An unregenerate sinner has no
strength to bring forth any life. When I say unregenerate, I want
you young folks to understand what I mean by that. I mean someone
in whom the Lord has not created life, spiritual life. We have
physical life and then we have spiritual life. But an unregenerate
sinner, one that does not have spiritual life, cannot bring
forth life by themselves, of their own hand, by their own
strength. An unregenerate sinner is past
the point of being able to do anything for themselves spiritually. An unregenerate sinner has made
a covenant, or they're in a covenant with death and with hell. Made a promise that death can
have them and hell can have them. unless God intervened. That's
the state of everybody born into this world. And yet through the
Gospel that I'm preaching to you this morning, God calls on
you to believe Him. You and me who in ourselves have
no power to believe Him, yet God calls on us through the Gospel
to believe Him. How can we do something that
He says we can't do? And why would He call on us to
do something He says we can't do? That's how God shuts us up
to Him when He makes us to see that we can't do these things.
That we can do nothing of ourselves. He shuts us up to Him to behold
that He's done it all for us in Christ. And by revealing this
in us through the Holy Spirit, He gives us faith to believe
Him and to trust Him. What kind of power is this I'm
talking about? What kind of power? Let me get
you to turn to Ephesians chapter 1. What is this power that we're
talking about? The power which God worked in
Christ when He raised Him from the dead. The power that God
worked in the Lord when He raised Him from the dead is the same
power it takes to give an unregenerate sinner life, spiritual life. Look here with me. Verse 19. Paul is praying that they might
know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe. according to the working of His
mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him
from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly
places. That's the power it's going to
take to bring us to faith in Christ, to give us spiritual
life. Now, we've looked at four faithful
men in Hebrews chapter 11. We've looked at Abel, Enoch,
Noah, and Abraham. And this morning we read of a
faithful woman. Hebrews 11, verse 11. There's
no dividing lines with God. There's neither Jew nor Greek,
bond or free, male or female. But all of His children that
He's chosen to redeem, they're one in Christ Jesus. We see this
now that He is telling us about the faith of Sarah. Verse 11.
Through faith also, Sarah herself received strength to conceive
seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because
she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there
even of one and him as good as dead So many as the stars of
the sky and multitude and as the sand which is by the seashore
innumerable The title of this message is through faith Sarah
through faith Sarah And here's what I want you to see God often
gives us examples in his word. He gives us examples in his word,
such as Sarah, which goes beyond anything that can be explained
by our natural common sense, except to say that this is the
grace of God that did this. Sarah is an example that spiritual
promises can't be explained by sinful man's thinking, only received
through faith. Now I want you to see here, Sarah,
at the time that this is written about, Sarah's 90 years old.
She's 90 years old. An unregenerate sinner has no
strength to bring forth any life. And she's passed the point of
being able to have a child. Abraham's 100 years old. He's
passed the point of being able to father a child. But yet, according
to God's promise, she had a son named Isaac. And from Abraham
through Sarah, Isaac was born. And through Isaac, as the stars
of the sky in multitude, just like the Lord promised Abraham
an innumerable amount of children that can't be numbered, like
trying to number the sand of the sea, they were born. Now,
I want to show you this first point this morning. Through faith,
also, Sarah herself received strength. Now first of all, note
here that it says Sarah herself. It was not Abraham who believed
for Sarah. Sarah believed herself. Your
mother and your father may believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They
may follow Him faithfully, but their faith won't do you any
good. You have to believe on Christ yourself. And then it
says, through faith Sarah received strength. Now notice here, Sarah
didn't have strength. It says, through her own faith,
she received strength from the Lord. In fact, in the beginning,
Sarah was full of doubt. Turn over with me to Genesis
chapter 18. Genesis chapter 18 and verse
9. The Lord appeared unto Abraham,
and they were standing together, verse 9, and they said unto him,
there's three men that appeared to Abraham, and they said unto
him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Abraham said, Behold,
in the tent. And he said, this is the Lord
speaking to Abraham. 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. She's standing in the tent door
behind the Lord and she hears this word. 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 being old also? Now she just said this within
herself. She just chuckled within herself.
And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying,
Shall I of a surety bear a child which am old? 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 then Sarah denied, saying,
I laugh not. I didn't laugh. For she was afraid. And the Lord said, No, thou didst
laugh. You did laugh. This is where
Sarah started out. She doubted this thing, but though
her faith may have begun small and full of doubt, through faith
she received strength and her womb, which was past the age
of bearing children, was made alive so that she could bear
a child and have a child. You think when she found out
she was pregnant, when Sarah found out she was pregnant, 25
years later, Do you think that she looked
back on that day when she stood in that tent and laughed to herself? Do you think she looked back
on that day and thought, how foolish I was to ever doubt Him?
Is there anything too hard for the Lord? God answered that question
for her and showed her nothing's too hard for Him. Nothing's too
hard for Him. And He made her wait all that
time before He gave her a child to show her that it was of Him
and of no one else that she had this child. And in that time,
the Lord proved to Sarah that she indeed had no strength of
her own because she couldn't even walk before the Lord faithfully. She failed constantly. She committed
all kinds of errors constantly. But the Lord proved that His
promise to give her a child wasn't according to her faith as the
quality of faith it was, but it was according to His promise.
She believed He'd do it. And He did it. Despite her, and
despite her doubts, and despite her errors, and despite how she
walked before Him, He did it. The Lord did it. Psalm 27. Look at Psalm 27 with
me. Verse 13. Remember now, through
believing God, it said Sarah received strength. She didn't
have strength, she received it through faith, through the channel
of faith. That's how she received strength. And she received this strength
from the Lord. Now look here at verse 13. The psalmist said, I had fainted
unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the
land of the living. Wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on
the Lord. Ephesians 6 and verse 10 tells
us, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the
power of His might. It's not our own strength that's
going to accomplish anything. Let me put it this way. The first thing true faith is
going to comprehend and understand something of is our inability. The first thing true faith is
going to understand is that in me is no strength. In me is no
power. The power is of God. And faith
lays hold on Him because He's the power, our strength, And
we don't have it. That's what this faith is all
about. It joins us to Him who is life
and strength and power and salvation. We don't have those things in
ourselves. I hear people say things all the time about the
Bible. I was sitting with a man the
other day, and he said, I don't believe Literally believe that
God put animals on the ark two by two. I just don't believe
it. It goes against all the rules of nature I don't believe it
and Men will say I don't believe that God parted the Red Sea Like
the scripture says he did because it goes against the rules of
nature for that to happen you watch these history shows and
they try to prove to you that it was just simply according
to the rules of nature that these things happen and Or you'll hear
somebody that'll say, well, I read in Scripture where it says that
the Lord held the sun or moved it back. That's against the rules
of nature. It is against the rules of nature.
All these things are. But they're not against Him who
rules nature. He made these things. He's before
these things. But I'll tell you what goes against
the rules of nature is God-given life where there's death. And
that's what we are. And unless God gives us life,
we don't have it. And all of that talk like that
about it just goes against the law of nature, you know what
that is? That's a smokescreen. Because if a man can get you
to concentrate on those things and say, I don't believe that
literally could be true, then he can say, and I don't literally
believe God is going to give me any life either. He's trying
to set up his own defense, whether he knows it or not. But that's the miracle of God's
grace. It's not a miracle that God put
all the animals in the ark. The miracle is He provided the
ark. He gave the ark. And He put Noah in the ark and
saved him by His grace. That's the miracle. Now, secondly,
because Sarah judged him faithful who had promised. That's what
Hebrews 11, 11 says. The first point was through faith.
Also, Sarah herself received strength. and she was able to
conceive and bear a child, be delivered of a child. The second
point is, this happened because Sarah judged Him faithful who
had promised. Look here with me. Before we'll
believe the Lord, He's going to always make us to understand
that what He promises to do for us does not depend upon us, but
He's the one that's fulfilling the promise. Genesis 15. Genesis 15. The covenant of grace. The everlasting
covenant of grace. You know what a promise is? Vincent,
if you make a promise to Robert, and you agree to do something,
and you say, but Robert, you're going to have to do something
in return, and you both agree on it, that's a covenant. You
made a covenant. You agreed to do something, and
Robert agreed to do something, and you all made a covenant with
each other. That's not how God makes His covenant with His children
that He's redeemed in Christ. It's not a two-way covenant.
It's a one-way covenant. He comes and He shows us that
what He accomplished in His Son was the covenant He made between
Father, Son, and Spirit before the world began, and the Lord
accomplished it. And when He comes and reveals
it in us, He reveals us that which I've promised. That is,
to save you by my grace. I'll bring it to pass. I'm not
counting on you to do it. I'm doing it. That's why He says,
I will and they shall. It's because He's doing it all.
Now let me show you an example. Genesis 15, verse 7. This is
when the Lord came to Abraham. The point I'm making here is
the first thing the Lord's going to reveal to us is not only that
we don't have any strength, but that He's going to do everything.
He's going to do it all. Now look here. Verse 7. The Lord
came to Abraham and he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought
thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give this land to inherit
it. And he said, Lord God, this is Abraham speaking, whereby
shall I know that I shall inherit it? And the Lord said unto him,
take me a heifer of three years old and a she goat of three years
old and a ram of three years old and a turtle dove and a young
pigeon. And he took unto him all these,
and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against
another. With the birds divided he not." You see there where
Abraham it says is from Ur of the Chaldeans. A Chaldean, if
you were from that country and you were making a covenant with
somebody, promising to do something for them. and somebody else was
entering into a covenant with you to do something from their
end of the bargain, what you would do is you would take items
like this right here that the Lord told Abraham to set aside
and you would set those items apart and both of you would pass
between those items and that would ratify this covenant between
the two of you to say, It's done. This covenant's made. And that's
how you made the covenant. But I want you to notice something
here, verse 12. When the sun was going down,
a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo, a horror of great darkness
fell upon him. Abraham was fast asleep. And
the Lord didn't depend upon Abraham to bring his covenant promise
to pass. What he did was is he took the
smoke of a fiery furnace and a lamp and passed between these
items while Abraham was doing nothing but sleeping. Abraham
wasn't doing anything. God the Father and that Son,
that sweet smelling savor represented in the furnace and the lamp,
the Holy Spirit, that's who the covenant is between. And God
passed in between those items while Abraham was asleep. And
this is what He told Abraham, verse 13, Know of a surety that
thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs,
and shall serve them. And they shall afflict them four
hundred years, and also that nation whom they shall serve
will I judge, and afterwards shall they come out with great
substance." In other words, the Lord said, Abraham, you're going
to keep doing what you're doing right here. You're just going
to sit still, and I'm going to do all the work. And this is
my covenant to you. I'm going to do all the work.
I'm going to do it in my son. I'm going to do it through my
spirit. And I'm going to do all the work. And you're not going
to do anything, Abraham. You're going to have a child
when you're 100 years old through Sarah, your wife. And through
that child, I'm going to make a nation. And through that nation,
I'm going to bring them into bondage down in Egypt. And once
I brought them into bondage down in Egypt, Then I'm going to go
and make my power known to Pharaoh. So the whole world will see my
power. And I'm going to bring those
people out from Egyptian bondage by my own hand, Abraham. And
you're not going to have anything to do with it. I'm going to do
it all. You're not going to do any of
the work. I'm going to do it all. And that's the same kind of covenant
that God makes with a believer when He comes in the power of
the Holy Spirit. In my Son, I'm going to redeem a people from
bondage in Egypt, from their sin and from death. And He comes
and He tells us now today, I've done it. I've redeemed you. I
bought you by the blood of my Son. And through my Spirit, I've
given you life to know me, to believe on me. And I'm going
to keep you. Now walk before me." And you
know what his people do? They walk before him. Trust him. Because just like Abraham did,
before we'll trust him though, he's got to make us see that
his promises are going to be brought to pass because he's
faithful. You see, the Lord's covenant to Abraham concerning
this son that's going to be born, all God's promises All God's
promises for His divine purpose to come to pass, that son, Isaac,
had to be born. Had to be born. According to
God's Word, everything that He promised Abraham in that covenant
that would come to pass with that people, that boy Isaac's
got to be born. God's Word's at stake. That boy
Isaac's got to be born. And from Isaac, that nation whom
God would deliver, they're going to be born. So this son's got
to be brought forth. And through that nation, God's
going to raise up a remnant amongst that nation of people that He
loved and put in Christ, that Christ entered into sure covenant
agreement on behalf of before the world began. And He's going
to save that people. But for them to be born, that
son Isaac's got to be born. And not only that, but Christ
Jesus the Lord is going to be born through the same lineage.
And for that son of God's love to come into this earth, to lay
down his life and shed his blood for this people that he so loved,
that boy Isaac's got to be born. He got to be born. So God's covenant
promise, God's Word, God's faithfulness, everything about God is at stake
here if Sarah doesn't believe Him and that son is born. Now, do you think God's going
to leave her to herself, knowing what we are by nature? Do you
think God's going to leave a sinner to himself and just say, well,
everything about me and my character is totally up to you, and I'll
just wait on you to do what you're going to do? No, sir. When it
pleased God, He came to Sarah, and He gave her a heart and faith
to believe. And Sarah said, I believe you. She doubted Him, but she believed
Him. and through, and because of that, Scripture said, because
of it, there sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead,
so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand
which is by the seashore innumerable. Now let me tell you something
about faith. Let me tell you something about faith. Faith's
contentment. Are you content? Are you? Faith is content. And faith's
contentment to believe God and trust Him alone rests in this
fact right here, that everything God does around me, everything
He does for me, and everything He does through me is to glorify
His great name. And because that's the fact,
and God will be glorified, therefore, I can trust and be content and
resolve that He's faithful to bring everything He's purposed
to pass. And it's going to be for my good.
And so I can rest. And there's where faith's contentment
is. If we rest in God, we rest in
Christ, who's accomplished salvation for us, and we rest knowing that
the Spirit of God will not let us go. And no matter what goes
on around me, in me, through me, I know God's doing it just
like He did this with Sarah to bring to pass all these precious
promises that He's promised us. And we can just rest right there.
We can rest right there and be content wherever we're at with
whatever's going on. Now, let me close here with a
few things. Sarah simply believed God's promise
concerning one son. Do you believe God concerning
His Son? This Son Isaac that was promised
to her is very much a type of Christ. The Son that God promised
to bring into this world through a miraculous birth. It's like
He was born of a virgin, miraculously. And this is the one that God
has promised all those that trust Him. He said, trust Me. His blood
purged you of your sin. Do you trust Him? Are you willing
to take... If you have something valuable,
if you have something very, very valuable, you don't trust that
valuable thing to just anybody. I don't know whose baby you got
back there, but I know this. Anybody that has an infant, they
don't trust that infant to somebody unless they trust that somebody.
Because that's a precious commodity. And the same is with our souls,
our eternal souls. If we don't believe on Christ,
we're trusting our eternal well-being into these hands. Into these
hands. Hands that cannot even tell me
what's going to transpire this afternoon. Hands that can't even
tell me what my next thought's going to be or control my next
thought. Hands that have no idea what's
going to take place next month or next year. Hands that as soon
as the breath goes out from me that God's given and sustained
and keeps it, as soon as that breath's gone, these hands are
done. They're not going to do anything.
Am I going to trust this valuable soul into these hands? Or am
I going to trust it into the hands of God, who we see brings
everything to pass that He's ever promised? Sarah said, I'll
leave it in His hands. I trust Him. And He brought it
to pass. That's the son to believe on.
But now look here. I want you to see this too. I want you to see how the Lord
used the faith of one woman to bring to pass such abounding
grace to such a great innumerable multitude of people. You see
that? I don't want to rehash it, but
all of these children that were born afterwards from Isaac, There
was a multitude that nobody can number, the true seed of Abraham,
true believers, true spiritual Israel that would be born. And
they were born because this one lady believed. This one lady
believed. She trusted God. Don't ever think
believing God is a small thing, because it's not a small thing.
We don't know and we won't know this side of glory, how God uses
one of us who trusts Him, or how He's used us that trust Him. And knowing that God's going
to glorify His name, and that He uses the impossible to do
it, sinners like Sarah and me and you, we have great reason
to rest in Him, don't we? If I meet one person in Scripture,
I give you children some homework. Go home and study the Scriptures
and find me one place in Scripture where God ever saved somebody
because they were worthy to be saved. Because they were somebody
very good. And God said, because they're
so good, I'll save them. Find me one. Find me one. And then find me how many you
can find that God saved simply because He chose to save them
in spite of them, in spite of what they were. I bet you the
first list will be very small, and the second list will be as
thick as this Bible right here. Lamentations chapter 3. Let's
look there and we'll close. Because the Lord's purposes shall
not fail, His compassions toward us shall never fail. Verse 22. It is of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed. You got that? It's of the Lord's
mercies that we're not consumed. Because His compassions fail
not. They're new every morning. Great
is Thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul. That's what faith says. The Lord
is my portion. And therefore will I hope in
Him. The Lord is good unto them that
wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It's good that a
man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord. That's what true faith does. True faith hopes and quietly
waits for salvation of the Lord. You don't wait and you don't
hope for something you don't believe is going to come to pass.
And you don't hope and wait for somebody to bring it to pass
unless you believe they're going to bring it to pass. Faith believes
God and believes everything God's promised He'll do, even in spite
of the impossible, even in spite that it goes against all the
rules of nature. Faith believed God, just like
Sarah believed God. And she held a baby in her arms.
She held a child in her arms and had these words echoing in
her heart. Is there anything too hard for
the Lord? If we believe Him, we believe there is nothing too
hard for Him.