Section fourteen (continued) Shanghai messages of 1940
Abraham begetting Isaac through faith
Date: February 4, 1940Place: Unrecorded
(Editor’s Note: The following seven messages on the subject of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob appear to be notes taken from conference meetings and resemble the messages in Volume 35, The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. However, there are variations in both structure and content.)
It is easy to deal with the sinful flesh, but it is very difficult to deal with the flesh that tries to please God. Before we are saved, we exercise the flesh in worldly things. After we are saved, we exercise the flesh in spiritual things. We preach with the flesh, we listen to messages with the flesh, and we worship God with the flesh. The subjects change, that is, we are not doing the same things as before, but the energy is not changed. We are applying fleshly energy to spiritual things. Our need is circumcision. Colossians 2:11 says, “In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ.” Brothers and sisters, has our flesh been put off yet?
Philippians 3:3 says, “For we are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.” This means that if we are truly circumcised, we will no longer trust in ourselves. Sometimes people ask me why I do not give them a firm answer. I answer that if the Lord allowed me, I would give them a firm answer. A person who has been touched by the Lord does not make any suggestion lightly. Some are very bold; they even make suggestions for God. In the thirteen years following Abraham’s begetting of Ishmael, he did not realize that he was living in the flesh.
God did not appear to Abraham again until he was ninety-nine years old. He said to Abraham, “Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised” (Gen. 17:9-10). The New Testament believers are the spiritual descendants of Abraham, and we also have to be circumcised spiritually. It is not a matter of being born in the house or being bought with money. It is a matter of whether or not the flesh is removed. The circumcision we receive is of our own free will; it is a sign of the removal of our flesh.
Since circumcision is a sign, those who have it bear a special characteristic which is not shared by all. It is good that some people have this mark. In the eyes of God whether or not a person is circumcised depends on whether his flesh is removed. A person who is genuinely circumcised will no longer trust in himself. He is always in fear and trembling. He dares not make his own proposals, and readily admits that he can be wrong. Because he has no assurance in himself, he dares not make proposals lightly and dares not express his own opinion easily.
When God promised Abraham that his wife Sarah would have a son, Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, saying in his heart, “Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old?” (Gen. 17:15-17). Abraham’s laughing was the result of God’s thirteen years of dealing with him. In spite of his laughter, Isaac came. How wonderful! When Abraham was young, he could bear children and he was confident of himself. But when he was old and could no longer bring forth children, he was brought by God to the point where he no longer had any trust in himself. In the past he trusted in his own strength. When he was old, he knew that he could no longer trust in himself. The younger Abraham only had a fifty percent trust in God, and other fifty percent of his trust was in himself. But in his old age he could only laugh. He had not only lost hope in himself, he had lost hope in God as well. In the past he had faith in himself and in God, but God was not pleased with him. In his old age he lost his faith in God and himself, but God came in to work and granted him great faith. Romans 4:18 says that beyond hope Abraham believed in hope. This shows us that Abraham’s previous faith was mixed. At this point, his faith was purified. Abraham was not laughing at God. He was laughing at his own old age. We are like Abraham; when our circumstances are favorable, we do not look to God. We only look to Him when our circumstances turn unfavorable.
God does not want “arrogant” faith; He only wants us to have faith as small as a mustard seed. After he was circumcised in Genesis 17, Abraham no longer trusted in himself. By chapter eighteen he had become God’s friend. Other than in Genesis 18, we find no other place in the Old Testament that tells us that God visited men. Of Abraham’s three visitors, one was God and the other two were angels who later went to Sodom and rescued Lot. Abraham received God in his own tent, and communed with God. God told him that Sarah would have a child. The first time Abraham fell to his face and laughed. This time Sarah laughed within herself and said, “After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” (v. 12). When Abraham laughed, God dealt with him, and when Sarah laughed, God dealt with her. He said, “Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” (vv. 13-14). It was in this fellowship that God told Abraham of His intention to destroy Sodom.
Abraham signifies faith, while Sarah signifies grace. They cannot be separated. Once Abraham moved to the south, and dwelt in Gerar. He lied and told others that Sarah was his sister. As a result Abimelech separated Abraham from Sarah. But God would not allow this to happen. He punished the women in Abimelech’s house so that they became barren (Gen. 20). Faith and grace cannot be separated. A man must have faith, and grace also must be added. When grace is added to faith, Isaac comes forth. If there is only faith without grace, Isaac will not come forth.