Replacing Faith with Flesh

Replacing Faith with Flesh

Intro:

We’re learning a lot about faith through the life of Abram. Some lessons we learn are from his successes and some lessons are through his failures. And Abram has some significant failures – we’re going to be looking at one of his biggest failures of faith this morning.

Genesis 16:1-6 (pray)

In chapter 15 Abram has a great success of faith. He believes God and God credits Abram with righteousness because of that faith. Abram struggles with some lingering doubts but God assures him by cutting covenant with him and as chapter 15 fades Abram is very confident in God’s promise that he will have a son and that his ancestors will possess the land.

But something happens between chapter 15 and chapter 16 that does a number on both Abram’s and Sarai’s faith. Between these two chapters something very unexpected happens that begins to erode their faith and enlarge their doubts. You know what happens? Time happens. Delay happens. Ten years worth of delay. And still no baby. When God first promised Abraham offspring Abram was 75, Sarai 65 and it seemed a stretch, but with faith they knew God could do it. Their faith got a real shot in the arm when God met Abram and promised him that He would give him a son. I can imagine how excited they were as they waited for the baby God promised them! For the first 6 months Sarai would drop a pregnancy test in her shopping cart and they would wait with excitement to see that pink line show up – nothing. For the next 6 months their excitement turned to a deeper, more resolved faith. They’d think, God’s promises take time but He promised, so maybe next month. The second year they still believed, but now their faith was mixed with fear: every month their heart would be filled with hope that she would be with child, and fear that they would be disappointed again. By the third year they began to ache for the fulfillment of God’s promise. By the fourth year - still no baby - Sarai can feel the biological clock ticking as she approaches 70. Where was the fulfillment of God’s promise? Then time began to blur and it was five years, then six years, seven years, eight years, nine years, ten years…no baby.

The pain and disappointment is summed up in one simple line: Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. Sarai’s early anticipation of a late in life pregnancy has died, and now she starts to think if it’s gonna happen, she’s gonna have to take matters into her own hands and make it happen.

What Sarai suggests to Abram is not as morally out of the box as it might seem. In those days it was considered legal and socially acceptable for a woman who wasn’t conceiving to give her slave to her husband and the child born to the slave would be considered the child of the mistress. This wasn’t condoned by God, but they were well within the socially and legally accepted boundaries of the times.

Sarai comes to Abram with an idea: God has prevented me from having a son. Remember that time when we were in Egypt and you lied about my being your sister, not your wife? Remember that failure of faith Abram? Well, you know how the Pharoah gave me an Egyptian girl as my own personal slave. She’s my property – if she has a son by you, that son will be mine.

Remember, at this point God has promised that it would be a son from Abram, but God has not specified that it would be through Sarai. Abram listens to his wife – rather than lead her back to patient faith, rather than pray with her, rather than point out that that doesn’t honor God or this young Egyptian girl Hagar, Abram passively follows his wife’s suggestion. The real problem for Abram and Sarai is that in the long delay they didn’t consult God, they didn’t cry out to God, they didn’t run to God. Their faith buckled and they came up with their own plan to help God out.

Unintended Consequences

There was a book published in the late 90’s called Unintended Consequences. Apparently the book itself didn’t do very well but the title did catch on and became a well known phrase, which was probably an unintended consequence for the author of the book. Few people set out to write a book that everyone knows the title of, but no one actually reads. But the premise is that sometimes we try to fix a problem in such a way that unforeseen problems arise from the fix – often bigger problems than the original problem. Genesis 16 records the first case of unintended consequences. Sarai’s solution works: Hagar does become pregnant only her success where Sarai has failed fills her with pride and she starts looking down on Sarai in contempt and that makes Sarai more miserable than before. Finally Sarai complains to Abram and (once again passively) he tells her that Hagar is her servant, she can treat her any way she wants. And Sarai mistreats her until she runs away.

Instead of trusting God’s promises through the delay, Abram and Sarai take matters into their own hands and they end up with a mess. They replace faith with flesh and trigger a series of unintended consequences they can’t stop and they can’t take back. One of the consequences of their action was an ongoing war between the children of Ishmael and the children of Isaac that would be a bloody thorn in the side of Israel for thousands of years, a war that the New Testament says mirrors the ongoing spiritual conflict between faith in God’s promises and the works of the flesh. Faith vs. flesh. That war begins on the battleground of how we are saved: by faith in what God has done and will do, or by taking matters into our own hands and doing good works to be saved.

I. Faith vs. Flesh in Salvation

In Galatians Paul finds in this story an allegory to the life of Christian faith vs. the bondage of legalism. Those who trust their obedience to the law (legalism) to save them is like Ishmael – the child of a slave. The law puts us into bondage, never frees us because we are unable to keep it perfectly. On the other side, those who trust God to do what we can’t are children of Isaac – children of the promise and free in Christ. We will explore this allegory in more depth later in Genesis. But we relate to Abram in that the Christian life is centered on trusting God’s promises – specifically that the work of Christ is the only thing sufficient to save us. We renounce all works of the flesh as means of being saved and trust fully in the work of Christ.

• I am often amazed by stories I hear of the teachings of legalistic churches. Someone recently told me how in a certain fellowship for a woman to wear pants was a ticket to hell. Wow. But ladies, whether you like the idea of giving up wearing pants or not, the bottom line is, that is something you could do – it’s in your control. If wearing dresses, or not wearing makeup, or not watching movies or not smoking, or not drinking alcohol or not missing your quiet time, or whatever was the way we were saved, we are in control. That’s a baby I can produce. But salvation by the works of the flesh will only ever produce a child of the flesh and will always lead to bondage, misery and regret.

• Trusting Jesus Christ to save you – no works added, period. We are to do good works because we’re graciously saved, but never to be saved. Like the thief on the cross who couldn’t do a single thing to earn heaven – couldn’t lift a finger, couldn’t go anywhere – nothing, could only ask for mercy. That’s us. Helpless, needing mercy.

ILL: Trust falls are becoming popular – where you demonstrate (or learn) to trust by falling backwards into the arms of someone waiting. The gospel is the ultimate trust fall – we must relinquish our control over being saved and fall into the arms of Jesus trusting him to catch us. There’s an old hymn, leaning on the everlasting arms. That’s Christianity. If you’re not a Christian and you wonder, what does it mean to become a Christian, I’ll tell you it doesn’t mean to do this and do that and wear this and wear that. To be a Christian is to believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins providing the only acceptable sacrifice to pay for our sins against God. The thief on the cross just asked Jesus, “remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus replied, “today you will be with me in paradise.” Call on Jesus to save you, and He promises He will. And you will be a child of promise – saved by God’s supernatural work, not by some fleshly religious effort that you make.

II. Faith vs. Flesh in Sowing

The second battleground between faith and flesh has to do with the life we live after we are saved by God’s work. With Hagar and Sarai in mind Paul in Gal. will later to go on to contrast the fruit of the Spirit with the works of the Flesh. The two are at war. The flesh will result in corrupted works such as immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, enmity, strife and stuff like that. The fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Then Paul admonishes Christians to sow to the Spirit not to the flesh. Sowing to the flesh will reap corruption. That means reaping rot, regret, tangled messes. Like what Abram and Sarai reaped. But the one who sows to the Spirit sows good works by the power of the Spirit and reaps eternal life.

… the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up… Galatians 6:8-9

Two warnings: don’t get legalistic in doing good works, but don’t get weary in doing good works either. God wants to use our lives to bear good fruit. He desires that our lives will multiply the life giving message of the gospel in the lives of others like a crop ready for harvesting unto eternal life. Faith recognizes that there is a due season. There is a delay between sowing in the Spirit and reaping the eternal fruits. That time delay can produce a weariness in our faith that can make us want to take matters in our own hands and sow to the flesh, or grow discouraged, or give up. Abram and Sarai’s faith was worn down by time.

• Praying for someone to come to Jesus – don’t give up. Keep praying.

• Parent’s working with a beloved child to come to a genuine faith in Christ. Don’t give in to the temptation to bust the door down and pressure them into faith. Pray, share, instruct, and put your faith in God.

• Singles – you want to get married but you also want to marry a godly person who loves Jesus and will be a godly spouse. But over time if that isn’t coming quickly you might be tempted to settle for someone who you know in your heart isn’t the kind of person you want to spend your life with. Face the delay with faith.

• As a congregation we can face this too: not seeing as many people getting saved as we want, we’re not growing as fast as we want, we’re not seeing people mature in Christ as deeply as we want…and congregations (and pastors) can be tempted to stop praying, maybe depend on programs or gimmicks instead of looking to God in faith.

These are real issues and I’m not saying we shouldn’t face them or that God doesn’t care about them. Saying time has a way of eroding faith and tempting us to replace faith with flesh.

Gen 16:7-16

Hagar isn’t perfect in this story, but she is the least guilty and the most abused. She is forced to marry against her will. She is abused by her mistress. She flees on a suicide march across the desert back to Egypt. She is defenseless – no support, no hope of supporting her child, no home, really no loving husband. Sarai is cruel to her and Abram ignores her plight. But God doesn’t.

God meets her and instructs her to return to her mistress and submit. But he promises that he will bless her offspring and multiply them. They will be a wild, individualistic kind of people, in contention with everyone around them. It’s not the greatest blessing, but God promises to make of her a great nation.

Hagar is overwhelmed as she realizes that God has heard her cry. Her child is to be Ishmael – God hears. God has heard her suffering. And God has seen her suffering too and she names God “You are the God who sees”. And the place where this happened was called Beer – Lahai – roi which means Well of the Living One Who Sees me. Hagar knows: at a point where she felt she was completely alone and helpless, God heard her and God saw her.

God sees the defenseless. God sees the hurting. God sees you when your situation seems hopeless or confusing. God hears your cries – cries late at night when no one else hears. The cries screamed in your heart that no one else can hear at all. God hears. God sees your plight – hardship, the sadness, the loneliness, the fear. God sees.

I don’t know about you, but I can think of many times in my life where I’ve taken long walks or prayed desperate prayers because of some seemingly never ending trial going on in my life. The trial usually hasn’t lifted by the time I end my walk or prayer. But I am comforted by knowing that God heard. God sees.

This is one messed up situation. Tangled, confusing. Consequences that will last a long, long time. Sin abounds. But grace abounds all the more. God comes and tenderly speaks to Hagar and gives her hope and direction. She goes back and tells the story to Abram. We know that because Abram names the boy Ishmael. And it was a reminder to him, God sees. God hears. And Sarai would live with that reminder too: Hagar was back and she had a testimony: God sees and God hears. Painful for Sarai, but also a little hopeful. God sees her too. God hears her plight too. Grace abounds.

God saw our plight and loved us. He sent His Son because He so loved this sinful, messed up, tangled up world. Jesus came to touch the lives of sinners whose lives were so messed up it would take a miracle to ever make them right. And that’s what Jesus came to give.

What is amazing is that while Jesus hung on the cross, not for sins he had committed, but for the sins we had committed, God turned His face away from His own beloved Son. He didn’t hear. He didn’t see. He turned away His loving face and turned His fierce hatred for sin on His beloved Son.

If you are ever tempted to wonder, Does God see? Does God hear? Look to the cross. Look to Calvary. Take the full measure of God’s love there – for it is on the cross that God demonstrated His love for us –in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Call the band up, close with two points:

1. Regrets can’t be reversed, but they can be redeemed

Best way to deal with regrets is to avoid them. Sow to the Spirit not to the flesh. Seek God’s way before setting off in a decision. Don’t try to get God’s work done by the flesh.

But I am sure that some – maybe many – of us have regrets. Deep regrets about a choice or choices we have made. Like Abram, Sarai, and Hagar. Can’t be taken back. Can’t be undone. Gives good news to you.

God redeemed this – He was sovereign over it all the time. Ishmael was sovereignly meant to live. No accident. God would redeem the situation for His glory. God redeems even our regrets. Solomon was the product of adultery and murder. Tangled web of sin spun by King David. Yet God sent this message when Solomon was born: he is loved by God. Should never have been born. Product of horrible sin. Yet God loved him.

He would be in the lineage of the Messiah. Can’t untangle that without untangling Jesus’ lineage. It’s complicated. But Christ redeems our regrets. The answer to regrets born of sin isn’t to untangle what we’ve done – we can’t do that. It’s to trust the Sovereign God who hears and sees to redeem them. Even points of departure from faith to works of flesh that leave deep regrets provide us with another opportunity to trust God with those regrets. If we come to Him, trust Him, and follow Him, He will redeem even our regrets.

2. Trust God in the delay

Is there something you are trusting God for? Keep trusting. Resist the temptation to run out and make it happen. I’m not saying we aren’t to do anything – just wait for “God to do it”. I’m saying that there are times when like Sarai, like Abram, we know deep inside this isn’t God’s way. But we grow impatient and think, better to do anything than to do nothing. Not always!

Are you in a season of delay? Praying for something that just isn’t happening? Sowing, sowing, sowing, never seem to be reaping? In due season. Don’t grow weary. Don’t lose faith. Trust God, pray and recommit that thing to God. Obey God’s word as much as you know how to. Sow good works steadfastly. Our greatest need was met by God through Jesus Christ – need to be saved from our sins. The Bible tells us that every other good thing God has for us flows from that magnificent blessing. If you trust God to save you, trust God to give every other good thing and fulfill every other good promise in Christ Jesus.