So let me invite your attention to the 17th chapter of the book of Genesis. And we have here more unfolding of this patriarch Abraham. But keep in mind, we are primarily learning about who God is. So where we learn about the family, we learn about the people, we learn about the nation, We learn about this covenant that God has made with the patriarch, Abraham. And much of this is unfolding for us here in the 17th chapter. We can see that there is a progression of awareness. Abraham is growing in his knowledge of the Lord. And this is true of us as well, isn't it? There are things that we know about God today, not because God's showing us new things, But because of different circumstances in our lives, because of relationships in our lives, because of hardships, because of successes, what are we doing? We're learning how to relate to God in all of them. So we're learning how to relate to God. God's not becoming more than he is. We're just understanding him better because of how he's revealed himself to us. And so we come to the 17th chapter with desire to want to know more of God and more of how He relates to humanity. Now, we've been long introduced to the phrase covenant theology and this covenant of works and what church history will refer to as a covenant of grace and all of this there is another covenant or language of a covenant that encompasses both works and grace and is the covenant of redemption. How is God going about his redeeming of a people who are fallen into his glory? Well, he has a covenant of works. Man can't keep his covenant, his end of the covenant, so God keeps man's side of the covenant by being righteous, being holy, And then God imputes that righteousness. He gives that righteousness to man. And this, we could call this the covenant of grace, where God does our side of the covenant. And how does he do this? By us responding to his glory, by repenting, believing the gospel. Here, this Bible says that in doing so, you are saved. But it's not because of something we've done It's because of the work of God, it's because of the revelation of God, because of the redemption, the work of redemption, the saving of humanity. So we're still using the terminologies. We will eventually get to a point where we will want to break out the clearest forms of the definitions of covenant of works or covenant of grace. Along the way, though, I want to be using the phrases as we journey through the text that we have that we can begin to see that we could have some of these moments of, I see this, I understand this, I comprehend this. And in doing so, then whenever we're ready to give definitions to this, it will be it will be glorious. And and this is how it's going to work. There's some in this room that already have a working grasp of covenant theology. Others of you are thinking, you know, preacher, I've never heard this kind of talk. I don't know what you mean by covenant theology. I don't know what you mean by a covenant of works and a covenant of grace, a covenant of redemption. What are you talking about? Well, I want to let the narrative of the text really speak to our souls. And in doing so, there's going to be somewhat, I'm careful to use this word, but it's the best word we can use progression. You know sometimes we surrender good words to the liberal world and the word progress or progressive somewhat carries a negative term for us. But it shouldn't. There should be some understanding we know more now today than we did 10 years ago 20 years ago not because God's changing and so it's now we're seeing this it's because we're changing God's changing us he's opening our eyes he's clearing our ears he's showing us himself and in so doing so we we will become more we will be able to comprehend Him more. And that God is, even though the Bible will describe God as inscrutable, the language of the Bible, it's almost incomprehensible for us to get our minds around this eternal nature of God. That God has always existed. God didn't have a beginning. Which is altogether, the prophet Isaiah, God is altogether different. than you and I. You and I have beginnings. You and I will have an end in our temporal existence. This is not like God. An everlasting God cannot have a beginning. It's logically impossible for Him to have a beginning. So we can't even, this is inscrutable, we can't even begin to comprehend that which did not have a beginning. And yet this Eternal God reveals himself to us and so then we we actually can have levels of comprehension and that will progress as we grow and As we understand and as really as we live really under this This position of the Bible is the authority God has revealed himself through the writers of the Bible and that all we can do now then is to submit ourselves to what they wrote. We trust what they wrote to be inspired by God, that in its original letters it is infallible, it is inspired by the Holy Spirit. We are working with a translation which is an additional effort for us. What shall we do though? We shall diligently study and examine these words of God and then apply them to our minds. So let's do that. We have in the 17th chapter, the unfolding, more unfolding of this covenant that God has with Abraham and that this is an everlasting covenant. So what does that What does that mean? Well, let's apply today. Let's get some more of the narrative under our belt and more of it into our understanding. And so, if you're already at that 17th chapter, and by the way, if you have your worship guide that's provided for you as well in your bulletin, you'll see that it will help us as we walk through the progression of our worship service together Now that you're at the 17th chapter, in just a moment I'm going to invite you to stand for the reading of the word and while you're standing that you would say together, give us the book. And then after I'm done reading the text, I'll say this is the word of God and we'll say together, and we believe it. So stand with me for the word, for the reading of the word. This is the 17th chapter. I'm going to read it in its entirety. We will not be able to examine every unpacking piece of this, but let's get a big block of the text into our hearing. We've already examined the first eight verses in the previous time that we gathered together, but let's include it in the reading as well. Now, when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty. walk before me, and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.' Abraham fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you. I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give you and your descendants after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. Verse 9, God said further to Abraham, Now, as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep between Me and you and your descendants after you Every male among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations. A servant who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your descendants A servant who is born in your house or who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised. Thus shall my covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people for he has broken my covenant. Then God said to Abraham, As for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations, kings of peoples who will come from her.' Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, Will a child be born to a man 100 years old, and will Sarah, who is 99 years old, bear a child? And Abram said to God, oh, that Ishmael might live before you. God said, no, but Sarah, your wife, will bear a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. Now as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of 12 princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year." When he finished talking with him, God went up to Abraham, up from Abraham. Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all the servants who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's household and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the very same day as God had said to him. Now Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, and Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. In the very same day Abraham was circumcised and Ishmael his son. All the men of his household who were born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner were circumcised with him." This is the Word of God. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for recording the history of your people in such a way that when we study it, we not get lost in the details of the people, but that we would see what you're revealing to us about you. Be glorified this morning while we apply our minds, open our eyes that we may see, and give us ears to hear what the Spirit would say to your church. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. We have here a lot of information. What we want to do primarily is know what is this telling us about God. This should be no surprise to us. This is our greatest desire when we read Scripture and that in it And what we learn about God, we would learn how we must respond to him and what he requires of us. So with with as much information as there is here in the 17th chapter, it's obviously we're going to have to we're going to have to be here. We're going to have to visit this text multiple times over the next, if the Lord will allow, over the next several weeks. And so you may walk away from today thinking, oh, you know what? He's not going to address that that thing we just read. He is going to address that thing we just read. You may be thinking, I don't know when he's ever going to actually get to the point where he gives us the working definitions of the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, this covenant theology. We will. We want to. And I want to myself grow in understanding of this. But today, again, we're going to let our attention land on the narrative of the text that gives some revelation about the work of God. And then ultimately what we need to do is eventually hear what the Apostle Paul especially teaches in the New Testament concerning this covenant, this covenant that involves circumcision, the house of Abraham, or really the house of Isaac, because there will be where the covenant that God's made with Abraham that it will move through the house of Isaac. And so what we have here, we have the language, we have circumcision that's listed here. We're learning as we have from pieces that we can apply out of the 16th chapter. We're just going to really want to take the block of the text, knowing here that there really is no hard change between the 16th to the 17th chapter in the original text. It's a continuous flow. Even though there's a block of time, from the close of the 16th chapter to the opening of the 17th chapter. So as you pointed out, as you acknowledge when you read it, you can see that. And when Abram is 86 years old is when Hagar is born. This will be 13 years prior to verse one, Abraham is now 99 years old. Thus, it would have to mean that Ishmael is 13 years old. And again, you're going to hear Abraham's appeal to God for Ishmael. We'll see in God, God promises a blessing upon the house of Ishmael. So we're learning about who God is. We've learned along the way that from chapter 16 and chapter 17 that God is a God who sees. God is a God who hears. When we get to the 17th chapter we're given a new name for God that is El Shaddai God Almighty this will be how God will refer himself to Abraham in these moments of the text God Almighty this is important for us because we want to know make note of the fact where Abraham is in location at this point he's in the land of Canaan and this land is ruled by a people who have invented gods of all kinds. So for God to identify Himself to Abraham as El Shaddai or God Almighty, He is making a claim to Abraham about Himself that He is the Almighty. So if you're gonna go and worship another god, you're showing your foolishness by worshiping lesser gods. Now we'll learn as the Bible unfolds, that these other gods are really not gods at all. But in the mind of man, man has convinced himself of this god and that god, the moon god, the sun god, the rain god, this god, that god, every kind of god you can think. The god of reproduction, the god of pleasure, the god of sadness, all of these competing gods in the universe. God has come to Abraham and said, I am the Almighty. Meaning, instructing even in His very name itself, quit wasting your time on all these lesser gods who, as He will reveal Himself throughout all of the rest of Scripture, who really are not even gods themselves. Matter of fact, we'll learn from Isaiah. We'll learn from Jeremiah. We'll learn from Moses. We'll learn from the journey out of Egypt. We learn that the gods of men, they have to be placed on carts in order to be moved from place to place. Man has to move them. Man has to prop them up. Man has to glue them back together when they get toppled over. You want to worship that God? Okay, show your foolishness and worship that God. But Abraham, I am the Almighty God. Meaning there is no other God besides me. So we get this description of how does Abraham respond to this. We should be telling to us how should we respond to God Almighty. We should respond to Him in humility. When the Bible describes Him as falling down on His face, that is a description of humility. Now this will be similar to the way others will have encounters with God. What will they do? They will humble themselves. God will instruct Moses to remove his sandals, because in the very place that he's at, because God is presently here, is holy ground. Moses will desire to see the face of God and God will say, it can't happen. If you saw my face, you would be consumed immediately by my righteousness. So God lets him see from the other side of the face of glory. This is the way man should respond. to God Almighty. So we've learned along the way the name Abram means father. We learn here the introduction, the changing of Abram's name from Abram to Abraham. Abraham literally means the father of many. So his name is changed from father Abraham to father of many nations. The father of nations who will come forward and will learn in the Old Testament that this means All nations where there are believers, they are descendants, they're spiritual descendants of their father Abraham who believed in faith and trusted that God would provide a sacrifice for man's sins. Abraham is already shown that he's a practicer of the worship of the Almighty. We learned this a couple of chapters back when Abraham is goes to rescue his nephew Lot. And then on his way back, he comes into contact with the king of Salem, which again is the region, the city of Jerusalem, the king of peace. And there, what does Abraham do? He offers sacrifices to God. So Abraham has a growing knowledge, a growing awareness as God is revealing himself more and more to him. And now we're seeing that Abraham has comprehension. This is past where the scripture even says that he believed with faith, as the writer of Hebrews would credit the previous actions of Abraham as his believing faith. So Abraham is a believer of the Almighty God, and now the Almighty God is telling him he is the Almighty God. response to this revelation, God changes his name from father to father of many. And as I mentioned last week, this is important for us to note here. He's not the father of many religions. That's wrong application. And isn't that what so many religions want to do? They want to attach themselves and be known as Abrahamic religions. Well, they are not. Abraham is not the father of different religions. He's the father of many nations. He's the father of the believing people who will respond to God the same way that he did. And God will apply to him a spiritual descendancy of those who would believe like him. And what God's going to do moving forward here is God is going to use the physical descendants of Abraham as the type of the spiritual descendants who will come through all generations. This will be an everlasting people. So be an everlasting covenant. And God's going to use the temporal covenant to describe the spiritual. He's going to use the temporal covenant of of the flesh to the spiritual covenant that he makes by the blood of his only begotten son. So we're we're up to speed. We're we're we're here. We're in understanding. Let's include some more information about Sarai. We'll be back to Abraham in just a moment because he responds in a manner that seems similar to the way Sarah will respond to this news in the next chapter but the laughter that Abraham gives is different than the laughter that Sarah gives. We want to see the difference there of that and that will help us again I think in understanding how careful we have to be with our own emotions and how we respond to the work of God. But let's get some more understanding of Sarai. She's still known as Sarai at this moment. And that God is telling Abraham about the multitude of nations that he will be the father of. So we see in verse 6, 7, and 8, there's God saying, here's why this is going to happen. Verses 9 and following, here will be the marker. Here's how the rest of the world will know that you are of the house of Isaac. from your father Abraham, but you're from the house of Isaac. And that will be that all throughout all their generations, they will circumcise their children. And so from that, I know I'm moving past a big block of scripture, but I do want us to get some information here about Sarai. So we'll move to the 15th verse. We'll be back to those verses in between here. We're just gonna continue to get the big narrative piece. So God says to Abraham in verse 15, As for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. Now this name Sarai, very similar to the name Abram. Abram means father. Sarai means princess. What the name change will do here is it makes application, not just to, he's a father, he's a father of many nations, that Sarah's name is changed to Sarah, here meaning the mother of princesses. This is who Sarah will be. Now, keeping in mind here, Abraham is now 99 years of age. Now his ancestors, they would have never thought I'm too old to have children. They would have never thought I'm too old to get a woman pregnant. Noah, Ham, Sham, Japheth, Adam, all those guys who lived 900 years, and you would hear at such and such age, at this unbelievable, inconceivable age, Abram's not of that generation. Abram is of a generation like you and I. 99 is an extremely old age, isn't it? And God's saying to Abraham, or as He's changing His name to Abraham, I'm going to make you the father of many nations, He's saying the same thing to Sarai, who is well known as being barren. We go back to the 16th chapter. We already know that this is the status of Sarai. She cannot, never has born children. She cannot. So, there's where that conceived idea from Sarai and Abraham and Hagar, this idea, well, apparently, this is what God meant by, you'll be the father of many nations. Which is not what God meant by, you're going to be the father of many nations. This is what God means by, you're going to be the father of many nations. And it's going to come from your seed, the seed from Sarai, who's now whose name now is Sarah. And so, God says, I will bless her and indeed I will give you a son by her. And I will bless her and she shall be the mother of nations. I don't want to pass over that. This is so consistent with everything we've been learning along the way from Genesis chapter 1 really of Genesis chapter three, the creation of man, and that God says of Eve, all living will come from you. A beautiful emphasis upon the woman whom God created. We'll know that every time that there is mention of a multiplication of a nation or a people or a family, that it always comes back. And this is so beautiful here that the name Sarai means princess. it means my princess so this would be Abraham's way of referring to his wife if you will a nickname that he could have used for her was my princess or called her I mean in that language it would have been every time they're hearing him call her Sarah they're hearing princess in their language so now her name being Sarah meaning the mother of many nations, the princess of many princesses. You're not going to get a multiplication of nations without women. Amen? It's not going to happen. If it's all up to men, we're doomed. It's over. It's all, not just, not just Well, the application of that obviously has to be, you have to have a man and you have to have a woman. So this is not a women's lib, kind of a flourishing, women go ahead and take hold of your power. But really here, it is a call to you to recognize again, the high place that God has put you in as the mother of nations, the mother of children. the mother of generations. Now, I know, we have to deal with, this is coming from a woman who's advanced long in her years and has borne no children. And it's possible that you've not borne children. It's possible you can't bear children. But women, that doesn't put you in a lesser position. Because all women are representing really this position of motherhood, giving of life. If you're a woman, you represent to society the capacity to bear children. The capacity to increase the population. You get it, don't you? How counter this is to the modern culture. The world population is crazy out of control. We've got to convince women to not have more children. Well, in a modern day, it appears as though that advancement has been rather successful. But it's a message that is counter to Scripture. God has placed woman in a glorious position. Matter of fact, if we go back to that Genesis 3 text, we'll learn, God will specifically say, the seed of the woman will come the one who will crush the head of the serpent. Not the seed of the man, the seed of the woman. This, again, is prophetic language that this one who will come, this Messiah who will come out of Genesis chapter 3, this Messiah, He will come in a miraculous manner. He will not come through normal practices of humanity. He will not come into the population through the normal course of action of of the consummation of marriage between husband and wife. This Messiah will come through the seed of the woman. This is impossible, isn't it? And it is. Remember, we've heard the language of the New Testament already in the Bible in the early pages of the book of Genesis. Nothing is impossible for God. It's not normal, is it? This is an anomaly. I mean, this is so extraordinarily an anomaly that man can come to no other conclusion that this is indeed a miracle of God. Genesis chapter 17 is really a reminder. It's for the ears of men to hear that the promise of a Messiah will come through the princess. Sarah won't bear the Messiah. Just as we might begin, we could look back and think of Adam and Eve's relationship. Out of the garden, they're bearing children. Remember that first murder that Cain slews Abel. There was the position in the mind of Adam and Eve that Abel, their firstborn, may be the Messiah. And now what do we do now? Because Cain has killed him. How will he crush the head of the serpent? Well, God's not promised Eve would be this one, but it will take the practice of reproduction to eventually, to the moment, to the specific time in world history, as the New Testament will reveal this, at a special, specific moment in time. The prophets will prophesy of that time. They will prophesy of the region, the city, The place, the manner, we'll speak of it forever. Genesis chapter 17, if we're listening with our spiritual ears, we're hearing the promise that God will keep his covenant. God will keep his promise that he made to Adam and Eve. As they fell in the garden, God will redeem them. And he will do this through the advancement of his covenant. the power of His name, of His glory. So, chapter 17 is essentially the language that we should always be paying attention to in Scripture. And God uses, keep this in mind, we already know this about Sarah. She's a little bit of a firecracker, isn't she? She's come up with her own plan. begins to sound a little bit like Eve in the garden. Comes up with her own little idea. Did God really say this? Is this really how God's going to do this? Is God keeping this from us? Sarah has a lot of similarities to this. But by the grace of God, by the glory of God, Sarah will stand as a reminder to all of humanity of the glory of motherhood. The glory of femininity. The glory of women, which is the glory of God, which is the glory of man, which is her glory. And that she will be, by design, this representative of the one who will bear children. The rest of the world wants to murder children. But the people of God, the house of God, are always rejoicing and celebrating The birth of children, what we stand really has a great contrast to the rest of the world, don't we? Just as a reminder, and I don't need to get sidetracked here, but a reminder to us, I think we have great reason to rejoice the reversal of the Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court back in the early 70s. We have great reason that the Supreme Court reversed that position just a couple of years ago. But we also must understand that the bloodthirsty world still hates what comes from women. The bloodthirsty world hates women, really, because they hate their babies and they want to murder them. We now know, two years, two and a half years past Roe v. Wade reversal, that we are murdering babies at record numbers in our nation. This because a woman can do it in the privacy of her own home through a internet link to a medication that they can murder the child with medications. They don't need, no longer does a woman need an abortion clinic to murder her child. She can do it in the privacy of her own home. Now understand this, that is the exact opposite kind of power and glory that God speaks about for the position of women. Every woman in this room, you are not second class citizens and you don't need me to tell you this. The Word of God is perpetually elevating you not to be worshipped above man or to be equal with the worship of God, Men don't do it, but men ought to, what the New Testament says, what the book of Proverbs says, men ought to rise when a woman enters a room. Hey, by the way, what has happened to our society that we don't do that anymore? What has happened to a society that when a woman enters a room, that men don't get up and offer their chairs to her any longer? So that's not just something of etiquette. That's not just being chivalrous. That's actually mankind behaving in an honorable way toward the position of women, mothers, princesses. Well, we don't need to make too much of it. Every man in the room says, yeah, tell me about it. We don't need to make much of it. But I'm telling you, we ought to be making more of it than we currently are. We have to recognize that God gave women a glorious role. Women, may God bless you. If God hasn't blessed you with children, you are not lesser of a woman. Keep this in mind. Has God been the one who has not blessed you with children? Or are you participating in the modern phenomena of not wanting children? Glorify God in who you are. Sarah, I represent, excuse me, Sarah is who I should refer to her as from here forward. Like Eve, the mother, who was the mother of all, Sarah is the mother of nations. I'll just stop there for a minute and not get too lost in the sidetrack position. But don't you know that the world wants to continue to tell the church, you have no business in politics. And I don't know how to read Genesis chapter 17 without some kind of an acknowledgment that God is interested in nations. God has an intricate design for the usage of politics. I'm not talking about this political party over that political party. I'm saying God has an interest in nations honoring Him. Nations who forget their God will do much and worse than what your current nation is doing. Well, I'll get ahead of myself. So let me just refer back here to what God's showing us by changing Sarai's name to Sarah, the Mother of Nations. So to call her the Mother of Nations is to say she is the mother of mothers. Yes, the promise is going to come through the seed of man. The covenant that God makes with Abraham is going to come through his sons, yes. But for there to be any more advancement of the seed of the covenant that God makes with Abraham, it will require that there will be mothers who will bear children to women who will bear children. who will bear children to those who can bear children. This is the plan of God. Now perhaps you're thinking, oh, I don't know, preacher. It crushes me to think of this. I understand. God is a God of mercy. God is a God of grace. So let me just say, if you've acted more worldly on this matter, Cry out to God. He is a God full of mercy. He is a God full of grace. He does forgive. He can forgive. No higher honor has been given to women than this, that they have the capacity to be the mother of nations. What do men do? Men go to war. Men are fit and designed for war. Women are not. Women are made for birthing children. Life. Men are made for war. By the way, it won't be long, you'll have a resolution in front of you as a church, that we would have a response to our government who wants to draft our daughters. Not on our watch, You may draft other women's daughters, but you will not draft our daughters. Now you're saying, preacher, I don't know, you're saying something pretty dogmatic that we've not looked at yet. I understand that, but you're going to get an opportunity to. And I think we are mandated by the power of God to respond to a godless nation that thinks it's okay to put women in combat. Men are designed for combat. Women are designed for the glory of God to birth nations. And so we want to be a church that says, who forcefully, lovingly, and truthfully speaks to our government, who doesn't understand this right now, who's on a trajectory to pass legislative law that they have a right to put our daughters, should the need come out, on the front line. I say, doesn't that help explain to us? Not explain, but doesn't it put some understanding to us of the plight that we are currently in as a nation? The idea is not for equality to put women, or equity to put women in combat. The problem here exists that we've been murdering sons for so long, we may not have the capacity to put an army strong enough to defend against invaders. So we're going to have to use those whom God has said are the givers of life, and we're going to have to give them a gun to murder, to kill. I'm not suggesting that war is always murder. I think some wars can be, but not all. There is just war where it is not a breaking of the commandment of God that you shall not murder. The killing of an invader would be permittable. But the idea here is counter even to Genesis chapter 17. Now there's something we learn about both God and man. God is the Almighty God who has no beginning. He has no place of origin. He has every right of authority to tell man whom He created how he should conduct himself in the temporal day. So this everlasting God, the question is not too difficult for God, is it? The question is not The question of the eternal nature of El Shaddai, the Almighty God, puts him in position that he is altogether unlike all other gods of man. It would be helpful for us in conclusion that we get Isaiah the prophet, as I mentioned with the boys and girls earlier, that Matthew Henry likes to refer to Isaiah as the fifth gospel. Here's one of the reasons why. Isaiah chapter 9, Let me read these seven verses, the first seven verses of chapter nine, and see and hear how this promise that God has given to Abraham and Sarah, that Abraham will be the father of many nations, and that Sarah will be the princess of many nations, the mother of mothers. What does this have to say to us in the trajectory years down the road from Abraham and Sarah, past Moses, past the kings, the majority of the kings. We're in the late days of the kings by the ninth chapter, or by the time we get to Isaiah. So Isaiah chapter nine, verses one through seven. You're familiar with this text. But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In earlier times, He, that's God, treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Nephtheli with contempt. But later on, He shall make it glorious by the way of the sea on the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. By the way, we should stop and fire on all cylinders here, right? This is generations past Abraham. And these are nations that have come from God's people. The nations of the Gentiles, this includes them, this includes all of them, the kings, it includes the queens, it includes the nations. Verse 2, this will include this. Verse 2, the people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. You shall multiply the nation. Here it is a singular, multiplying the nation. And you shall increase their gladness, and they will be glad in your presence, as with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. Verse 4, For you shall break the yoke of their burden, and the staff on their shoulders, the rod of their oppression, as at the battle of Midian. Every boot of the booted warrior in the battle to molt, the cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning fuel for the fire. Here it is. For a child will be born to us. A son will be given to us. The government, there's more of that politic language, isn't it? Not to get too lost here, but the government, the nations, will rest on His shoulders and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. This is including all 17 chapters of the book of Genesis by the way and all of this projecting forward to the promise of the Messiah who will come from the seed of the woman. Verse 7 there will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this isn't it a glorious thing to hear the gospel in Genesis chapter 17. It's not a place where we would normally say, there's where I want to turn and see the news of the gospel, but there it is. God's telling Abraham, you'll be the father of nations. And they're telling Sarah, you'll be the mother of all those who give life It's almost exact, very similar language in which he speaks of Eve in the garden. The glory of man here lays for the promise that God will make to them through the coming of the Messiah. The Gentile, or the Galilee of the Gentiles, the nations, Christ will come. and all governments will be under his authority. They will all submit to him. It is of interest, isn't it, the kind of day that we live in where it seems as though no nation anywhere wants to submit to the authority of Christ. Oh, but we shall wait. The promise of God is glorious. The revival of His church and the awakening across the lands of men will come the news of the gospel springing forth and salvation sprouting. It's not too far for us to consider that out of the land where missionaries once were known to go and to die and be buried in, that the gospel took root when they got the gospel to the people. We are actually seeing right now a rising of a new missionary force to the world out of lands where once they ate the missionaries who showed up. Out of Africa now, we're hearing the rise of Christianity. Christian nations have birthed in a land that once surrendered to any God and every God that will do. Glory be to God. God has fixed in this nation a church who's been given the responsibility to be the bearer, the pillar, and the buttress of truth. So what shall we do in a day like this? We shall stay our course, and we shall go to war with the culture. It's going to require us to be diligent about raising our sons and daughters. This is the long game. This doesn't get fixed in a quick little moment. We're in a hot mess of a nation. What shall the church do? She shall cry out to her God and He will be her refuge. And may God give us a nation who once again knows that there is no God but God.