Dear congregation, as we live our lives, there are more eyes on us than we know. And by this I don't mean the increasing invasion of our privacy with cameras everywhere, but there are eyes of angels and devils and of the countless who are already in glory. We are told that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. And though we don't see them, they see us. And beyond and above all those many who see us, there is God who sees us all, not by searching, but he sees us. And this is something the sinner doesn't realize, at least adequately. In Psalm 94 the sinner says, the Lord does not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. And sometimes the believer too can feel as if he or she is forgotten and that the Lord doesn't see. How long Wilt thou forget me, O Lord? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? And yet the truth of the scriptures and the truth of our passage that we want to hear tonight is that God always sees, always knows, and that nothing is hid from him. And that, though it may strike terror at one level in our hearts, it is when we truly see it and understand it by grace, it is a most blessed thing that will make us stand in awe and wonder as it did to Hagar, as we hope to see from her life. Here in Genesis chapter 16, and let me take as my text verse 13. Genesis 16 verse 13, where we read, and she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, thou God seest me. For she said, have I also here looked after him that seeth me? Our theme this evening with God's help is Hagar, he sees me. We'll see first of all how he sees me in my misery, how he sees me in his mercy, and how he sees me so I can see his majesty. Hagar, he sees me. in my misery, in his mercy, so I can see his majesty. Well, congregation, our text chapter begins with these words. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bear him no children. And in these words alone, there is great pain. There is great grief. There are simple words, but for any who have faced this, there is huge sorrow in childlessness and really any dashed hopes that we may experience. And in a particular way, this was very painful to Abram and Sarah, because the Lord had promised seed in a special way. that in Abraham and in his seed would all the nations of the earth be blessed. But as our chapter notes, 10 years have passed since Abram's been in Canaan. Verse three, Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan and years came and years went. And there was no indication that God's promise was being fulfilled. And so beyond this being a great human and emotional problem, this was a spiritual problem for Abram and Sarai, who were believers, who had put their trust in the Lord. And yet we see here in these opening verses that a believing man and a believing woman are a man and woman. in the end of the day, and they need so much the Lord. We really see here a lot of sin, and as a consequence, a lot of misery. On the part of Abram, we see the sin of failing to lead his family, his wife and his whole household. In fact, passively giving into his wife here, he breaks his marriage, engages in polygamy, and subjects Hagar, this servant girl, as he does. Saria does little better. In fact, she seems to instigate this. And in her, you see this desire to control her situation. She obviously is tormented and greatly grieved by all that is happening. And she goes so far as to break her marriage and subject Hagar as she did. And Hagar herself, though she is more sinned against than sinning, we do see in her also that she despises Sarah when one she is expecting. And the biggest sin that governs all of these people, Abram, Sarai, and Hagar, is that there is no evidence here of faith in God. and in His promises. And really apart from all that I just mentioned and all those sins, and they are sins before a holy God, the absence of faith and living out of faith is the most heinous and the most disastrous of all. Let us learn from that. That even if none of these things were sin, which they are, The fact that there is no looking to the God of the promises, to fulfill in His time and in His way, His own promise, despite everything that seems to be to the contrary. That is the deepest, deepest ill in the situation. As Scripture says in Romans 14, whatsoever is not of faith, is sin. Sin brings misery. You don't have to look far to realize that Abram, Sarai, and Hagar are all suffering. Because of the wickedness that they have committed, for which Abram in a special way is responsible, sin always brings misery and sin brings brokenness. Yes, indeed, Hagar here is expecting, but there's strife, there's division, there's oppression, there is self-centeredness, there's haughtiness. This family, which prior to this, no doubt, had difficulties and stresses, is now torn asunder, is broken up. And day in and day out, night in and night out, There is a blot, a deep blot on this family. And all of it comes to a head when, again, passively, Abram leaves the whole situation into the hands of his wife. She treats Hagar harshly, and Hagar begins to run. And we see her running back to Egypt from when she had come. She was an Egyptian servant. Girl. And she makes her way all the way to Shur, to this well here that is by Shur, between Kadesh and Bereth. She's made it almost all the way to Egypt, because Shur is just on the eastern border of Egypt. That's quite a ways from where Abram was in Hebron at this time. And she's almost there back with her people. when she collapses next to this well. And perhaps she thinks herself all alone, but soon she will find that she is not alone, because God will not only see her in her misery, God will see her in his mercy. We read remarkable words in verse seven. And the angel of the Lord found her. Now who is this angel of the Lord? Children and young people, whenever you hear that expression in the Bible, you should not think merely of an angel, as glorious and as wonderful as an angel is. Those spirits that God has created, that do the Lord's bidding, that are there to help the children of God and camp around the righteous. But here is a specific angel, the angel of the Lord. And in many instances, whether it be with Gideon in Judges 6 or with Moses in Exodus 3, Or in Exodus 23, with the people of the Lord, this angel of the Lord is none other than the Lord himself, as you can see in verse 11. There, at the beginning of verse 11, it says, the angel of the Lord said unto her. And the angel says, because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. And if there was any doubt, in verse 13, Hagar says, and she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, thou God, seest me. There can be no doubt, but this angel is none other than the Son of God, whom we know as Jesus Christ. But here, before his incarnation, he has come, and he has found Hagar outside the land of promise, the very edge of the border of Egypt to which she is headed back. Oh dear friends, what a mercy this is. The angel of the Lord found her. Everything that follows speaks of the gracious purposes of God. and of the Son of God, as He, taking reasons only from out of Himself, goes all the way to that well just outside of Egypt to find this broken woman, so bruised and battered in a certain sense, and herself also lost, having run away from the arena of the promise. from this family where, despite all their failings and faults, still the fear of the Lord had been present in the altar of the Lord. And so there is Hagar, and the angel finds her, and the angel speaks to her. And notice how he doesn't ask her her name. He knows her name. Look at verse 8. And he said, Hagar, Saria's maid. He speaks in such a way that he knows her. He knows her name. He knows her identity. He knows her position. He knows where she belongs. And he unfolds this to her. Hagar, Saria's maid. And then he asks her two questions, which aren't simply for him to know what has happened, but for her to explain what has happened. He asks two questions. Whence camest thou? And whither wilt thou go? And herein he faces her with everything that is significant in this moment. Hagar, why are you here? Why have you come from where you were? And where do you think to be going? And dear friends, if I can just pause for a moment and ask you these two questions very personally. praying that God would ask them in your soul, calling you by name and saying, where have you come from? Where have you been? And where are you going? Do you see the seeking heart of the Lord? How we need these questions, don't we? Because where have we come from? We have come from the state of rectitude in which we were created. When we basked in the glory of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who made us upright. And yet we found out many inventions. We turned to Him our backs, and we turned our faces from Him, and we also began running. following our own devices, following our own hearts and going, we're not sure where, but away and away and away from God until that moment that God stands before us and calls us by our name and says, Hagar, or whatever your name is, where have you come from? And where are you going? And those are questions that we must stop and in the quietness of our heart, we must answer before the Lord. Is there someone here who is fleeing from the path of duty? Is there someone who perhaps has had difficult circumstances, has been sinned against, but is also sinning and running and fleeing from the Lord is a runaway, is lost, is rebelling against providence, against the Lord, against our calling, against the duties that the Lord has laid upon us. You know, congregation Abram and Sarah's sin was trying to help the Lord. Since the Lord wasn't working everything out on their timetable, they thought the Lord needed some help. Whatever intentions they may have had, whatever hopes and dreams they may have had, They sought to play God. And that is a sin that we are all tempted to, no matter where we find ourselves, especially when we are in seasons of discouragement, of trial, of temptation, when things are not going the way we had hoped and the way we thought the Lord was going to fulfill His promises. give providence a little push, so we think. We help the Lord. And when we do that, we are straying. We are rebelling. We are in very dangerous territory. And when Hagar here flees, from the place where the Lord had put her. She goes her own way, back to her own people. She too is sinning against God and against providence. My dear friend, where are you tonight? The Lord is calling. The Lord is searching. The Lord is asking. Not because he needs to know, because he knows. Have you thought of the fact that the Lord knows your thoughts before you think them? He knows everything, not by searching, but by knowing. Known unto God are not only all his works, but known unto God are all man's devices, all his schemes, all his strategies, all his sins. Before they even arise in our consciousness, they are known unto the Lord. Oh, my friend, what a mercy it is that the Lord doesn't deal with Hagar, Abram, and Sarai as they deserve. But He comes seeking. He comes to find Hagar. Hagar. Saria is made. Whence camest thou? And whither wilt thou go? And the searching speech of this angel of the Lord prompts Hagar to answer, I flee from the face of my mistress Saria. She says it accurately. I'm running away. I'm running from where I truly belong. from the face of my mistress Saria. And she doesn't in this moment point out Saria's sin. It seems that she's been overwhelmed, at least at a measure, at this angel of the Lord who knows her, who sees her, who knows her name, who knows where she belongs. And it prods a confession, at least at some level, in her. I flee. I'm running away. from my mistress Saria. And wherever the Lord in his mercy comes and uncovers us to our sin, makes us mindful of what we are doing in our sin, he also directs. His word is a direction. It gives us direction, doesn't it? It tells us the path we should go on. And in this particular case, the Lord says to Hagar, return to thy mistress and submit thyself under her hands. Go back to where you came from and take that place that you once had with a spirit of submission. Not haughtily, not proudly, not exalting yourself, but submitting yourself. not just to your master and to your mistress, but as the New Testament would say to all servants, to submit yourself especially to the master in heaven, not with eye service as man-pleasers, but seeking to please the Lord. And isn't this our calling as well, whoever we are, that the mind of Christ be in you, who though he was in the presence of God, in the bosom of God from all eternity, and he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, because he was equal with God, yet he humbled himself, taking to himself the form of a servant, doing even far beyond what he does here in this passage, where he appears in angelic form. He comes in human form, having taken human flesh to himself. And he comes to submit to the will of his Heavenly Father, no matter what the cost, no matter what this leads to. And he submits himself even to human authorities, Mary and Joseph, and what imperfect and sinful authorities they were, but he was subject unto them. He showed a spirit of submission even to his own disciples when he knelt at their feet and he took on the form of a servant. And he washed their feet, girding himself with a towel and washing their feet. So this angel of the Lord says to Hagar, let this mind be in you, which will also be evident in me in the fullness of time. And Hagar can go back in this way, through the presence and power of the one who appears unto her, who also gives her many promises. Because wherever the Lord comes with his directives, he also gives everything. that we will need in order to follow His direction. Because notice how 9 is followed by 10. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, and it shall not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. And the angel tells her other things, too, of what will be true for Ishmael. And he prepares her that way. He knows everything. He knows the future. He knows the past. He knows the present. He knows God's purposes. He knows God's will. He knows the promises of God. And he speaks all these things to Hagar. And what we can take from this congregation is that the Lord does not call you to any particular path or duty or course or responsibility without also at the same time giving you His most precious promises. That's why Augustine learned to say, give without us demand. and then demand what thou wilt. And that is, dear congregation, how all of us need to learn to live. Whereby God's revealed will in the scriptures is that which he places on all of us. Whether it is this call to repent and believe the gospel, such a basic call and directive to sinners everywhere, Repent and believe the gospel. But how, Lord? I will give repentance and remission of sins and faith of the operation of God. Faith is the gift of God. I will also give that to you. I will give you what you need if you plead. Looking to me, my arms are outstretched still. And my storehouse of grace is never empty. It is nevertheless for all our pleas, all our cries. And so we see how the Lord comes not only into our misery, but he comes with great mercy. And I ask you, dear friends, if you know this for yourself, how the Lord has come into your life through his word, Often in times when we are least deserving of it. He would come and seek us. Come and reveal himself to us. Come and not strike us as we deserve. Not consume us as we deserve. And neither leave us to ourselves as we deserve. But he comes and he calls us by name. And He searches us, and He knows us, and He directs us, and He provides everything for us. And in that process, He shows Himself as a God who sees and knows my misery more than I know it myself. And He comes and sees me in a way that is so merciful, I can't fathom it. I can't understand it. I would never have this for someone else. And I would never have this for myself. I could never have it for myself. And he comes and he finds me. Grace finds sinners congregation. It finds sinners who don't ask for God. Who aren't seeking God. Who aren't asking for God. and that so overwhelms us with awe and wonder that we learn to say in a measure what Hagar says here in our text. And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, thou God seest me. For she said, have I also here looked after him that seeth me." Do you see how small Hagar has become? She was lifted up in her own eyes before she left, but now as the Lord deals with her in mercy, she becomes so small. How is it possible that the God of the universe, that the Lord would come from the heights of heaven to me, bondmaiden, servant girl, on my way back to Egypt, just a hair's breadth from Egypt, and he comes and he places himself there, and he finds me? It's an amazing thing, isn't it, that the Lord does that? And he doesn't, here in this moment, go after Abraham, at least in the first instance. And he doesn't go after Saria in the first instance. He goes all the way to the border of Egypt, to Hagar, who's on the run. who's most at risk, who's here in a place where a day from now she would be back with her people and the Lord intervenes and he makes a difference where there is none. And she becomes so small before the Lord. If God has worked this in your soul, you know something of this. And you need it again and again, that the Lord makes you so small And he does that not by his law. Yes, by his law is the knowledge of sin, but by his mercy he makes you so small before him because you don't deserve this. And yet the Lord does this out of free mercy for someone like you. And it's so unexpected. She says, have I also looked after him that seeth me? In other words, I didn't even look for God. How I should have, back in Abram's tent, looked for God, cried to God, said, God, come. God, help. God, I need to see thee. And all my journey along, I didn't look for God. I didn't ask for God. And even here at the well, I didn't ask for any of this. In other words, I was blind, but he saw me. And he's now, by his mercy, he's opened my eyes. so that I see what I never saw. And that is God looking at me. God looking for me. God seeing me. It's so magnificent. It's so unexpected. And it deserves to be witnessed to. And so no doubt, Hagar turns back. and does what the Lord commands. With the help of the Lord, she goes back to Abram and Sarai. And they must have seen her coming from the distance. And there's Hagar. And there's something different about Hagar. Her face has changed. Her demeanor has changed. The fact that she's come back has only one explanation. the angel of the Lord met her and found her and opened her eyes. And she might well have said something like this, I once was blind, but now I see. I see my sin, but I see his mercy. And he comes there into the place where Abram and Sarah are, and she's a messenger of God to them. And we don't know exactly how that all went. And it's possible that the Lord had sought Abram and convicted Abram already in Sarai. We don't read that. But it's also possible that the Lord convicted Abram in Sarai now through this messenger, Hagar, who's come. And like Jacob, I have seen God face to face, and my life has been spared. And this is a message that reverberates. And now they can go onward, and they can go forward, because God has made everything so very different. I wonder why so many things in the Bible happen at wells. Have you ever noticed that? At wells. Later on in Genesis 21, there will be another story with Agar in a well. But think only of Jesus and the woman at the well. How he met her in her misery and met her with his mercy. And how she ran back to the townspeople. No doubt her eyes and her face betraying that she had met with someone greater than the father Jacob who dug this well. I had to think of John chapter nine, a few chapters later, where this blind man, the Lord says, go wash in the pool of Siloam. And he goes there, and he's been blind up to this point. In fact, he's got mud on his eyes, and he washes in the pool of Siloam. And he begins to see, and through the rest of that chapter, the light becomes clearer and clearer and clearer, and he says it, one thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see. It's almost as if this, it's not the water of the well that does it, but it's almost as if the Lord anoints our eyes with eyesalve, and washes us clean. And the scales that are on our eyes because of sin, they fall away. And we see something that's always been there, but we never saw it. And that is God, whom we never asked for. He's there. He sees me. He knows me. He knows my name. He knows my heart. He knows my down sitting and my uprising. He understands me afar off. And whereas before the encounter with mercy, the thought that God could see me and know me, my thoughts, my heart, my actions, my consciousness, all that, that would be a terror. That'd be the most terrible thing. that now that I see the mercy of the Lord in Jesus Christ, I say, search me, O God, and know me. And if there be any wicked way in me, and there are so many wicked ways in me, cleanse me, wash me, Burn away the dross. Take away the scales. And lead me in the way everlasting. Lead me in the right path. Lead me by thy promises. Lead me in a straight path that my foot slips not. Psalter 94 says it this way. The fountain of eternal life is found alone with thee. And in the brightness of thy light, we clearly light shall see. Dear friends, the word of God tells all of us tonight, whoever we are, however far we are from God, Unconverted or converted. God sees you. God knows you. One commentator gave this example. Have you ever seen these beehives under glass? Maybe at some park or, they have this, don't you? You can go in a building and then they have this beehive and there's glass or plastic and you look in there and you see all that the bees are doing constantly. And we only can see just a little bit. But that's how God sees us. Every day, every hour, every moment, and not just on the surface, not just what we let people see and let God see, but He sees deep within our souls. Is that a terror to you? If you're outside of Christ, it will be, and it should be a terror. You need Christ, my friend. Because when you have Christ, then God sees you and he sees Christ. And he sees the secret longings of your heart which you don't have from yourself. Which sometimes you don't even know yourself. But he sees those. And like Peter said to the Lord Jesus, Lord thou knowest all things. He cast himself there upon the omniscience of God. And he saw, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou seest all things. Thou can see what I can't even see and trace. Lord, thou knowest that I love thee, because thou hast put it there. It's from thee. It's through thee. And may it be to thee. Well, dear friends, as we leave Hagar, may we not leave the Lord. We cannot leave the Lord. May we not turn away from Him any further into Egypt. My friend, it's time to go back. I know it's difficult. I know the Lord delays. I know it seems like He tarries. Like what he promised is tarrying. But you know what the Bible says? If it tarry, wait for it. It will not tarry. The Lord knows the right time. Go his way. Go Christ's way. Go with Christ. this wonderful angel of the Lord, who thanks be to God, didn't just go to the very border of Egypt. He went all the way to the cross. He went where Hagar could not go, where Abram could not go, where Sarai would never go, where none of us would ever be able to go. He went all the way. that he might find us. My friend, he sees, he knows, because he went all the way to Calvary. Oh, may that melt our hearts tonight. May that change our direction. May we exalt God. May we praise his name. May we say like Hagar says here, thou, God, seest me. Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? Amen.