Promises Kept

March 19, 2007

Genesis 25:11-18

Next week we’ll look at the beginning of the story of Israel . But today I want to recap a promise that God made and see here its fulfillment. God is like that, in fact we may look at other promises and their fulfillment before we finish here as a reminder that God remembers.

I note here that Ishmael has lived long and prospered. I note also that he has had twelve strapping sons. That’s important!

Please dart back to Genesis 17 with me for a moment...I’ll wait while you find it...Ok lets read together:15 -22

You see here that God made a promise to Abraham concerning Ishmael, and that God kept that promise. 12 sons and many nations .

Esau married into this family...Ge 28:9. and I need you to know that Esau’s name was also Edom , Do you know anything about that name? You should its mentioned 87 times in scripture, it was strong nation when Israel came into the land after captivity and stood against Israel . So not only through the sons is he a father of nations but through this lady Esau married as well.

The second son of Ishmael is Kedar...have you ever heard that? Its only listed 11 more times in scripture, but did you know that one of Solomon’s wives, the one in the Song of Solomon, came from the land of Kedar ? Did you know that Kedar was a rather prosperous land and its goats and sheep were many? In Chronicles the children of Adbeel are listed, as are the children of Misbam, Mishma, Dumah. Massa , is not mentioned elsewhere but the next one is Hadar and listen to 1Ch 1:50 n I Sa 21:14

So this Son continues as well in posterity. In fact there is a rather well known Temanite listed in the Book of Job, He is Eliaphaz , one of Job’s three comforters

Job 2:11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliaphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.

Jetur is not found specifically nor Naphish or the last Kedemah: BUT there is substantial evidence that the Sons and daughters of Ishmael became great nations and a great peoples. God, you see, had kept His word. Did you know that God does that? Of course, but did you know that there is a long term penalty along with this promise?

Recall that Ishmael was born as the result of Abraham's mistrust of God’s ability to give he and Sarah a son? Recall that they stepped out on their own and figured out how to help God out? I mean he had specifically promised THEM a son and they were doubting and there is a long-term penalty. We have dealt with the fact that Abraham was a man who believed God. We have also dealt with the fact that Abraham was a man, after all. And He , like you, tended to get ahead of God and do it his way, and when that happened, just as with us, there were lasting consequences.

Abraham believed God, yet Abraham was easily swayed away from a trust in God's abilities.

Here in this passage we see Sarai, Abram's wife, "helping" Abram to find a solution. Here's what she says." Abe dear, I am an old woman. I am past the time of Child bearing . Look, I have this maid, Hagar, and we could have a child by her, now don't you think that's OK? I mean, didn't God say the child of promise would be from your loins? He said nothing about mine, did he?

And Abram checked out this foxy Egyptian maid and said, Wow, it must be God's will. Only it was NOT God's plan for Abram.

Abram bowed to "tunnel vision" looking to the visible means of attaining a goal, and stepping outside the bounds of faith. This is a case where the phrase, "every one else is doing it" may have been the reasoning. More likely is that it was a common cultural practice and Abraham had accepted it as part of the culture.

Therefore when it came to persuading Abraham that "this must be of God" He sang the song "It can't be wrong cause it feels so right." And once more Abram forgot the promise. But God never forgets.

A little aside here. God never allows for pre or extramarital sexual relations. Yet many believers have so tolerated this in the world, watched it as NORMAL on TV, that when they are tempted they don't feel as if its all that bad.

I want you to know that there are degrees of sin, and God says sexual immorality is one of the worst ones for a believer because you, being joined to a harlot make your Jesus part of that unholy relationship. It is a horrible thing and sadly we are slack in this generation concerning this. This attitude is fostered by The spread of perversion and pornography is a death knell to our land and God says he will judge it harshly.

Now Recall Abraham listens to Sarah's reasoning and Reasons a little himself and by passes God's best.

In 1948 Israel became a nation again after thousands of years of being scattered. They moved into the "Promised land and there waiting for them with less than open arms , was Ishmael. Abraham's sin had ripened.

I want to deal with this thought of the wages of sin How often we, as supposed followers of and trusters in God decide that we will do as we please, forget God’s way and hope for deferred payment.

What we are speaking of here is doing the will of God from the heart. The outcome is up to God.

Now obedience involves trusting God to take the best course as we follow His way. We saw last time that we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the things done in the body whether they be good or bad. We know that the scripture says plainly “Nu 32:23 But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.

Just as God keeps His promises to make a nation or give a child, he also keeps his promise of perfect judgment. Sin has its consequence, always eventually. You may pay now or later but you will pay. I am nor speaking of eternal judgment. IF you are a child of God you have had that remitted. But there are natural consequences of sin. If you jump off a bridge, you may be assured that there are natural consequences, you will hit whatever is below . If you choose to drive into a wall, then you will be dented, or rather your auto will be dented.

If you are promiscuous, you run the risk of 27 some odd venereal diseases. If you choose to disregard what is MORALLY right, you will eventually see the results. Many people think “I’m saved by grace and I can do whatever I please. That is sort of true, but if you are truly SAVED by grace what you will want to do is please the Lord who bought you.

Those who repeatedly disobey God unchastened better check their birth certificate to see who signed it. Caution, it may be a sham. Sin is a sowing reaping proposition. You will reap what you sow.

Oliver B. Green was a great evangelist and Pastor from Greenville SC. He was forgiven for his many years of alcohol abuse when he came to the cross, but he still had cirrhosis of the liver.

Dr Jeremiah in one of his messages speaking of this very same thing, put it ever so much better as he said, “ You can choose how you will live, whether you do right or wrong, but once you do wrong the choices are gone. You have no choice as to the consequences.”

James shows the downward progression of sin in ch 1:13 -16 “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.”

It starts in your mind, you give in to the thought, you entertain it for while and savor it. Then the thought gets control of your desire and this thing becomes a consuming passion, and finally you come to a cross road where you either deal with it or do it. If you give in to sin you have opted for the down ward road to death. But if you overcome sin, hard as it may be, you get What verse 12 says:

Blessed [is] the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

There is the choice: Obey God and live or do it your way and die. Ouch huh?

Many people opt for the sinful way, sow wild oats, and then pray for crop failure. Listen The word says “be sure your sin will find you out.”

I have seen previously good marriages destroyed by one sinful action by one party or the other. Though it only happened once, he could never get it out of his mind after that...and they lived for years in misery and mistrust. The wages of sin is still death.

I want to lay down a challenge to all of us here. If you are a believer, then examine every area of your life HONESTLY !

In the light of what the Bible teaches, ask yourself: Is this the attitude I want Jesus to see in me?

Is this an action or behavior that I could honestly look Jesus in the eye with?

We are taught in scripture that if we judge ourselves we will not be judged. If you clean out the closet, Jesus will not have to do so for you. If you take care of the filth, then He won’t have to deal with it.

In this day and age the society says immorality is fine. Jesus never says that. Clean out your closets, bring all your actions to the cross and surrender to Jesus, don’t hold back any area of your life, at home, at work or at school, expose your own evil to God and ask for cleansing, don’t wait for him to do it.

One of the scariest things is the idea that our KIDS are the way we usually get our comeuppance. We sin and then we see the seeds that we have sown bloom into awful fruit in their lives. We fly in the face of God’s truth in some area then we anguish over the fact that our children have forsaken a true relationship with God. Why shouldn’t they? We taught them he was unimportant.

God always keeps His word, always delivers on his promises. If He promises good things to the obedient, they happen. If He promises judgment for sin IT HAPPENS TOO.

What will be your case? Will you deal with the evil now or face Hs judgment later?

Will you wait for him to chasten you or will you change out of love?

Or worse, will you continue unchastened in your wrong? Because Hebrews tells us that if that happens you aren’t a child of God at all and eternal destruction awaits.

Listen: If you are a child of God then please act so!!! If not then you drag the name of Jesus into the slime where you live. You SAY he can deliver from sin, then you live in it. You say He is the savior and his name is holy and you sound like a pirate with your careless lips.

When she lived at Balmoral Castle queen Victoria used to like to walk dressed in old clothes through the district. Once when she, accompanied by her servant John Brown, was walking , she encountered a boy driving a flock of sheep. He shouted at her: “Keep out of the way you stupid old woman.”

The queen merely smiled and said nothing, but Her servant rushed up and told him “Foolish boy, that is the queen.”

Uh, well, said the boy, “if she’s the queen then she should dress like a queen.”

Are you a child of the kings?

Can the sheepherders around you tell that without a scorecard?

You think on that Amen.