Alright, let's open our Bibles
and turn back to the book of Genesis chapter 18. The Lord with two angels, Jehovah, in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, has appeared to Abraham, the
scripture says, in the plains of Mamre. And the Lord and these two angels
have appeared in the form of men. That's what the Scripture
said. And Abraham as a gracious servant
of the Master, all of this we looked at last week and beheld
all of the spiritual meanings of these things. But what he
did was he provided Those things that were not only needful for
these heavenly guests as men. I'm talking about food. These are angels. This is the
Lord. But they've taken on the form
of men. And they're eating as men would
eat. And they're talking. with Abraham. And Abraham gives them these
different articles of food, a morsel of bread, he gets some water,
he kills a calf. We looked at how all those things
pictured the Lord Himself in His mediatorial office. And now we're
going to continue. They've eaten. Abraham told them
to eat. He said in verse 4, he said,
I'm going to get some water. I'm going to wash your feet.
Then you rest yourselves under the tree. And we looked at the
beauty of that precious passage there. And now in verses 9 and
10, we'll go to verse 15. But 9 and 10 says, and they said
unto him, where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold in
the tent. And he said, I will certainly
return unto thee according to the time of life. And lo, Sarah
thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent
door which was behind him. Now, the first thing that I want
us to behold is the mercy of the Lord to reveal his knowledge
of Sarah. He knew her. He knew her name,
he knew her relationship to Abraham, and he spoke with authority concerning
his will, the Lord's will, for her and Abraham and his mercy
and purpose To return, now here's what he said. He asked Abraham,
where is Sarah thy wife? Abraham told him, behold in the
tent. And listen to what the Lord said.
I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of
life and lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. Now, when we speak, you know,
the Spirit of God moved upon the Apostle James to give us
some information how we're to speak. When we speak about things,
matters and stuff, James chapter 4 verses 13-15 says, go to now
ye that say, today or tomorrow we will go in such a city and
continue their year and buy and sell and get gain, whereas you
know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth
for a little time and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say,
if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that." Now, we
need to be real careful. how we talk. We talk sometimes
like things are just certain. You know, I'm going to do this,
that, or the other. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to buy
this. I'm going to invest in this. This is what I'm going
to do. And this next year, by this time
next year, this way it's going to be. And the Lord said, don't
talk like that. But rather, you ought to say,
if the Lord wills, we're going to do that. You don't know if
you're going to be dead tomorrow. What is your life? It's a vapor.
But listen how the Lord spoke. He said, I will, certainly I
will return next year. And Sarah will have. Concerning the Lord speaking,
he who knows the end from the beginning because he's ordained
it. All things the scripture says
were finished before the foundation of the world. You know what happened
today? exactly what the Lord purposed. That's what happened
today. He worketh all things, the scripture says, after the
counsel of his own will. So here, he says, I'm going to
come. I'm coming back this next year
and without fail, Sarah's gonna have a son. And I want you to
take notice, latter part of verse 10. And Sarah heard it. in the tent door, which was behind
him. She heard, Fred, the Lord speak.
She heard. She heard what the Lord said.
Now, is this not the precious promise of the Lord to all his
sheep? The Lord said in John 10, 27, my sheep hear my voice. I told you many times, you know,
I've never heard God speak with this ear. I never have. I know
I've had people tell me, say, well, the Lord spoke to me. As
if, Mitch, they heard Him. I mean, they heard Him. I've
never heard the Lord verbally speak like I heard some of you
speak tonight. But I'll tell you what. The sheep of God, the Lord said,
my sheep hear my voice. And so therefore it's so. I know
that. But I tell you, knowing that
they have hearing ears and seeing eyes, and that's talking spiritually,
you know that. And what they do is when they
hear the voice of the Lord, the shepherd, they recognize it. They recognize it when it's preached.
When they hear of the sovereignty of Christ, the sovereignty of
God, God said, I will and you shall. They said, you know what,
that's the way my Lord speaks. He speaks with authority. They
recognize it. They recognize it as it's in
agreement. When I'm preaching, you know
that the scripture says, Paul the apostle said, we beseech
you in Christ's stead. Meaning if the Lord himself were
standing here speaking, this is what he would say. That's
what Paul was saying. We beseech you in Christ's stead,
for the sake of Christ, in the authority of Christ, saying what
he said. And this is the only thing that
I have any authority to do, is to say what the Lord says. And
so The sheep hear his voice, they recognize it as they hear
the scriptures expounded as the scriptures reveal him to be.
They hear his voice in blessed communion in prayer. Someone says, I don't see, I
don't understand what you're talking about. I can't explain
it. But I can tell you in communion with prayer, when the Lord's
people speak to Him, there's communion there. That's the only
way I know how to say it. They hear the voice of Him who
the Scripture reveals loved them everlastingly and died for the
sheep and now lives to intercede for them. He said, my sheep,
hear my voice, I know them. He knows them as willing, but
weak servants. He said, without me you can do
nothing. You can do nothing. What does that mean? It means you can do nothing.
You can't even breathe without Him. That was His air you just
breathed. The earth is the Lord's. And the fullness there, he said,
I know them. They recognize their frailty. And they follow me. They follow him respectfully,
believe in him, trusting and halting, like Jacob we spoke
of last Sunday. Halting after the Lord touched
the hollow of his thigh. He limped for the rest of his
life as a reminder. God had blessed him, as we said.
Blessed man, he did, he blessed him. Revealed himself to him
and showed Jacob what he was. Well, in verses 11 and 12, it
says, now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age.
And it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore
Sarah laughed within herself, saying, after I am waxed old,
shall I have pleasure, my Lord, Abraham, being old also? Right here, we're going to behold
a great struggle between the old man and the new man. You
know, in every believer, there's two people, old man and new man. Nothing ever changes in that
old man. And she knew something. Naturally, she knew something.
Here's what she knew. I'm old. And my husband's old. Abraham was 99 years old. She
was 90. It was past the time for her
to naturally have children. And she heard the Lord. She's in the tent. But she heard
Him speaking to her husband. And she heard what He said. I'm coming back next year and
Sarah's going to have a son. By you, Abraham. And the scripture said she laughed
in her heart. Now that word laughed, I looked
it up again, it does mean this, it means to either laugh with
merriment or to laugh with scorn. And the only indication of the
attitude of her laughter is from the words of the Lord. Somebody
would say, well, she laughed and meant this. Well, all I know
is what the Lord said about it. And so I'll leave it right there.
But when the Lord, in the next few verses that we're going to
look at in just a second, but it was obviously a laughter of
doubt. Can this be? My Lord's old. I mean, at least doubt. And it
appears as though Mixed with that doubt was something that
the scripture later reveals in Hebrews 11.11 that was a work
of grace found in her also. Hebrews 11.11 says, now this
is what the scripture says in the New Testament. Through faith
also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered
of a child when she was past age. Because she judged, she
counted him the Lord faithful who had promised." Now you know,
you read that account right there, and that doesn't seem to be exactly
the way it was as recorded in the book of Genesis. But we're
looking at two different people. Old man, new man. And you that
believe know exactly what I'm talking about. Sin, we sing that
song by John Newton, "'Tis a point I long to know, oft it causes
anxious thought." Do I love the Lord or no? Am I His or am I
not? If I love, why am I thus? Why
this dull and lifeless frame? Surely, could they be worse who
have never heard his name? I'm telling you, sin is mixed
with all we do. And we know it. We struggle with
it. But whatever Sarah's attitude
was concerning her laughing, the Lord knew. The Lord knew.
And behold, his tender mercy to this needy sinner. He knew. But listen, and this is mercy
right here. Verses 13, 15. And the Lord said
unto Abraham, wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, shall I of a surety
bear a child which am old? And then the Lord, continuing
to speak to Abraham, said, is anything too hard for the Lord?
At the time appointed, I will return unto thee according to
the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. And Sarah denied,
saying, I laugh not, for she was afraid. And he said, Nay,
but thou didst laugh. Now, I want you to consider the
omniscience. the all-knowing, the all-knowing
of the Lord. She laughed within herself and
she thought, these were the words that she thought, verse 12, after
I'm waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also? And the
Lord, In verse 13, said, he knew exactly what she thought, and
he gave the exact tense and everything, exactly what she thought. This
is exactly what she thought. And the Lord said unto Abraham,
wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, shall I of a surety bear a child
which am old? The Lord said she would. And
she said, is that for sure? when I'm old. He knew exactly what she thought
and quoted when she laughed within herself. The scripture says in
Psalm 94 11, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they're
vanity. But while her seeming doubt was
chargeable, How do you know it was chargeable? Because the Lord
said it was. He said, no, you did laugh. You said you didn't,
but you did. Yeah, you did. Though it was
chargeable, as our doubts are too. I mean, let's don't start
getting down on Sarah, saying I can't believe the Lord was
sitting there right there talking to her and she doubted. Now,
do we not do the same thing? I mean, the Lord knew. And he said to
Abraham, concerning Sarah, is anything, any word, any matter
too hard for the Lord? Here the almighty God that had
revealed himself unto Abraham, the one before whom Abraham fell
on his face, the one that Job confessed in Job 42 too, I know
that thou canst do everything and that no thought can be withholden
from thee. He's known every thought we've
had tonight. We're not fooling Him. Everything
that's gone through our mind, all of the, you know, we get
off somewhere tomorrow, or something happened yesterday, He knows,
He knows, He knows. Well, the Lord, the scripture
says in Psalm 115.3, our God is in the heavens. And He's done
whatsoever He hath pleased. speaking of his omniscience.
All Noah, he hears, he hears. You know, while he was in Capernaum,
this was recorded, you don't have to turn it there, it was
in Mark 2. And while the Lord was in Capernaum, there was a
man, you remember, that was sick of the palsy and he was lowered
down through the rooftop. They took some of the shingles
off, they lowered him down through the rooftop, right into the presence
of the Lord. And the scripture says, and when the Lord saw their
faith, Now obviously, the man that was sick and those that
carried him, says he saw their faith. And the Lord said to the
man that was sick of the palsy, he said, Mark 2 5, son, thy sons
be forgiven thee. Now the scripture, for the sake
of time, you can go back and read this, but I can tell you
what it was saying. It said that there were some
scribes there, And they, seeing and hearing what the Lord said,
they reasoned in their hearts that the Lord had blasphemed.
They heard what he said. He said to the man, sick of the
palsy, son, thy sins be forgiven thee. And they reasoned in their
heart, and they said, this man's a blasphemer. This is their reasoning. He just
said that. Only God can forgive sin. And
he made that statement they're saying in their hearts. He made
that statement because he knew good and well it couldn't be
proved. Who's going to doubt what he's saying because who
can prove that somebody's sins are forgiven? That's what they
reasoned in their hearts. that he blasphemed, that he couldn't,
you can't prove that. But the scripture says that the
Lord, knowing their evil thoughts, asked them this. He said, whether
is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, thy sins be forgiven
thee, or to say arise and take up thy bed and walk? And what
he did was he just proved that he had the power not only to
hear what they said in their hearts, but also he's got the
power to heal the sick and to forgive sin, and therefore he
did that very thing. He said, to show you that I have
not only the power to forgive sin, but also to heal, he said
to the man, arise and take up thy bed and go thy way into thine
house. At Leper's, physical healing
was a picture and a type of the Lord that speaks and spiritual
healing of his soul takes place. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Oh, how gracious the Lord was
to Sarah, the vessel of his mercy. How kind was his gentle rebuke. Lord willing, this Sunday, I'm
gonna preach out of this Proverbs 27, verse five and six. It says, open rebuke is better
than secret love and faithful. or the wounds of a friend. The
Lord was merciful to her. He rebuked her mercifully. She was one of his own, and he
corrected her. He corrected her. He wasn't silent
to her. Scripture says, David, speaking
unto thee, will I cry, O Lord, my rock, be not silent to me,
lest if I be silent to me, I become like them that go down to the
pit. I pray God corrects me. I need corrected. I'm wrong. I err. The scripture says concerning
correcting whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth. So the Lord mercifully dealt
with Abraham and Sarah. But before I leave this passage
scripture for this evening, I want to make a couple of comments
on this passage, and I'm going to just very quickly make them. And I want us to consider before
I... I just told you exactly what
happened in this passage of Scripture. But there was something in this
passage that was so blessedly wonderful to me. I can't help
but share it with you. Precious, precious. Here's the
glorious gospel of God's grace. I want you to just quickly notice
from the first words of our passage and consider Sarah now to be
a picture. Look at Sarah as a picture of
the total bride of Christ. There's Sarah. She's the wife
of Abraham, but you look at Sarah as a picture of the whole bride
of Christ, the whole church herself. And you look at Abraham as a
type and a picture of our Lord, the great Mediator. The Spirit
of God moved on Paul to write to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2.5 and
says there's one God and there's one Mediator between God and
man. It's the man, Christ Jesus. Now, what is a Mediator? What is that? Mediator is that
one that stands for two parties and can touch both parties and
mediate between them for the reconciliation, for the making
of peace. He can mediate. He's got two
people and they're at odds. They're going to come and they're
going to mediate. And both parties respect him. That's a mediator. There's one mediator. There's
one God, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Now, I tell you this, he can
stand, he stands on level ground, if I can say that, as God. He's one with the Father, for
he is God. He's God. The Lord Jesus Christ
is God. And he's one with us, his people,
for he was made flesh. He's a man. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,
and the Word was made flesh. So there's one mediator between
God and man. It's the God-man mediator, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you listen. I'm going to
just make this simple, short, but I want to make it simple,
Lord willing. God Almighty deals with His people in one person, one man. God Almighty deals with His people
in one man. and is the man Christ Jesus. God deals with all of His elect
in one. He's the only man that ever pleased
God. This is my beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased. You hear Him. I'm going to tell
you something. You and I have never pleased
God in ourselves. So we're done. We're done. But concerning Him, He's God
and He's man. He's totally God and totally
man. And He's the man that has borne
the guilt of His people. And He satisfied our debt before
God by shedding of His own blood. He bore all of the debt of all
of God's people, all of God's elect. He bore all of them. I can't even enter into that.
I couldn't even enter in kneel to him bearing all of mine. The
depth of what I've done, oh. I told you before, you don't
have a clue. You don't have a clue. But he's borne all the debt.
And he's put away all their sin. Being God, according to God's
everlasting covenant, he came into this world and was made
in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin. Scripture says, wherefore
in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of his people. So
Christ Jesus, the Mediator, is the one to whom Jehovah speaks
on behalf of His people, and He's the one who answers to God
for His people. So when we talk to the Lord,
God of heaven, the Father, who do we go through? The Mediator. Mediator. I'll show you this
in closing, just a second. So I want you to notice back
in verse 9, where we started, when the question was asked of
Abraham, where is Sarah thy wife? Who was the Lord? Who was he
speaking of? Sarah. Who's Sarah? Abraham's wife. Where is there
thy wife? Abraham spoke on her behalf to
Abraham as the Mediator. He's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And what did he say? He said, Behold, she's in the
tent. The father speaks to the son,
the Mediator. Where are the children? They're
in the tent. They're in this temporary dwelling.
They're in the world, but they're not of it. Keep them, keep them,
keep them by your power. The Father deals with us through
a mediator. Now listen, look here, verse
10 again. The Lord spoke of Sarah, but He said it to Abraham in
verse 10. He said to Abraham, I will certainly
return unto thee according to the time of life. And lo, Sarah
thy wife shall have a son, and Sarah heard it in the tent door
which was behind him. The Lord spoke to the Mediator.
He spoke to Abraham. The Lord, she was in the tent.
You think the Lord knew she was in the tent? He knew she was
in the tent. He spoke to the Mediator. And
Sarah heard the promise and she laughed within herself. Oh again,
brethren, have we ever heard these precious promises and blessings
of God. Have we ever doubted? Have we
ever laughed? Now answer honestly. Yeah, yeah
we have. And then consider that the Lord
again dealt with Abraham concerning her laughter. Look at verse 13. The Lord knew that she laughed.
He knew what she said in her heart. Who did he talk to about
it? Abraham. Picture of the The Lord,
the mediator, and the Lord said unto Abraham, verse 13, wherefore
did Sarah laugh, saying, shall I of surety bear a child when
I am old? And he continued, speaking to
Abraham, is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed,
I will return unto thee. Behold the mercy of God to deal
with Sarah through Abraham, a picture and type that God Almighty
would deal with us through the Mediator, the One that was made
flesh, the One that bore our guilt, the One that loved us,
the One that betrothed Himself to us, the One that ever liveth
to make intercession for us, the One that's robed us in His
righteousness, was made sin for us, that loved us, I was telling you about whenever
we try to pray, what does the Spirit of God say about us being
able to pray? He said, we don't even know what
to pray for. I don't know what to pray for. I've had people
say, well, pray for me. I'll try. I'll tell them that.
I'll try. I'll try. I think they think I'm just trying
to blow it off. I'm not. I'm just telling you
the truth. I don't know what to pray. I
don't know what to ask. The Lord said that. I love this
passage of Scripture now. When I say that it's Revelation
chapter 8, I'm pretty done. Revelation chapter 8, whenever
we try to pray. This is the way it is. I said
when the Lord, when the Father speaks to the people, He speaks
through the mediator. the one in whom he's well pleased.
When we speak to the Father, let me tell you what's actually
happening. I've read this to you, Revelation 8 verses 1 to
4, and when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence
in heaven about the space of half an hour, and I saw seven
angels who stood before God, and to them were given seven
trumpets, and another angel came, here's a picture of the Lord
himself, this is the angel of the covenant, came and stood
at the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto
him much incense, this is the Lord Jesus, this is the mediator,
that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon
the golden altar which was before the throne, and the smoke of
the incense, that is the incense of his merit, the incense of
his holiness, the incense of his glory and righteousness,
The smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the
saints ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. I don't know what to say, but
he does. He knows what to say. This is
what I pray, Kevin. Lord, would you tell the Father
what I don't know how to say? I don't know what to say. Would
you speak for me? Speak on my behalf. Speak to
the Lord. Hebrews 4.15 says, For we have
not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin. Whenever the Lord asked Abraham,
where is Sarah your wife? In the tent. I'm going to come
back. You're going to have a son. She
laughed. Lord asked Abraham, why did your wife laugh? Why
did your wife laugh in her heart? You think Abraham felt that?
You think he felt her burden? You think he felt that? If my
wife's hurting, I feel it. I know it. I feel it. She hurts,
I hurt. We hurt, the Lord knows it. He's
touched. He's able to sympathize with
his people. He was tempted, the scripture
said, he was tried in all points like as we are yet without sin.
Isaiah 53, for surely he hath borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows. And the Lord enclosed and said,
he said, he did say something to, he did say something to Sarah
personally. She said, she verbalized, she
said, I didn't laugh. And the Lord said to her, nay,
but thou didst laugh. Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did.
Yeah, you did. Like Nathan came to David when
David had taken back Sheba. Nathan came to him, he said,
you're the man. You're the man. But the Lord's put away your
guilt. We, in agreement with the Lord,
we confess what we are. The Lord told her, yeah, you
laughed. Yes, you did. Yeah, Marvin, you sinned. Yes,
you have. If we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
for all unrighteousness. Listen to this last verse, 1
John 1, 9. This is why. Because he hath
not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. Why is that? Because He dealt
with the Mediator already on it. He dealt with the Mediator
who is also the Redeemer, who is also the Lamb of God, who
is also our Savior. He's also our Husband, our King,
God's Prophet to us. Christ is all and in all. I pray this, God. I pray that
the Lord bless this to our hearts for His glory and our good. Amen. Okay, Gary.