Epp, Theodore: Studies In 1 John-02

For your reading, I would like to recommend that you study chapters twenty one through twenty six of the book of Genesis, and especially chapter twenty six, but all uh five of those other chapters, twenty one through twenty six. Now, the birth of Isaac marked a pivotal point, uh, in the outworking of God's eternal purpose and plan that he had in mind for a people, a nation, eventually a savior, and so on. The coming of Isaac, that is the son of Abraham and Sarah, was the second great step toward the fulfilling of this great plan of God. We've discussed this plan, so we'll not go into that detail again. Now, the first great step, of course, was in the selection of Abraham to be the father of a chosen nation, and together with that, there was the call to complete separation on his part from his land, his country, his people, and so on, unto a land that God says, first of all, I'll show you. Later on, he said, I will give to you. And then finally, the, we saw the migration into the land which God had promised to give unto him. Well, the birth of Isaac then marked an important crisis in connection with the history of the, this chosen line that God had chosen through Abraham. Uh, for, uh, not in Ishmael, he said, shall thy seed be called, but in Isaac, Abraham's son, shall thy seed be called. This was made so clear and plain in Genesis, the twenty first chapter, verse twelve, when, um, uh, Abraham presented Ishmael unto God and said, God, can't Ishmael somehow be the, uh, one to, uh, follow, be the in the line? And God says, no, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Isaac's birth then marked the beginning of the second great period in Abraham's life. Now, I said we've studied Abraham, we're going to study Isaac, but we can't study Isaac without studying some more about Abraham because their lives are so closely connected. God called himself the God of Isaac, as well as the God of Abraham and the God of Jacob. But while Isaac lived the longest of all three of these men, namely one hundred and eighty years, the least is revealed about him. Frankly, only one chapter, uh, in the book of Genesis is devoted exclusively to his life, and that is the twenty sixth chapter. Not too much said here, but sufficient to give us a good glimpse of what type of a man he was. He led a quiet and a peaceful and a normal life. Uh, he was, let's say, the ordinary son of a great father, and then he was the ordinary father of a great son. We shall, we've seen the one, and we'll see the other today, and some more the next few days. Uh, he was just a commonplace, an ordinary man with an ordinary commonplace life, uh, that he lived upon this earth. Yet the ordinary life is, uh, also the ordered life. It was in this case, and even better, uh, we might call it the ordained life. Uh, when Jesus called his disciples, he said, now I'm sending you forth, um, I've ordained you, that is, I've set you apart. And so even the ordinary life is an ordained life, a set apart life for God. Thus, the God of Isaac is the God of the ordinary person as the ordained l- uh, life as well. Isaac's life was not filled with great splash or great glory, uh, but it was a most meaningful life, and uh, he filled a place in life with complete contentment, not always looking for the spectacular, but the ordinary and the simple things of life is what we're going to see. And so that begins to speak right to where you and I live, doesn't it? Now, the great multitude of everyday ordinary Christians therefore can find for themselves an encouragement here by viewing and by reflecting upon the life of this common man. And I want to pause here for just a moment again. I have been one that's been pushing the idea that you read your Bible through in one year. Now, this is a great thing, but you know, I see something there that can also be somewhat harmful, and that's what? Not the fact that you're reading your Bible through, but the fact that you're not taking time to meditate upon individual statements, verses, phrases, and lives, and so on. And that's what we want to do more as we study the life of, uh, Isaac. We're going to study some of the j- just the individual things. It's time that we take more time in that. So really, the Bible reading is one thing, and the devotional time of meditating and reflecting upon God's word is another thing, and very, very important. Uh, we see his relationship to his God, however, uh, is no less honored than that of his great father and his great son. Uh, he is included in that inner family when God says the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. You know, Billy Sunday one time said, God must have love, uh, for the ordinary people, for he made so many of us. And I like that. Now, we trust, uh, to point out many of the valuable lessons then, uh, for an ordinary Christian life and experience from this man's life, and trust that it'll be helpful to you. Uh, much, uh, uh, courage, of course, is to be acquired, uh, by those who, uh, are the ordinary people, uh, to fulfill what God wants us to do, but it can be done because he indwells us. Much of his life, as Isaac's life, is interwoven, of course, with that of his great father Abraham, and some, of course, with his noted son Jacob. And so we'll get something of all three of them in this study. Uh, in this study, then, we will also see further, uh, the, uh, calls and the steps of faith for uh, his father Abraham. That is, Abraham had some more steps of faith to uh, accomplish. Now, we've really discussed them already in the past, but uh, we will refer to them once again here. But they're totally in connection, however, uh, in this particular case, with that of the life of Isaac. Now, uh, to Isaac, there were uh, uh, but two divine communications. God only communicated to him a second, uh, two different times, and both of these, by the way, are recorded in the twenty sixth chapter, which is the one chapter exclusively on the life of, uh, Isaac. The rest of them are interwoven either with Abraham or with Jacob as we study them together. Now, there was nothing new added in this communication to that which he had already given to Abraham, uh, no, uh, special call for any special kind of action, uh, nor an adventure of a new steps of faith, like Abraham was constantly being called upon to step out here and step out there. Abraham's called the father of faith, but in Isaac, uh, God simply communicated to him, uh, verifying what he'd already given to Abraham. Uh, God spoke to him to ratify what had already been promised, I said, to Abraham. First of all, in his first appearance then was when a famine came upon the land, and Isaac started down for Egypt. Turning to the twenty sixth chapter, you'll read about it. I think we'll take a moment here just to read a few of those verses there. The second verse, a few and a few on. And the Lord appeared unto him, that is unto Isaac, and said, Go not down into Egypt. Dwell in the land where I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, I will bless thee, for unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries, and I will perform an, the oath with which I swear unto Abraham, thy father, and I will make of thy seed and multiply as the stars of the heaven and as the sands of the sea, and he goes on and on in that way, just simply, uh, again ratifying what he'd already said. But notice what he said? Don't go down into Egypt. I'm going to talk about that in just a few moments. He would not let him go down into Egypt. There must have been a reason. Now, the second communication came in the same chapter, and this is when Isaac returned from Gerar. Now, Gerar is a small country just, uh, north of Egypt and just south of the land of Canaan where he was, or let's say in between, it was a part of that land. It was near Egypt, and, uh, their, their God appeared to him then a second time, and here's what he said. And the Lord appeared unto him that same night and said, I am the God of Abraham, thy father. Fear not, for I am with thee and will bless thee and will multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. And he said, that's the reason I will do it. So, again, I say it's a reaffirmation of what God had already given. Now, just this word about Isaac, and we have to do a little surmising here, but I think it's quite, uh, uh, obvious. God doesn't just simply say, now, Isaac, you've got certain weaknesses, and I'm going to watch over you. No, but, uh, in the way God works with him and deals with him, it is very evident that there were several weaknesses, uh, that, uh, in his life, and especially, uh, it seemed to have reference to his stability. He did not seem to be as stable as Abraham or even as Jacob. We might not think of Jacob as being stable, but when we see his life, we'll see that there's, there was much there to, to think of from that standpoint. Now, first of all, then, God did not permit him to go down into Egypt. You wonder why? Let's just keep that question in mind. Then Abraham, Abraham did not permit him to return to his father's house, even to obtain himself a bride, to go after his wife. No, he sent a servant to do that. We saw that in the twenty fourth chapter, already discussed with you. Now, God knows man's weaknesses as well as God- man's strong points, and God is very careful about this. Now, Abraham, for instance, was not stopped from entering into Egypt. God let him go. God knew that he could teach him a very important lesson down there, and that he would bring him back again, and that he would come back, but he also knew Isaac, and he wouldn't let him go down into Egypt. Must have been a reason. Then Jacob was not stopped when he, uh, entered back to his father's household and place to seek a wife for himself. Uh, he wouldn't let Isaac go do that, but he did Jacob because he knew Jacob very well. God knew that he could depend upon, uh, Jacob also returning and I- and Abraham returning, and that with, uh, much acquired understanding and knowledge. But it seems, as far as Isaac was concerned, uh, maybe he was not stable enough and would not return, and so God would not test him above that he was able. This reminds us of that New Testament verse that has been so helpful to many of us, and let's just apply it here. That First Corinthians, the tenth chapter, verse thirteen, where it says, and there is no temptation, and this word temptation is the same word as testing. There's no testing taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer or permit you to be tempted or tested above that ye are able, but he will, with the temptation or the testing, also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. God knows our situation. God knows how much we can take. God knows where our weaknesses are, and he knew the weaknesses of Isaac, and this, no doubt, is pointed out quite, uh, quite fairly here, that he would not return if he once went, and so God says, nope, you don't dare go. I'm not going to let you go out of the country. Even Abraham recognized this fact and would not let him go back to, uh, his home country to get his wife. He sent a servant, as I've already mentioned. Well, Isaac's faith then was what we would call a passive faith. Now, the word passive means suffering or, uh, accepting without resistance, not, uh, acting, but being acted upon. That is, he did no great adventures, uh, but was submissive to God and to his father. Now, Abraham's faith, we think of that as a very active faith, and Jacob's faith, we think of that as, well, more or less a restless faith. But with all of this in mind, let's keep in mind that Isaac was no spiritual pygmy, no baby, but a bigger and possibly better man than most of us will ever attain to. Though, uh, he had his weaknesses, he had some very strong points, and we will try to learn from them, uh, that we, uh, can encourage ourselves with, and we can learn, uh, from them. Now, first, uh, we will study some practical events connected with, uh, together with his birth. That is, the first, uh, circumstances, uh, the circum- of his birth, uh, was a miraculous thing. God had promised Abraham, uh, the seed, a son, a child, uh, and many of them. But as time went on, the fulfilling became harder and harder. They became older and older. Sarah, his wife, lost hope. She was past the childbearing time, and and he was i- impotent in that respect, and and the whole thing thing seemed helpless. But nevertheless, uh, Isaac was born. It was a miraculous birth. Now, science would have said no, can't be done. But the word no cannot be applied to God. It must be dropped out of our vocabulary when we're thinking in terms of God and what God wants to do and can do. There isn't, the word no is an impossible word there. Then the second great contribution of Isaac's life is provided by a major event in his youth. We've already studied that under Abraham, but we'll mention it again. When he learned that he was to be the sacrifice, when Abraham was to s- g- brought- bring a sacrifice unto God. And notice how he gave total submission. That was one of the great characteristics of this man. Now, uh, twenty five years had passed since Abraham had left Haran, uh, during which time he had received various promises that the Lord would make of him a great nation. This begins right there in the twelfth chapter, in the second verse, and again in the fourth verse, and right on down the line. Now, this involved, of course, the seed, that is the family that he was to have. However, Abraham did not know that this family necessary was to come through Sarah, although that would have been the logical thing, but, uh, God had not necessarily said anything about that until now. All these promises of the seed were given to Abraham only. Sarah was not mentioned until after Ishmael was actually thirteen years of age. Ishmael, uh, born of the slave woman, and Sarah was by that time eighty nine years of age, and Abraham was ninety nine years of age, and twenty four years of the promise had now gone by. So we go back to the seventeenth chapter, where we find, uh, the basis for this particular portion of the lesson. So after twenty four years after he left Haran, uh, we find now that God once more comes to him with a tremendous promise. Abraham's reaction to this is described in the seventeenth chapter, and I read just a few of the verses, verses seventeen and eighteen of this passage. And Abraham fell upon his face and laughed and said in his heart, shall a child be born unto him that's a hundred years old? And shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee. This was just very hard to believe. Here was a man, uh, coming up a hundred years now, Sarah coming up ninety years, and a child to be born unto them. Why, uh, as I said, even Sarah had not yet, uh, heard about any of this at all, and so we cannot blame her too much for what she did when she offered her maid, uh, to be a concubine to Abraham in order that they might have the seed. But now, up till now then, only Abraham knew about it. But did you notice Abraham laughed? We sometimes discuss about Sarah's laugh, but do you realize that that came afterwards? Abraham did the first laughing. Now, the word laugh can mean the laugh of scorn on the one hand, or it can mean a laugh of unbelief on the one hand, or it can be a laugh of joy. But I think our context would, uh, show definitely that this was a, a laugh of unbelief. Shall a child bo- be born to a man that's a hundred years of age? That's unbelief. So Abraham offers Ishmael, uh, to God. Uh, Abraham, remember now, was ninety nine years of age, and he offers Ishmael, and he says, Ishmael, why, why can't you use Ishmael in this? You see, up until now, God had not said anything, even to Abraham, that Sarah should bear the son. God did not say this to him before. And so as far as he was concerned, well, Ishmael was his son. Why could not he stand before God? But God makes this very, very clear. And, uh, notice now verse eighteen and nineteen of these same passages. And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee. And God said, Sarah, thy wife, shall bear thee a son deed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant with him as with Isaac for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. In other words, I'm going to, my, my covenant is going to be with, with, uh, uh, with Isaac and not with Ishmael. And this is the first time, I say, that he mentions, uh, Sarah. And then notice verse twenty one: And my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at a set time in the next year. Now, God uses normal means, uh, to fulfill his bidding, and so he says, in the normal time, you're going to have a son. Now, here is where the statement in the Romans, the fourth chapter, uh, comes in. And the thing I want you to notice especially about this is that God, in all of his grace and kindness and loving forgiveness, forgets when he records the incident, forgets or leaves out completely anything concerning the doubt of Abraham. Abraham had many doubts, you remember that. But listen to what he says over here in the fourth chapter of the book of Romans, when he said, uh, uh, who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken of, so shall thy seed be. And there's more to it than that, but we'll not take time to read it. So this statement of Romans four belongs in here. Not a word about Abraham's, uh, doubts are mentioned here whatsoever. Now Abraham now, uh, believed God, but remember, Sarah had not yet been told. She had not yet been told. So personally by God himself, uh, th- this came a little bit later, for in the eighteenth chapter, we see this mentioned for the first time. But let me read to you from the eighteenth chapter, verse one. And the Lord appeared unto him, this is Abraham, in the plains of Mamre, and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. But this isn't all of that passage. Uh, we turn to the latter part of it, the now, namely verses nine and ten. And they said unto him, uh, that is, the Lord came with two angels together, there were three of them, said, where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life, and lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, and was that which was behind him. So this was the first time that Sarah had any inkling that she was to be the mother of the child. First time it's mentioned. Her reaction of unbelief is seen very clearly here, and, uh, she, we read in verses thirteen— eleven to thirteen, this eighteenth chapter. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age, and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself. Now this is the second time there's a laugh. The first one came from Abraham, and it was a laugh of unbelief. This is a laugh of unbelief, saying, after I am waxed old, shall I have the pleasure, uh, my Lord being old also? And the Lord said unto Abraham, wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, shall I of a surety bear a child which am old? Sarah laughed. All right. Uh, the- there's later on another laugh, which is a laugh of, uh, joy, but we'll talk about that when we get to that. Uh, God's tremendous response, uh, with another firm, uh, promise comes as a result of this, in verse fourteen: Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed, I will return. And I want you to know this, at a time appointed. This is mentioned three times. At the time appointed, I will return unto thee according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. I'm going to use natural means. That's what God says. The promise of God is very clear, and God cannot lie. Numbers twenty three nineteen always comes to my mind, where he says, God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Has he said, and shall it not d- shall he not do it? Or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good? That's the God we worship, my friend. At an appointed time, he said, this is going to happen to you. Uh, so, uh, at God's time, when God said. Now here, Abraham and Sarah face what I would call the test of the impossible. Abraham had faced many tests before this, but this was the greatest thus far. Now, we have already seen some of the other tests which go beyond this, when Isaac, for instance, was to be offered, but this now has to do with his birth, and up to now, this was the greatest test that they had faced up until this time. But the very fact provided faith with a wonderful, wonderful opportunity. We read again these wonderful verses in, uh, the, uh, Romans, the fourth chapter, verse nineteen uh, to twenty two. uh, these particular words. And, uh, so shall thy seed be, he says, and being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, uh, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promises of God, uh, through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully, uh, persuaded that what he, God, had promised he was able to perform, and therefore it was imputed unto him for righteousness. What a wonderful passage of scripture he gives, that God gives credit unto Abraham and doesn't mention a word about his doubts. Aren't you glad you've got a God that knows how to forget? I've always said that one gift that I have from God is a good forgetter. I can't always forget the things I ought to forget, but too many things I do forget that I maybe shouldn't forget. But that God may give us the forgetful mind when it comes to that where people have wronged us or, uh, where we have, uh, well, like, like Abraham in unbelief. Well, his faith had grown and developed, uh, through much exercise. Remember now, he was ninety nine, she was eighty nine, and such a happening had no precedent in history. It never happened before. All the evidence was against it. Science was against it, reasoning was against it, all of their thoughts was against it. All of this would lead only to unbelief, but remember God. God says, well, the testing of your faith is so important and so necessary, and so he says that the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried by fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. So God has to test our faith, and he certainly did that for Abraham. Well, turning now then to the twenty first chapter, where we have the incident concerning the birth of Isaac, and I'll read just the first two verses. And the Lord visited Sarah, as he had said. Notice, as he had said. And the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. Notice that statement. For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God had spoken unto him. And the Lord did what he had said. Notice these statements again. As he had said, as he had spoken, at the set time which the Lord had spoken of. This was the appointed hour. God's time clock had struck. Uh, here the important truths, uh, are illustrated, and now I've got five thoughts I want to just quickly present to you as we bring this broadcast to a close, and that is the, they're profitable lessons for each of us to learn. First of all, God is in no hurry. Please do not misunderstand me. He's not in a hurry to work out his place, but he's never too late, and he's always on time. I didn't say he was careless, that he's forgetful. I just said he was not in a hurry like you and I are. Man frets, he fumes, he hurries, he worries, always in a hurry to try to get God's promise fulfilled. Well, my friends, let's learn to wait on God. God has all eternity at his disposal, and he works leisurely, not lazily, not, uh, forgetful, so on, but leisurely. That is, he takes his time according to what he wants, yet without great del- uh, the, uh, deliberation, uh, to work out his plan. He always knows just the right time, uh, to work at the right thing. He's never too late, never too early. In Isaiah twenty eight verse sixteen, it says, he that believeth shall not make haste. In other words, don't try to push God. Take time to believe God. God is almighty, secondly. Uh, can, uh, he can, nothing can hinder or thwart, uh, the, uh, outworking of his purpose and his plan. Abraham was old, Sarah was barren, but these trifles, uh, present no difficulty to him who was the infinite God and the, with infinite power, who created the earth all from nothing. Uh, there were no problems to him. Why, even Adam and Eve he made out of nothing. Can, could he not do what he wanted to do now? No matter how great or serious, uh, your problem may be, he is able to do something about it. In the third place, God is faithful. He promised Sarah's son, no matter how unreasonable the promise seemed, uh, he is faithful who has promised. His word is sure. Just the first two verses of the twenty first chapter of the book of Genesis, where it says, And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age at a set time of which God had spoken, uh, to him. Now, the main thing I wanted us to note as we were, especially as we were closing the broadcast on yesterday, was the fact that God has a time for everything. He's not too early, he's not too late, he's not in a hurry, and he's not lazy. He always has things just planned and just right. I think we need to remind ourselves that the Bible speaks very plainly concerning this, concerning some of the great events that took place. Take, for instance, what he says in Galatians four verses four and five: When the fullness of time was come, when the fullness of time was come, there's God's time. He had a time set. He had waited over four thousand years. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, uh, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Now, also concerning the Holy Spirit, some people feel that if we just pray properly and so on, that the Holy Spirit will come and baptize us or something like that, and then in fact they go back and say, well, but the disciples prayed, and then the Holy Spirit came. Let's see what the scripture says, and let's be honest with the scriptures. In Acts, the second chapter, verse one, he plainly says and emphasizes this fact, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. When the day of Pentecost was fully come. That was the day God had set for the coming of the Holy Spirit, and on that particular day, they were all together in one accord, in one place, and praying. Now, their prayers prepared them for his coming, but the Holy Spirit came at God's appointed time regardless. So Isaac's birth was at the time of God had set. He was not born too early or too late. As far as God's program was concerned, Isaac was born twenty five years after God's first promise to Abraham that he would have a seed. Now that's a long time to wait, and this seemed like a long time to Abraham, uh, but it was the appointed time that God had set. So Isaac was born at an appointed time. Then let's read verse three now, as we go on with our lesson today. Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare unto him, Isaac, and Abraham called his name Isaac. Now Isaac was born and named. There's several lessons I want us to learn from this today. Uh, first of all, he was a child of promise, of course. That at first, uh, there was some doubting on the part of, uh, both Sarah and Abraham, but, you know, when we turn to the New Testament, because of God's great forgiving spirit, his wonderful mercy, and his wonderful grace, he passes over all this doubting matter. He doesn't even mention it in the New Testament. Listen to one record of it. There are many of them, but there's just one of them in Hebrews eleven verse eleven. Now, through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised. Not a word said, uh, of reprimanding her for her, uh, previous doubts and so on. That's wonderful. What a beautiful, wonderful God we have, friends. That's the God that you and I worship. He, when he says, I forget your sins, I forget your sins, and he does. He puts them away. Uh, so, uh, uh, we need to apply that to ourselves. Now, your sins are forgotten, that's good. I will remember them no more forever. Well, we saw before this, when the announcement was made that Sarah was to have a son, that she laughed, but we also noticed that Abraham had laughed even before that. But now notice the word, and this is very interesting. Again, she laughed after the child was born, and I read verses six and seven of this chapter. And Sarah said, God has made me to laugh so that all that hear me will laugh with me. And she said, who, uh, would have said unto Abraham that Sarah shall give children suck? For I have borne him a son in his old age. And so there was another kind of a laugh. Yes, Isaac was a child of a miracle. That's right. This was foreshadowing, and there's two things I want us to note especially. First of all, it foreshadows the virgin. Now, take for instance, when the time came for Jesus to be born, uh, that the angel came to, uh, uh, Mary, and he announced to Mary about the child being born. And then Mary had some question marks too. She asked, how shall this be, seeing I do not know a man? But Gabriel assured Mary by saying, uh, with God nothing shall be impossible. And of course, her response then finally was, behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to your word. So you see there, she had not even known a man. She had never been married. So Jesus was a, a miracle child. Well, Isaac was a miracle child in a different way, of course. So Isaac's birth then is a type also of both our regeneration and our sanctification. We got, we have some lessons right here to learn. For instance, in regeneration, when we're born again, that means that which was dead had to be quickened, just like Abraham and just like Sarah. As far as birth was concerned, that was an impossibility, humanly speaking. But here we find that there had to be a miracle performed, and this is done when we are born again because we were dead in trespasses and sins. There has to be what we would call a birth. In the Ephesians, the second chapter, he speaks of this in verses four and in verse five, where he says, but God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, we were dead in sins, get that? We were dead in sins, have he quickened us, made us alive, in other words, together with Christ, for by grace are ye saved. Now, the state of the natural, unregenerated man was that of spiritual death, and because man is spiritually dead, totally depraved, it is essential, uh, that he have a new birth, uh, if he is to have eternal life. Christ's words to Nicodemus are very clear on that. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. This is very clear. Or John one verse twelve, uh, we also apply this truth. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. And the same thing is true with reference to a sanctification. Now, the word sanctification simply means to be set apart. Uh, I'm afraid some people have a, maybe a false meaning to that word. I'm sorry about that. But, uh, the Bible also teaches there that, uh, to be sanctified, that is to be set apart, uh, properly for his work, that something has to be done. He, so he says in John twelve verse twenty four and twenty five, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, there's death, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it, but he that hateth his life in this world, uh, for my sake, in other words, shall keep it unto life eternal. So in order for there to be a true separation unto God, there has to be a death unto the old life. The scriptures are very, very clear on this. We have become spiritually mature by appropriating our position, which is in Christ, having died in Christ and then made alive in him. We have been raised spiritually to a victorious position, as we have read in some of the scriptures before, especially in Ephesians two verse five and six. So now let's appropriate it. We have been given power and control over all evil, uh, so that, uh, he- we will not be overcome by evil in our life. He says in, uh, Galatians five verse sixteen, walk after the Spirit, and ye shall not or will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. God is making it possible. There's a separation. That, uh, what Paul meant when he said, for instance, in the Philippians, third chapter and the tenth verse, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection being made conformable unto his death. Now, next what we want to see is, uh, verse eight. And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. We have some lessons that we need to learn here. Uh, he was weaned. Now, these two go together. He grew and he was weaned. Now, weaned in the Orient, uh, could be anywhere from two to five, six, seven years of age, uh, even up from that. Uh, it covered more than just the nursing period. It covered the care until the child was mature enough to be entrusted unto strangers. Take, for instance, uh, there are passages like in First Samuel, uh, we have it, and oh, you, you think of Samuel, you think of Moses, uh, but concerning Samuel, the scripture says that when Hannah had weaned him, she weaned him, then she took him up with her with three bullocks and one epoch of flour and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh, and the child was young. Now, Samuel was still a child, but he was old enough that he could live with a stranger. Uh, he was able to get along, you say, without his mother. So growth, uh, is also important in the Christian's life. Moses was another one. Uh, when he was weaned, then Pharaoh's daughter took him, but this didn't mean that he was just a baby of one year, but possibly four or five years of age. There's a lesson here for our spiritual maturity. Feeding on the milk of the word to grow, yes, but we've got to go beyond the milk. Milk was for the word for the young Christians, but meat is for those who are more mature. Uh, Paul had to write to the Corinthians, First Corinthians three verses one and two. He wrote to them, he says, I could not write to you as unto spiritual, but as those who were still babes in Christ. And then again in Hebrews, uh, the fifth chapter and in verse, um, uh, 12. For the time ye ought to be teachers, uh, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is still unskillful in the word of righteousness, but, and he's a babe, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age. Now, therefore, he says, leaving the principles of the doctrines of Christ, let us go on to maturity, not staying babes in Christ. Well, Abraham, uh, uh, provides a great feast of celebration for the particular occasion. This was a nec- uh, was a habit in those days, I guess, and still is among the Jewish people. I remember my visit to, uh, the Holy Land when we were in Jerusalem, standing in the plaza by the, uh, Wailing Wall. Uh, this particular day seemed to be a special day, and here would come families. Uh, we would see a young son coming, carrying some particular thing, uh, that had, uh, meaning to them. Maybe he was a boy of eight or nine, maybe twelve, uh, and but he was going to be, uh, placed as a, not, not a grown person, but as a mature person in that res- respect. And so here came the boy, and then followed by the family, and sometimes I could see the grandparents must have been coming along, and they would have one group over here, another group over there, another group over there, going through all kinds of ceremonies. That's right, placing him as a son, a recognized son, a certain aged, uh, limit, and that he was, uh, placed there to be recognized as such. Well, anyway, uh, the milk stage to the meat stage is what we would say then, uh, from the human assistance to that of the work of the Holy Spirit. In the, the first chapter again, verses nine and ten, we read these words: And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. Therefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son, my son, even Isaac. Now here we see another lesson, a very good lesson, the lesson of the two natures. We'll not be able to finish this lesson today, but, uh, I do want to introduce it to you. Uh, the coming of, uh, uh, full age, in other words, when the second son came, when Isaac came, that's a picture of the new nature, the new man, uh, in Christ Jesus, the new nature that we receive from him. And so there comes that time of conflict. This conflict was aroused, it wasn't aroused until Isaac was born. Up until then, uh, there was no conflict there. We would say, but in a well-ordered household, there shouldn't be such a conflict. Well, there's more to it than that, friends. The son of Abraham and Hagar, uh, was the son of bondage, and whereas the son of Abraham and Sarah was the son of a free woman, as so the scriptures teach us very, very clearly. The element, uh, of bondage had there hitherto for lain dormant, uh, in, uh, Abraham's house because, uh, it had, uh, not been roused to action at all by any opposition whatsoever of another nature, of another person, but now comes another person. And so the true character of Ishmael is now suddenly revealed. We know nothing of the life of Ishmael before Isaac was born, but here we have a type of the two natures. It is not until the believer receives the new nature, uh, that he discovers the real character of the old nature. You know, you have the old nature, people say, well, that's eradicated. No, no. No conflict there before, that's true. But now suddenly we'd be discover the painful, uh, fact that there's a conflict there. Some even have have come to place, we, I received telephone calls and letters, and our counseling department does, of, uh, uh, people saying they feel they've lost their salvation because suddenly there comes a tremendous struggle of some kind. Well, but the very fact that we realize that there's a conflict, as far as I'm concerned, is proof that there is redemption. For the new nature now seeks for its rightful place, uh, and, uh, uh, for complete control, and the old nature has to give way, and therefore, naturally, the conflict arises immediately. And so, uh, uh, in several passages of scripture say the conflict between the old nature and the new, between the Spirit and the Holy Spirit and our old nature. The old nature only becomes worse, uh, at least that's the way it seems to us.