In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the relevance of the book of Genesis to the present day. They compare Genesis to the book of Revelation, stating that both are about the end times. The Tower of Babel and the temptation in the garden are mentioned as events that are repeated in the world today. The speaker also highlights the story of Sarah and Hagar, focusing on Sarah's reaction to Ishmael mocking Isaac and her subsequent request to cast out Hagar and her son. The sermon concludes with a prayer for the understanding that Jesus is coming and that Genesis provides insight into the events happening in the world today.

Genesis is the original and ultimate book. One of the ways I know that it's more than just some ancient document is how relevant it is to today, what it speaks to us about why the world is the way it is, even right now. And Genesis 16 and parts of the other chapters that I'll look at today, because I'm going to skip around, really speaks to what's happening in the world today. I told you all along, Genesis is like Revelation. They're both about the end times. As it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end. It all comes back full circle. The Tower of Babel happens all over again. The temptation in the garden doesn't just come upon the first couple, it comes on the whole world. A religious temptation, a huge test. Everything you see in Genesis, the scattering of the nations and their rebellion, they want to unscatter the scattering. And in their rebellion, they would build a Tower of Babel again. Everything you see there, the days of Noah, Jesus said, as in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. It'll be just like the days of Noah. Well, the ark, our ark isn't a wooden boat. Our ark is a person, Jesus Christ. Run to him because the wrath of God is coming. Find your refuge in Christ before it's too late. I already see the storm clouds gathering, the clouds of judgment are coming. And then, but Genesis goes from a huge, everything's universal in the first 11 chapters. But after the Tower of Babel, the focus just becomes just narrowed. No more working with every nation in the world. No more direct dealings with all the peoples of the world. Instead, after the Tower of Babel, this is what the New Testament means when it says, he left the nations to their own devices. He doesn't deal with the nations anymore. In fact, what he does is he starts a new nation. That's the meaning of Abraham. What's the big deal of Abram? Abram is God's answer to the Tower of Babel. No more universal dealings. Now I'll deal with nations indirectly through the new nation, the supernatural nation that I will build. Now, when God wants to build a nation, he doesn't choose a 21-year-old man and a 20-year-old girl to start. He takes some woman that's barren and past childbearing age and some old man that's all dried up. He says, now there's someone I could use to build a new nation. Why? Because God is the God of the living. God is the God of resurrection. God is the God who calls things that be not as though they were. So he says to the one man, I will make your seed like the sand of the sea and like the stars of the sky. And someone's going to come through your loins who is going to bless every family on the face of the earth. That's a tall order to tell someone to believe who's in his seventies and has never had children. But we read it last week. Abram believed God and it was put to his account for righteousness. God literally puts Abram's name in God's own name. He is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. You ever think about that? We're so familiar with that. You ever think how staggering that is that the holy and omnipotent and eternal God would take a man, a sinner, and put his name in and identify himself by the name of some idolater, some moon worshiper? I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's staggering. But the problem that we come to in Genesis 16 is Abram's getting older and older and older. Now he's not 75, he's 85 and he doesn't still have any children. And Sarah is getting older and older and older. You talk about the biological clock, hers rusted and collapsed. Okay, doesn't have one anymore. Chapter 16, now Sarah, Abram's wife, bared him no children. But she had a handmaiden, an Egyptian whose name was Hagar. She picked him up when Abram went down to Egypt in unbelief. Picked up Hagar. Sarah said unto Abram, behold now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray they go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarah. Surrogate motherhood was very acceptable in those days. He literally married her. It's a different status of marriage. It's a concubine, which is a lower status marriage. What I'm saying is that for the times it was all, quote, legal. Just because something's legal doesn't mean it's of God, right? Sarah, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And that's this lower status marriage. And he went in unto Hagar and she conceived. And when she saw that she conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. Hagar conceived a child. That's the seed. Remember that the theme that runs all the way through Genesis is the seed, the seed. God told Adam and Eve, the seed of the woman shall crush the serpent's head, but first the serpent will bruise his heel. So the whole thing, if you really want to track through the book, it's all about the seed. Everything that happens negatively is an attack on the seed. That's why what happened in the flood, you know, try to obliterate the human race through intermarriage with demons. Try to unify the world in apostasy, the Tower of Babel. Everything's an attack on the seed. Well, here's the seed of Abram, but it's a false seed. Okay. God said, Abram, someone's going to come through your loins, is going to bless everyone in the face of the earth. And he couldn't figure out how it was going to happen. And so he and Sarah, his wife, began to reason together, how can we make this happen? How could this be accomplished? We're running out of time. Instead of waiting on God, they got impatient and they reasoned and created a son named Ishmael. This is so current right now. Well, as soon as Ishmael is conceived, Hagar the Egyptian begins to despise Abram's wife, Sarah. You can imagine the tension in a household like that. I'm the one blessed. I'm the one fruitful. I'm the one that Abram loves the most. I'm the one that blessed Abram. I'm the one. And so she begins to scorn her mistress in the house. In verse 5, Sarah said unto Abram, my wrong be upon thee. I've given my maid into your bosom. And when she saw that she conceived, I was despised in her eyes. The Lord judged between me and thee. And Abram said unto Sarah, behold, your maid is in your hand. Give to her as it pleases you. And when Sarah dealt harshly with her, she fled from her face. Well, you can see in these three verses, the three facets of sin. The mistress conceives and then pride comes in. I'm the one. She despises Abram's true wife. And then you can see blame. Sarah goes to her husband May the wrong done to me be on your head. Wait a minute. Whose idea was it in the first place? You know what this is? This is Adam and Eve all over again. No, I'm not exonerating Abram. He's the one. That's the third facet of sin, the passivity. Well, whatever. But then when she's scorned in her own house, she turns back on him. There's no humble confession. Wow, we did something wrong. We blew it. Well, and then Hagar. It said Sarah dealt hardly with her, but literally what that says is that Sarah put her in her place. Wait a minute. You know, I'm Abram's wife, the real wife. You're doing this as a surrogate motherhood. You get back in your place. And what Hagar does is runs away. And where she wanted to run is back to where she was from, Egypt. See, people always want to run away to Egypt, go back to Egypt. God called us out of Egypt, but people want to go back to Egypt. OK, but she's in the desert, pregnant on her way back to Egypt when the angel of the Lord comes after her for seven. The angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness by the fountain in the way to shore. By the way, I want to say something. The angel of the Lord is usually in the Bible Jesus himself. Jesus is the angel. Jesus is not an angel in the sense that Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons say. But Jesus is the true messenger of the Lord. He is the true angel of the Lord. And you'll see that by the end of the story, because she says, I've seen God. The angel of the Lord comes to her by a fountain of water. Remember, Jesus found the woman by the well. And he said to Hagar, Sarah's maid. Notice he doesn't call Hagar Abram's wife. Sarah's maid. Where are you going and where did you come from and where are you going? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress, Sarah. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, return to your mistress and submit yourself under her hands. Go back, because the only way you could be saved is by attaching yourself to Abram's household. That's the only way to be saved. Put yourself under, submit. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply your seed exceedingly that it will not be numbered for multitude. You're going to have a baby and that baby is going to be a multitude. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, behold, you are with child and you will bear a son and will call his name Ishmael, because the Lord had heard thy affliction. The Lord gave this child his name, Ishmael. It means the Lord has heard. And he will be a wild man. His hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him. And he will dwell in the presence of all his brethren. And she called the name of the Lord that spoke unto her, thou God seest me. For she said, have I also here looked after him that seeth me? And what it actually says literally is more poetic. Have I looked on my looker? You really see. God sees. Saw her out in the wilderness, saw her in this distress, came to her. I want you to look at what happened. God gave, gives the child his name, Ishmael, and God promises a blessing on the child. But the child is not the seed of Genesis 3, nor is the child the seed that would come through Abram and bless the whole world. But the child is blessed. He's the son of Abram, and he will be multiplied. And when he talks about the characteristics of the child, what it literally says is he will be a wild ass of a man. Now, that's not necessarily negative, because out in that wilderness area, you want to be a good man, a good stout man. And also, he's promising the man that he'll be free, that no one's going to tame him. He'll always be free. But he also talks about his future. His hand will be against every man. And every man's hand will be against him. And he will dwell in the presence of all his brethren. You won't understand what that's saying just looking at it in King James. He will dwell in opposition to even his own brethren. Who's he talking about? He's talking about the sons of Ishmael, the Arab peoples. But even as the sons of Isaac are the Jewish people, they're spiritual sons of Isaac, the Christians. So it is with Ishmael. The Arab people are the sons of Ishmael, and they've lived exactly the way that the angel of the Lord predicted they'd live. They've been warlike, stout, fierce, independent. You couldn't tame them, and never united. If they're not fighting everybody else, the Arabs are always fighting themselves. If they didn't have Christians to fight, they'd kill each other off. They need enemies desperately to keep themselves from killing each other, seriously. We were the spiritual sons of Ishmael, the Muslims. The Muslims claim Ishmael. The Muslims have a feast where they celebrate the sacrifice of Ishmael. It's exactly what the angel said. She called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, You God, see me, verse 13. For she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? You are the God that seeth, Jehovah-Jireh. You are the one that seeth, or I prefer Yahweh-Jireh, Yahweh-Jireh, the Lord that seeth. And then she says, Because have I looked on my looker? God seeth us. We've never seen God, but she saw God. How did she see God? Jesus. Wherefore, the well was called Bir Lahairoi. Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered, and Hagar bare Abram a son. And Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare Ishmael. And Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram. Now you go back to Abram, and he's 86 years old, and he finally has his son, and he begins to operate on the premise that this son is the heir. This is the seed. Good. I have a son, finally. This is the seed. This goes on for 13 years. It says in the next verse, When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am the Almighty God. Walk before me, and be thou perfect, and I'll make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram 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 many nations. This is literally a name change. Up till then, he was Abram. From now on, he becomes Abraham. Abram means exalted father. Abraham means the father of many nations. His name was changed. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be called Abraham, for father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make you exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come out of you, and I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generation, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. The whole time, Abram figured, yes, Ishmael, Ishmael, Ishmael, Ishmael. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. Ishmael, Ishmael, the holy land. And then God gives him the covenant of circumcision. I don't have much time to explore that, but basically circumcision is for Abram and all of his direct physical descendants. Anyone that's supposed to be in the line of the seed of the woman, they would show that by being circumcised. And I do want to say two things about circumcision. Number one, circumcision was not salvation in those days. All it ever was was identification with the seed of the woman, the Jewish people, okay? But circumcision presupposes guilt. Why did God want circumcision? Well, you're not right. Circumcision is a statement. You're not right the way you are. You're not right. And it's the instrument of birth, okay? The instrument of propagation is the part that gets marked. That's what he's saying, is people aren't right the way they're born. Something else has to happen. You aren't right in your first birth. You got to be born again. Anybody here? You must be born again. But he's going along and talking about circumcision. Circumcision was not salvation. Abram had already been saved in Genesis 15. He believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Paul makes this point. Circumcision didn't save Abram. Circumcision is the obedience after faith to show that he really did believe God. It's the seal of the covenant. It wasn't the way to be saved. Thank God. And the Lord's going on, but then verse 15, And God said unto Abram, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. Okay? A change for her. Sarai and Sarah. Sarai is princely, and Sarai is the princess, the 90-year-old princess, okay? I will bless her. See, this is what gets Abram's attention. This is really important. We read this so much, we don't realize. Okay, Abram's thinking Ishmael, Ishmael, Ishmael. And God says, now let me talk to you about who the mother of the seed is going to be, not Hagar, Sarah. And this rocked Abram's world, because by now Ishmael's 13, and he's beginning to think, you know, Ishmael's in puberty, he's going to grow on, he's not long, he'll be married, he'll have children, the promise is going to go on. He thinks he's going one way, and all of a sudden the Lord says, no, no, no, no, you are down the wrong road. It's this way. She's going to be. God said to Abram, verse 15, as for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give you a son also of her. Yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations, kings of people shall be of her. Then Abram fell upon his face and laughed. Now this is not the laugh of unbelief, this is not the laugh of scorn, this is the laugh of awe and wonder. Are you kidding me? I've had it wrong? He cannot believe that this old woman is going to be the mother of many nations, and that the seed will come through her, and he's realizing that for 13 years he's operated on the way wrong premise, and he falls on his face and laughs. And says in his heart, shall a man be born to him that is a hundred years old? See he's older now too. He probably thought, wow, I dodged a big one. I had a baby while I was in my 80s. Now my time is done. No, it isn't. He's 99. What does the number 99 represent? In the Bible, the number 99 represents like you've gone as far as you humanly can. It's the end of human strength, human effort. It's the end of everything you can possibly do. On the other side of 99 is the power of God. He's laughing. Shall Sarah that's 90 years old bear? It's like audacious, wow. And Abram said unto God, oh that Ishmael might live before you. See automatically he thinks of his son that he loves so much. Wait a minute, where's Ishmael in all this? Oh God let him live before you, which means let him thrive and prosper. Don't let him be disinherited. I think you can begin to see how this applies to our situation right now. What about the Arabs? Who really does own the land? Who's the real chosen people? But why are the Arabs so blessed? They don't do anything. You won't find anything they invent. You won't find any of them winning the Nobel Prize. You won't find any of them doing anything significant. They don't, they don't, they don't. Well what is their wealth? Oil. Who gave that to them? See we Americans go, why did you put the oil there? This is the answer. There's sons of Abram. God's blessing them. Ouch. And then God says, because God always gets the last laugh. Verse 19, God says, Sarah your wife will bear you a son indeed and you shall call his name Isaac, which is pronounced Itzak. It's actually supposed to be funny because that's the sound of laughter. Itzak, yak, yak, yak, yak. So if you're laughing so hard then call him laughter. That's going to be his name. Itzak. I'll establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard thee. Behold I have blessed him. Wouldn't you agree? And made him fruitful. You know the western world's dying. Europe is dying. The twin heresies of abortion and birth control. The blight and death and the love of death that the west has embraced. They're dying, but who's prospering even physically? Ishmael. In the west, in some of the countries of Europe, they have less than replacement birth rates, but Ishmael has like six or seven babies each. God said all those that love me, all those that hate me love death. Of course we're dying. We turned our back on God and hated him. That's why we love abortion, birth control, pornography, homosexuality. All of these are death. Of course the west loves death. That's why they're dying. They love death. Well let me get back. He says, behold I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. Twelve princes shall he beget and I'll make him a great nation. And the Arabs are a great nation in many, many respects. By the way, you don't remember how Hagar tried to run back to Egypt and God said, no go back, go back to Abram. I want to qualify something. Most Arabs that are here in the U.S. are Christians. They're not Muslims. Most Arabs are Christians. Now the government is trying to change that by bringing in as many Arabs that are Muslim as possible. I this nation. But up to this point, most Arabs are Christian and so they're like Hagar. They went back to Abram and they submitted. Then he says, twelve princes shall he beget and I'll make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. A year from now, Sarah's 90 years old, a year from now she'll be having a baby. Now, I want to switch up to Genesis chapter 21. Oh, Genesis chapter 18. Genesis chapter 18 verse 9. A wonderful story that God comes to Abram in his tent. And Abram doesn't realize it's God at first. God has two assistants with him, two angels, but they look like men. So Abram runs out real quick and says, I got to show you the hospitality. Stay for a meal. And he slaughters a goat, makes bread, and I mean feeds them and washes their feet. I mean, really, really bends over backwards. This is where the New Testament says, make sure that you're hospitable because you never know, you might be entertaining angels. Okay. It can't come from that story. Okay. And then God begins to tell him the promise. Verse 9. He said unto him, where is Sarah your wife? And he said, behold, in the tent. And he said, I'll certainly return unto thee according to the time of life. And lo, Sarah thy wife will have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door which was behind him. And Abram and Sarah were old and well stricken in age, and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of woman. So she's past menopause is what that's saying. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, after I've waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also, her husband, the old man. Okay. And the Lord said unto Abram, why does Sarah laugh? Saying, shall I have a surety, bear a child which am old? By the way, the Lord's not rebuking Sarah here. You laughed, basically. Is there anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed, I'll return unto thee according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. The Bible says you've got to imitate the faith of Abram. Well, one part of the faith of Abram is resurrection faith. You have to believe in resurrection. God quickens the dead and causes those things to be not as though they were. Abram's dead, Sarah's dead. Paul says Sarah's womb's dead. And yet God says, by this time next year she'll have a son. And Sarah's laughing like, oh. And this is not even rebuked by God. It's not the laugh of unbelief or scorn. Maybe it's a laugh like, wouldn't that be awesome? Or wouldn't that be great? Or wow, that's hard to comprehend. Are you joking? And God says, you laughed, Sarah. He didn't even see her, but he knew what she was thinking and doing back behind the tent. He says, why did you laugh? She says, I didn't laugh. From out behind the tent. Sarah denied saying, I didn't laugh, for she was afraid. And she said, nay. And he said, no, but you did laugh. You were laughing. Go up to Genesis chapter 21. I don't want to make this message last too long, but I really want to bring in both these births and their meaning before I close. Genesis 21. What happens there? The Lord visited Sarah as he said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bare Abram a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And what do they name him? You can laugh with him. Abram called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bared him, Isaac. And Abram circumcised his son, being eight days old, as God had commanded him. And Abram was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born unto him. And Sarah said, God has made me to laugh so that all that hear will laugh with me. And to this day, we're fulfilling that. We're laughing. This is a great story. This is properly told. It's great. You laugh. No, I didn't. Yes, you did. I heard you. Abram laughs. A laugh of awe, a laugh of wonder, a laugh of faith, a laugh of joy, a laugh of, whoa, I can't believe it. But there is another kind of laughing. She said, who would have said unto Abram that Sarah would have given children suck? For I have borne him a son in his old age. Here is a woman, 91, and for the first time in her life, she has the joy of breastfeeding. She's exhilarated. Is this not really what God does for us? He gives us life again. He gives us a brand new start. He makes us fruitful where there was barrenness. How many would agree with that? See, we're supposed to imitate the faith of Abram and Sarah. The child grew and was weaned. Here she is. She probably never thought she'd even have her own baby in her arms. Now she's to the point of weaning the child. The child's about four years old, maybe, and Ishmael's about 17. And Abram made a great feast that same day that Isaac was weaned. They used to celebrate weaning. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abram, mocking. A different kind of laugh. Scorn. Sneering. The laughter of unbelief. This little helpless thing is the heir. No, I'm the heir. This little weak little puny thing is nothing. What a joke. That's the kind of laughter we're talking there. The laugh of unbelief and envy. And Sarah saw it. Wherefore, she said unto Abram, cast out this bondwoman and her son. Get him out of the house. Get him out. For the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. The thing was very grievous in Abram's sight because of his son. They had heard Abram to the core. You can't help but love your son. And she said, get him out of the house. And God said to Abram, let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad and because of the bondwoman. And all that Sarah has said unto thee, listen to her voice. For Isaac shall thy seed be called. See, man, your wife's not always wrong. God said, do it. Listen. Put this child, do this difficult thing. Put this child out of the house. Oh, I don't want to put him out of the house. Faith demands some heavy things sometimes, huh? You can't have both in the house. Listen, you can't have the true seed and the false seed in the same house. Anybody here? You can't live the second and the first birth. Amen? What happens? You know, we're told nothing about what Isaac is like. Nothing at all. Until Ishmael. And nothing at all what Ishmael's like personally. Might have been a great kid. Might have been the most obedient child in the world. Might have been a rascal. Might have been an athlete. Might have been a... who knows what he was like. You never knew what he was like until Isaac was born. Once Isaac came, you saw something about Ishmael. What's the application? I never knew what I was all about until I was born again. My old creation, I didn't think it was all that bad. It was all right. Oh yeah, sure, we all got some flaws and things like that. But I didn't think it was all that bad until I was born again. Something about getting born again shows you the true nature of the first birth. And so, Abram sends him out. And that's another story too. They go out in the wilderness. Now, the New Testament shows that this is an allegory. Isaac is the child of the promise. Ishmael is the child of the flesh. See, God says you must be born again. All through Genesis, in fact, all through the Bible, you got this principle. It's not the first. You think it's going to be the first, but it's not always the first. It's the second. It's not Cain, okay? Remember Eve thought, this is it. Not going to be Cain. It's going to be Abel and ultimately Abel's substitute, Seth. Not the first birth. Remember the story of King David? It's not the big strong strapping brothers. It's the last one. Not the first birth. The second birth. It's not going to be Ishmael. It's going to be Isaac. The first is not of God, but it comes first. This leads all the way to the end. Who comes first? Christ or Antichrist? Antichrist. It's not the false seed, but the true one. Well, listen, he puts them out and that hurt. Verse 14, Abram rose up early in the morning, took bread, made a bottle of water, gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder. And the child sent her away, and she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. The child there is 17. And she went and sat down over against him a good way off, as if it were a bow shot. For she said, let me not see the death of the child. Ishmael's not going to die. He's blessed. I'm going to tell you something that's going to happen at the end of the world. Isaac will see Jesus and be converted, and so will Ishmael. The Arabs are going to be saved, okay? They're not going to die. They're not going to be wiped out. They are going to be converted. They are the seed of Abraham, too. They're not the seed that would crush the serpent's head, but they are Abram's children. God heard the voice of the lad. The child starts crying. Verse 17, God heard the voice of the lad, and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven and said unto her, what aileth thee, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in your hand, for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad to drink. And God was with the lad, and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer, and he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt." Well, he dwelt in the Arabian Peninsula. He's called the God of Abram. What do you think that means? He's the God of everyone that goes out from the familiar, like Jed was saying, from the comfort zone, come out into a land that I'll show. He's the God of everyone that separates from the world. He's the God of everyone that becomes like a pilgrim, and puts up a tent instead of dwelling in a house, and puts up altars. That's his permanence. He's the God of Isaac. He's the God of everyone that's supernaturally born, okay? It's not who you are in your first birth, it's who you are in your second birth that counts. It says circumcision doesn't mean anything, nor uncircumcision, but the new creation. Amen? He's the God of Isaac, the second one. He's the God of all those who are born by the Spirit and by the promise of God. He's the God of all those who come out of death. But you know, in closing, you know, the first thing that Isaac experiences is persecution by Ishmael, okay? The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. Or as Galatians says in another place, the children of the flesh come against the children of the Spirit. Children of the Spirit look weaker. Children of the flesh look strong. You ever see the Arab nations in comparison to tiny Israel on a map? It's like a little sliver compared to a massive, blessed, filthy, rich landmass. But God will make them prevail. Father in the name of Jesus. All of us have the faith of Abram, and I'm sure all of us could say we've created our own Ishmaels, O Lord, that we have to live with. But I thank you for your promise. I thank you for your grace. I thank you for the seed that came, the seed of the woman, the seed of Abram, the seed that crushed the serpent's head, the seed that died for our sins, the seed that came to reconcile us unto you. Let us follow our father Abram in his faith, O Lord. Let us follow him, O Lord God, and imitate him, O God, and live in tents, Lord, and not make our home in this world, O Lord God. Not make our home in this land, O God, but let us look for the city whose builder and maker is God, O Lord. And Lord, as we see the end of times, we see Ishmael and Isaac and their war and their persecution and their big, big fight, Lord, that's going to engulf the whole world. All we can say is we know Jesus is coming, Lord. I pray you impress on everyone that's here that Jesus is coming, O Lord, and that Genesis gives us a reason and an answer for what's happening in the world today, Lord. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you.