are you so sure? Of course. God will use us. He broke off the natural branch. He grafted in a wild branch and the great covenant people of this era, Gentiles. I have no right as appreciate pastor to demand his blessing. I come as you must come. Lord, do not pass us by. O God, in heaven, teach us what it means truly to be humble. Teach us what it means truly to believe in the sovereignty of God, patient, understanding as thou was with Abraham. Even though he's treated wrongly, and thou dost deny that Ishmael would be, in the godly line, thou dost give him Isaac, which was far better. Lord, there ought to be amongst us there is with some of us. Not an unbiblical anxiety, but an authentic humility. We don't in and of ourselves have any rightful expectation to the blessing of heaven to be our portion. So all according to thy sovereign wisdom, thou dost choose Jacob and Navi's law. But will thou understand it like thou dost understand Abraham when he laughed? O Lord, choose this earthen vessel. And fill it with all the triumph of our resurrected Lord, and enthease and fill it again, and pour out from that earthen vessel, gracious blessing and power. Pass us now, O gentle Savior, hear our humble cry, while on others thou are calling, do not pass us by. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.