We're going to be in Genesis
chapter 18 today again, if you want to go back there. I'm also
going to, if you hold your place there, I'm going to read to you
from Isaiah 54 because these things go together. Get to context
here. I'll start with Isaiah 54. We're going to look at these
few verses here in Genesis from Genesis 18 beginning at verse
9 through 15. But before we do, let's pray.
Dear Father, would you please open up your word to us and shine
the light on the face of our Savior who gave himself for us
and in him all of your promised blessings. are given to us. Lord, we pray that we would be
like those in the song we just sang, giving glory to our Savior
for his victory over our enemies. For your faithfulness, it is
so great. Thank you, Lord, for this salvation.
We pray you'd endear our hearts to you once again and cause us
to draw sap from all of your promises and live upon you. In
Jesus' name we pray, amen. In Isaiah 54, the fulfillment,
really, of one of the aspects of Sarah's life is given. And
it's spoken here in terms of a barren woman, because Sarah
was a woman who couldn't bear children. And so as we read through
this, think about Sarah's case, but think about what God is saying
here, because He didn't create this situation in Sarah's life
for her only. Nor did he do it just to give
us a lesson out of her life as a practical matter, but even
greater than that, he's speaking here of what he would do for
all of his people, collectively, as the bride in Church of Christ.
So in Isaiah 54, it says this, Sing, O barren thou that didst
not bear, break forth into singing and cry aloud. Thou that didst
not travail with child, for more are the children of the desolate
than the children of the married wife." It helps to understand
basically what's being spoken of here. In the nation of Israel,
there were a lot of unbelieving. Most of them were unbelieving.
And yet they were called by God, that nation of unbelieving people,
were called the wife of God in the Old Testament, yet they were
an unfaithful wife. And so that's the married wife
in that verse. And Sarah represents the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who after Jesus came, would be revealed
to be his true wife. And she would bear the children
of promise to God. And so that's what it's speaking
of here. The one who had no children before, who were the true church
of God, the children of promise, it didn't seem like they were
bearing anything. The nation of Israel seemed to have all
the outward blessings, and then God turns it around, and Israel
is stripped of all of their outward blessings, and God has glorified
His church, as Sarah was glorified in the birth of Isaac, so she,
the Church of God, is magnified before all the world because
she brought forth not only the Lord Jesus, but all of those
God gave to Him. So that's what the first verse
is, all this chapter is speaking of. But listen, verse 2, "...enlarge
the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains
of thine inhabitations. Spare not! Lengthen thy cords,
and strengthen thy stakes." In other words, get ready. You're
going to have a lot of kids. "...for thou shalt break forth
on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit
the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited." Not
only those that you birth by your own personal act, but also
God would bring in the Gentiles and count them to be your seed.
Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed like you were when
you were barren. Neither be thou confounded, for
thou shalt not be put to shame. For thou shalt forget the shame
of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood
any more. For thy maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is
his name, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the
whole earth shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee
as a woman forsaken, and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth,
when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have
I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In
a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord
thy Redeemer. In the Lord Jesus Christ, when
he suffered under the wrath of God, God hid his face for a moment. He bore the wrath we deserved,
and darkness recovered the earth." And in that time, there was a
small moment when God was, uh, His face, it says that He hid
His face from us. But He gathers us now. Verse
9. For this is as the waters of Noah unto me, for as I have
sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth,
so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke
thee. For the mountain shall depart,
and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. O thou afflicted, tossed
with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones
with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires, and
I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles,
and all thy borders of pleasant stones, and all thy children
shall be taught of the Lord." And that's a quotation that Jesus
picked up out in John 6 when he said, "...and they shall all
be taught of God, and all who has learned of the Father comes
to me." And great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness
shalt thou be established, and thou shalt be far from oppression,
for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for it shall not
come near thee. Behold, they shall surely gather together,
but not by me. Whosoever shall gather together
against thee shall fail for thy sake. Behold, I have created
the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth
forth an instrument for his work, and I have created the waster
to destroy. But no weapon that is formed
against thee shall prosper. Every tongue that shall rise
against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of
me, saith the Lord." What an amazing chapter. You read Revelation
21, you'll see how God describes the church of God as a city coming
down from heaven. with all of these beautiful stones
and jewels and foundations, and this is being described here,
that's the way God's people appear to Him, because their righteousness
is of the Lord. So as we read through this here
in Genesis, in Genesis 18, we're going to be reminded of what
we just read there in Isaiah. I'm not going to spend much time
on Isaiah 54. I just wanted you to see that
so that you could marvel at God's wisdom and His eternal purpose
in Christ. Because remember, God promised
Abraham that in His seed all the nations of the earth would
be blessed. That's Christ. That's Christ. That's our Lord
Jesus. He's the seed, the promised seed. And so in verse 9 of Genesis
chapter 15, we pick it up here. I'm sorry, Genesis 18. I've entitled this message, as
we read through this, I don't know about you, but when you
read through a section of scripture like this, sometimes you read
through it and you just go, Let's go on to the next passage. And
it just doesn't sink in very far. But by God's grace, He opens
things up for us. And this is actually a very amazing
text of scripture. Like they all are. Anyway, Genesis
18 verse 9. I've entitled this message, Hope
for Sinners in the Promises of God. Verse 9, And they said unto
him, the LORD, who came to Abraham in the form of three men, they
said to him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in
the tent. And he said, that is the LORD,
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 Abraham. 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, went
within herself, not out loud, but within herself, saying, After
I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord, being old
also? And the Lord said to 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. So he repeats the
promise here twice. And he adds to it, is there anything
too hard for the Lord? And then, verse 15, then Sarah
denied. She thought, how could anyone
hear? I didn't make any sound. Sarah denied, saying, I laugh
not, for she was afraid. And he said, the Lord said, nay,
but thou didst laugh. The Lord knows exactly what we're
thinking all the time. Verse 16, and the men rose up
from thence and looked toward Sodom. And so the rest of the
text goes on. We're not going to read on that.
We'll do that next time, Lord willing. Now, here in this text
of Scripture, we really see three things about the life of Sarah
that are actually spoken of throughout all of Scripture. There's three
things that God, at least as far as I can see, that God has
used Sarah to teach us in Scripture. First, through Sarah, God teaches
us about the faith of every believer. And second, through Sarah, God
teaches us about the faith of the wives who are believers. Believing wives and how they
relate to their husbands. And then third, we just read
in Isaiah 54, the Lord teaches us about the faith of the church
through Sarah. So those three things, and we'll
mostly focus on the first two, the faith of the believer and
the faith that God gives to wives, believing wives and their husbands.
All three lessons are taught in this one little text of scripture.
Here, Sarah hears the Lord directly. She's in the tent. He wasn't
speaking directly to her, but he knew she was there. He knew
she could hear. And so, she hears directly from
the Lord. And the Lord promised Abraham,
while Sarah was listening, that Sarah would not only have a son,
but that she would have a son within the year. That's a very,
very specific promise. Think about that. Sometimes we
think of God's promises as very general and future, and the clarity
of those promises seems a little dark to us, and we're not sure
exactly what it means, but we just know that God has promised
He's going to fulfill them, so we wait and hope, as we should. And that's the way God revealed
to Abraham and Sarah throughout time that He was going to give
them a son. In Genesis 12, first He just
said, through thy seed, all the nations of the earth will be
blessed. And then in Genesis 13, He said, your seed is going
to be as the dust of the earth and inherit all the land. And
then in Genesis 15, He said, no, not Eliezer, not your servant
in your house, not the steward of your house, but a son from
your own bowels is going to be your heir. And then in Genesis
17 specifically, God says, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And
then here the Lord says, not only is she going to have a son,
but she's going to have him within the year. Very specific promise. And it wasn't like she heard
it for the first time. So she had been unable to bear
children all this time. All of her life. Think about
that. All the time she had been married to Abraham. It had been
at least 25 years at this point. I don't know exactly how long
they had been married before they left Ur the Chaldees. But
it had been at least 25 years. No children. Not a son, not a
daughter. None. And when the Lord spake these
things in promise to Abraham, she was well acquainted. When
she heard the Lord, and while she was in the tent speaking
these things to Abraham, she was well acquainted. She really
knew her own limitations, didn't she? She knew herself physically. She was 90. Even in those days
at 90, women did not bear children. But in her case, she never bore
children. She knew her body was unable
to bear children because God had kept her from doing that.
And now she's too old, it's too late. So she knew her own limitations. And she was well beyond the age
when any woman her age could bear children. Therefore, she
was doubly unable to fulfill God's promise and bear a son
to Abraham. And so upon hearing the Lord's
promise, she laughed within herself. And her laugh within herself
was a laugh of unbelief. It was a laugh of incredulity. It was like, how could this possibly
be? I look at myself. I think about the fact that this
is not going to happen here. It's just not going to happen.
But in response, the Lord asked Abraham why Sarah laughed. And
she denied it. Yet the Lord reaffirmed it. She
did. And through this, the Lord actually strengthened her faith.
Because he says this. He gave her a word. He says,
is anything too hard for the Lord? It was both a rebuke and
a promise to strengthen her faith. That's God's mercy to her. Isn't
it? Because from this, we learn several
things. First is that unbelief is truly
a sin because God rebuked her and she was ashamed of it. So
we know it was wrong. It's doubly wrong when we don't
believe God. We're essentially calling Him
a liar. But faith comes by hearing, according to God's grace. And
hearing comes by the Word of God. And God spoke to her. He
spoke to her twice. The first time He spoke to Abraham.
Then the second time He asked Abraham. And then He adds this.
It's going to happen. There's nothing too hard. Nothing
shall be impossible for God. The Lord was very gracious to
Sarah. He rebuked her for her unbelief, but in Hebrews 11,
He uses her to teach us what faith is. And that is a huge
thing. Look at Hebrews chapter 11. This
is Sarah, the same woman who laughed in unbelief. Hebrews
11, it says this about her, and it teaches us what faith truly
is, and this is important to us. And this is why I say Sarah
is used in Scripture to help us see what faith is and how
it works. Hebrews 11, verse 11 says, through
faith also Sarah herself received strength. to conceive seed, and
was delivered of a child when she was past age. Why? This is what the faith that she
had did. 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 in multitude, and as the sand which is by the
seashore innumerable. That's what faith does. Faith
hears God's promise. Faith lays hold on that promise.
This is the way things are. This is the way things are going
to be because God said it. God is faithful. God is able
to do what He said. He will do His word. Have not
I spoken it? Shall I not also bring it to
pass? The Lord says in Isaiah 46, 10
and 11. The Lord's the one who does His
word. His promises are of grace and He brings them to pass. Now,
when Sarah laughed within herself, she also gave another lesson
to all wives. If you look back at Genesis 18,
and this we would have just passed over because we don't look at
details so much when we read things, but she said something
here as significant enough that Peter picks up on it in 1 Peter
3. When she laughed, she said this
in Genesis. She said, In verse 12, Therefore Sarah
laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old, shall I
have pleasure, my lord, being old also? So Peter uses her to
teach us how wives are to be in subjection to their own husbands.
If you look at 1 Peter 3, you see this. Take a look with me
at 1 Peter 3. Let's just spend a little bit
of time on this because it relates to Sarah and we won't, we will
miss it if we don't deal with it now. 1 Peter chapter 3, it
says in verse 1, Likewise, you wives, be in subjection to your
own husbands, that if any, any husband, obey not the word, they
also may without the word be won by the conversation or the
manner of your life, of the wife's lifestyle. While they behold
your chaste conversation, coupled with fear, whose adorning, let
it not be the outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing
of gold or of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man
of the heart. in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament
of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great
price. For after this manner in the old time, the holy women
also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection
to their own husbands, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling
him Lord, whose daughters you are, so long as you do well and
are not afraid with any amazement. This is quite a statement in
scripture here. Peter is teaching wives to be
in subjection to their own husbands, so that if any wife have a husband
who does not obey the word, she might win her husband, not by
showing her superior faith and knowledge, and certainly not
by correcting him, but by obeying her husband in a meek and quiet
spirit, ever holding that one prayer in her heart and desire,
and doing all by faith, towards God with one aim, that her husband
would be in subjection to Christ. That he who doesn't obey the
word would come in subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ. If
that's the heart desire of the wife, then she follows what God
has said in order to realize God's promise that that's the
way he will save her husband. In love, she submits herself
to her husband with an eye towards God's promise that He will convert
her husband. So she does it in love and in
faith. Faith works by love, doesn't
it? Believing God's word, in love to her husband, and in submission
to God, she submits to her husband. So to underscore Sarah's objection
to Abraham, Peter said that Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. And Peter says that every believing
wife is Sarah's daughter, that is, a daughter of her faith.
If the wife does as she did, adorning herself not with outward
trinkets, but with a meek and quiet spirit in submission out
of love to their husbands and faith towards Christ, God looks
at the heart. He says, as a man thinketh in
his heart, so is he. That's the way we are. Whatever
we think in our heart, that's the way we truly are. Whenever you hear these things
and we say, well I'm far from that, my heart is so far from
what it ought to be, I can see the errors I've made, I know
the thoughts that I think, it's like I can't suppress these thoughts,
they just come up. I've developed this pattern of
insurrection all this time, I don't know what to do. What should
you do? Well, you go to the Lord Jesus.
Isn't all grace in Him? Can't He take the heart of stone
and replace it with a heart of flesh? Doesn't He have all power? Isn't He able to do anything?
Is there anything too hard for the Lord? Lord, subdue my iniquities. Isn't that
what we pray? Do for me what You said You'd
do for Your people. Anyway, so that's the way. Now, this time, if we were ever
to tell anyone in today's world that the wife should obey her
husband and call him Lord, you would hear shrieks of violent,
blood-curdling anger. You would never hear the end
of it. You would probably have people marching around your house,
crying out, throwing things at you. It would just be terrible.
But this is the only way God works. He works according to
His truth. Sarah, all of her life, wanted
to have a child. She wanted it more than anything.
And during that time, she obeyed her husband Abraham. She submitted
to him. And God waited. And he waited,
and he waited. Now, after all this time, she
had probably almost given up hope. At 90, she knew, it is
completely impossible for me. Now it's time for God to work.
Now it's time. We could spend a lot of time
on this matter about the wives and their husbands, but I just
want to read this verse to you from 1 Corinthians 11.3. It says,
Paul says, I would have you know that the head of every man is
Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ
is God. Therefore, this is what I say
to that. from Scripture. Therefore, work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God
which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
If God has laid his truth out in Scripture, if he's given us
these promises, then we in faith go to him, Lord, this is the
way things are. You said it. Do as you have said,
and help me, Lord. Give me this grace of faith to
look to Christ and follow you in this. Lord, do as you have
said. Do your will. Do all your will.
And Lord, save my husband. Save me too." And in trembling,
think about what this means. It's God who is at work in you,
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. As you live your
life and everything you do, it's God that's at work in me. To
will and to do of His good pleasure. That means that all of my life
I'm doing what I do with faith toward that promise. That God
is at work in me. Christ dwells in me. And I'm
going to live on His word alone. And I'm going to live in thankfulness
and praise to God. And asking Him to subdue this
rebel heart of mine. to His will in subjection to
it, calling Him Lord, obeying Him. Every man does that, and
it gives us a great pause as husbands to think when our wives
do something. And when we do something, and
we know our wives know about it, and we know it's not proper,
and yet they don't say anything, But we know that somehow, in
their own privacy, they're praying for us. Doesn't that humble you
beyond words? And doesn't it make you think,
oh, Lord, help me, as a husband, to love my wife and to follow
the Lord Jesus Christ. Work out this salvation in me.
It does me. There's many things we can learn,
though, from Sarah's faith, and I want to spend just a couple
of minutes on these things. One of the questions that I ask
myself in here when I read this text of scripture about Sarah
is, what promises has God given me? Don't you ever ask that question
from scripture? What promises has God given me? Since we're there in 1 Peter,
turn over to 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter 1. I want you to see
this scripture. In 2 Peter 1 and verse 1, the
apostle Peter is considering that he, like the Gentiles, and
they with him, have received an inheritance from God. In the
land of Canaan, God divided the land by lot. That means the men
didn't know who should have which part, so they cast lots and God
gave His will in the casting of those lots. That means God
made known His will and decree by what they did. That part is
for them. Joseph's children over there,
Judah's over here, and so on. All the different sons of Jacob.
And here Peter says in verse 1, God has given us faith, precious
faith, by lot, is what it means. An allotment of faith. Simon
Peter, in verse 1, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ
to them that have obtained like precious faith. The word obtained
means obtained it by an allotment. Like precious faith with us through
the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ, or in
the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, it means
that it is because of Christ's righteousness that faith comes
to us. Think about this. We are sinners. We were the enemies of God. We
made ourselves the enemies of God. What does God do? Does He
just end it all and cast us into hell like we deserve? No. He,
in His great love, unbelievable love, Unfathomable love. He humbles Himself and He makes
His Son the propitiation for our sins. And by the death of
His Son, He reconciles us to Himself. He takes away our sin. He takes away our offense before
Him. He justifies us by the obedience
of His Son and the sin-atoning death of His own Son. And because
of that, He's made us righteous in His sight, as righteous as
His Son in the court of heaven. And what does He do in response?
He sends His own Spirit of life to us. We've been made holy before
God. He gives us His Holy Spirit and
creates in us a new man, which is created in righteousness and
true holiness. Ephesians 4.24, and that's where
faith comes from. Christ answered God for us, set
the record straight, obtained our eternal redemption, and in
the release of that, by the ransom he paid, he gives his spirit
to us, and all blessings flow to us. In this life we have God's
spirit. Christ dwells in us, and that's
where this faith comes from, by God's allotment. Those who
were ordained to eternal life believed. But in verse 2, Peter
says, Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge
of God and Jesus our Lord. According as His divine power
has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,
how? Through the knowledge of Christ
that has called us to glory and virtue. Now look at verse 4 very
carefully. "...whereby are given unto us
exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might
be partakers of the divine nature." That's an amazing statement.
I don't know if you've ever thought about that verse before. I've
been thinking about it. And the best analogy I can think
of is a little child nursing from its mother, drawing from
his mother, or her mother, the life that child needs. Here we
are. How do we feed? How do we drink
from God? Through His promises. Through
His Word. He tells us the truth about Christ. He gives a testimony to us of
His Son. And like little children, we desire the sincere milk of
the Word. And in drawing in faith, in taking
and receiving to ourselves what God has said. This is the truth.
I'm going to live upon it. I'm going to commit all of my
eternity on what God has said about His Son, that it was in
Him that He provided for me all that I need for the atonement
of my sins and my standing before God in everything to make me
holy and blameless, to bring me to Himself. I'm going to take
from that. I'm going to nurse at His side.
And in doing so, we're drawing from the divine nature itself,
God Himself. We're taking of Him, and living
upon Him, and living to Him. And this is the way we live our
lives. But in Sarah's case, she cried out, how could this be? How could that be? How could
anything like this happen to me? How could I bear a son to
my husband? How could God's promise be fulfilled? Look at me! What is unbelief? Why did she
doubt? Why did Sarah doubt that this
could happen? You know why? Remember what the
children of Israel did? They had been brought out of
Egypt by God's miraculous signs in Egypt. Destroyed that country,
really. And then he destroyed their enemies
in the Red Sea. Amazing miracles that have never
been done before. And they saw it. He brought them
out. They were weak and helpless before
their enemies and God brought them out of Egypt. He brought
them into the wilderness. He provided for them. He rained
bread from heaven down on them. He gave them water out of the
rock. He kept their clothes and their shoes from wearing out
and brought them to the land of Canaan. That promised land,
the promise of God was brought to them right there at the border.
And they go in, they send in the spies, and ten of them come
back and they say, no, there is no way we're going to be able
to enter that land. Why, why? Well, because there's
giants in the land. And we were in their eyes as
grasshoppers. Unbelief, unbelief sees itself
in the eyes of our enemies. Unbelief considers what I am
in myself. Unbelief thinks what I can do. But God's promise does not depend
on our strength. It does not depend on our own
ability. Not our spiritual ability. Not
our physical ability. God does His will in spite of
who we are. In order that He might get the
glory. And that's the lesson here. And so faith, unlike unbelief,
in contrast to it, sees itself in the eyes of what God has said. And it drinks and eats and feeds
upon that all the time. Lord, this is what you've said.
It seems contrary to all evidence. Contrary to the way I naturally
think. Contrary to what other people
even think about me. And about this world. And yet
I have your word. And I want to live on it. Don't
you? Faith has to be God-given. This
woman was a believer, and yet she didn't believe in this case. Doesn't that teach us something
about ourselves? Doesn't it teach us that none of us really perfectly
believe. We always say, well I believe
that Christ is all my salvation. And I'm not putting any confidence
in who I am or what I've done. And we do. We feel that. We know that. But yet there's
always an element of unbelief in the best of our faith. Faith
needs to increase. Grace needs to grow. And so here
she fell in unbelief. She fell in this case. And by
God's mercy, as I pointed out earlier, He came underneath. He says, is there anything too
hard for the Lord? God gave her a double promise.
A triple promise, if you will. Just like in Hebrews 6, where
God swore by Himself. So that by two immutable things,
we would have such great consolation who fled for refuge to lay hold
upon the hope set before us. God must give us this faith.
If God must give it, if it comes from Him out of grace, then we
must seek it from Him. Lord, give me what I don't have,
what I can't produce, but I desperately need. Faith is like an exotic
flower. It does not grow naturally in
the heart of a fallen, sinful man. Therefore, we read about
when the Gentiles believed it was through grace in Acts 18.27. And we could go on and on about
how faith is the gift of God. And we should. We should think
about it. We should search scripture. And bring ourselves to that point
where we're absolutely convinced that we have to seek the Lord
for everything. We don't come to Him with our
faith. We come to Him for faith. We
don't come to Him with our repentance. We come to Him for the gift of
repentance. We come to Him for everything.
And that's what faith is. That's the irony of faith. We
think we need to bring something. That we have to make ourselves
believe and do all the things that we've pointed out that Sarah
did in her life. Well, I need to be like that.
I need to be meek. I need to be quiet in my spirit.
I need to do these things. But we have to come to God for
everything that He requires. Everything that He's told us
we need. We need to be. We go to Him for it. And that's
what faith is. Without faith, Hebrews 11.6 says,
it is impossible to please Him, because he that cometh to God
must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him. He rewards us with what He alone
can give when we seek Him and ask Him for it. We even ask Him
for that, Lord, cause me to seek your face. When you said, seek
my face, my heart said, thy face, O Lord, will I seek. So we want
that, don't we? So faith is God's gift. It has to be. It doesn't grow
naturally in us. And faith considers not what
I am in myself, but it considers what God is in Himself, what
He said about His Son. And so we see the strength of
Sarah's faith in all this. But I want to consider this for
a moment with you about how God has told us to about all these
precious promises. And one of those promises, which
I love the most, is that God Himself has promised to give
us whatever we ask of Him in Christ's name. Isn't that a promise? If you ask it in my name, you
have what you've asked for. Ask it in faith and you'll receive
it. Faith comes with an empty hand for everything. Faith comes
with a hungry soul and a thirsty soul and says, I need one thing.
I need to know the truth of heaven about the Lord Jesus Christ that
will save my soul from all that I deserve, that I might stand
in your presence in holiness and true righteousness that you
have given me and that you've given me this gift. I need your
grace, Lord. And there's many ways we could
look at that, but I want to take you to the part about what are
these promises? What are these promises that
God has given to me? And when I think about promises
God has given to me, I never find my name written in the Bible,
do you? Never does I hear my name called
out there, but I hear a description of me there. It says in Romans chapter 4,
I'll read this verse to you. Here's a precious verse. Remember,
we're looking at the promises of God. And if you've ever opened
up the scripture, open it up with this. What promises, Lord,
have you given me? And as you read it, listen. Listen to what God says to sinners.
Because as a sinner, I want everything that God has for sinners. I do. Listen to what God says in Romans
chapter 4, in verse 4. Now, to him that worketh is the
reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt, a payment. You got
to pay it back. But to him that worketh not But
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness." That's a promise, isn't it? That's a statement
of truth God has declared in Scripture. As a sinner, do you
believe that you're ungodly? Do you believe that Christ died
for sinners? That He came to save sinners
and not righteous people? The sick and not the healthy?
The plagued, the leprous, the blind, the lame, the dead. Because that's the way he gets
glory. Then say, Lord, I boldly declare that I am unable to do
one thing, and I need everything from you. Do as you have said. You said you justify the ungodly.
I believe you do. I look at myself. I see no reason
why God would have favor and grace upon me. I'm a filthy,
worthless, hell-deserving sinner. And yet the Lord says, He justifies
the ungodly. He gives them this robe of righteousness
that Christ worked out by His obedience in His life and death.
It's such a beautiful robe that when they stand before God, there's
no fault. I see no spot in thee. I see
no spot in thee. The Lord will search and He won't
find it. I will remember their sins and iniquities no more.
Aren't those promises? God's going to do that for someone.
He's going to do it for sinners. I can identify with that. That's
where my name fits in here. Don't you? I see God's promises
all over the place in scriptures, and we ought to, as we think
about this. I've written down about 54. I'm
going to list them for you here. No. I think about, first of all,
the way the thief on the cross prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ,
Lord, remember me. It's going to be up to you. It's
what you remember. It's what you do. What you can
do for me, a dying, and I will be soon, a dead sinner. I deserve
this. Lord, remember me." According
to your, you're the Lord, you're the king, you're gonna come again.
You're accomplishing your will. All these people and these enemies
of yours are just, they're all going to have to be subdued.
My sins and iniquities are going to have to be subdued. Lord,
remember me. So that's a promise. I remember
the publican. God, have mercy upon me, the
sinner. There's no merit there. There's
nothing that you can admire in this man. He's a self-confessed
sinner. And yet he comes and says, I
have only one hope, that you would receive Christ for me.
Have mercy upon me. That's a promise. God wouldn't
write these things if he wasn't exhorting sinners to call upon
him. God's word gives sinners warrant. It gives them the ground, the
ticket, the letter in their hand to take to the throne of grace
and said, This is what you said, Lord. I heard this from your
word. Look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. That includes me. I have to find
my name there. Lord, I see that you died in
order to save sinners and that you actually obtained their eternal
redemption. You made remission of their sins.
You established everlasting righteousness. You forever perfected those you
died for in that one offering. Lord, you said, look, I'm looking
to you to receive me for what you've done and by what you've
done. That's a promise. We take it and we milk it for
all that we can and live upon it. And by doing so, we're partakers
of God's own nature. Here's a promise. He's able to
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him. I need
someone who can save me all the way through, all the way through
my life, to the very end, in the day of judgment, from the
day of my birth until I stand before the Lord. And then after,
that everlasting life He gives us is always going to be based
on Him, what He's done, His power. He's the resurrection and the
life. It's not in me. He's going to have to give me
this life throughout eternity, the endless cycles of eternity.
He still has to be my life. And so, save me Lord, to the
uttermost, do as you have said. You put it in my heart to pray
this way. Eternal inheritance, warrant to look, warrant to call,
warrant to come, and warrant to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And God has promised that the
Lord Jesus Christ has promised to live in us. This is an amazing
thing, isn't it? I can't fathom it. I can't feel
it. I wouldn't know it. I wouldn't
even know to depend upon it or even ask for it unless God had
said it. You need this. This is your only
life. Christ in you. Christ in you? Christ in me? He lives in me,
Paul said. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who lives in me. And if any man doesn't have the
Spirit of Christ, he's none of His. Lord, come into me and live
in me and give me an understanding, hope, faith, love, everything
I need. Live in me, Lord. Comfort me,
teach me, intercede for me, bring me, present me, conform me. And don't stop. Don't stop. He's able to save to the uttermost. He's able to do all that He said
to keep us, to cause us to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
so many promises, isn't there? I want to just take you to one
more here. Let me take you to this one.
I'm going to take actually two more. Look at 1 Thessalonians.
I've got a long list here. I'm certainly not going to go
down the list. But I'll take you to this. 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. Gives us a long list of things
to do here. Verse 14 of 1 Thessalonians chapter
5. Now we exhort you, brethren,
warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded. That's God's
will. Comfort the feeble-minded, support
the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil
for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good both
among yourselves and to all men. Rejoice evermore, pray without
ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the spirit, Despise not prophesying. Prove
all things. Hold fast that which is good.
Abstain from all appearances of evil. And here's the promise. And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly, completely. And I pray God your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this promise. Faithful
is he that calls you, who also will do it." Isn't that a promise? Lord, do as you have said. Sanctify me wholly. You are faithful. You will do it. And look at this
one last one in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. He says this in 2
Corinthians 4 verse 7, But we have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that the excellency of the power, here's a promise,
the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We are
troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed,
but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." Isn't that a promise?
Everything, everything, Lord, delivering me in all of my trials
to this apparent weakness and impotency, and seeing my complete
inability to fulfill all that you've said, I come to you for
everything. The Lord, by His grace, gives
us these trials in order to bring out the fulfillment of His promises
as we look to Christ. Let's pray. Dear Father, we pray that You
would be with us through the Lord Jesus Christ, by Your Spirit
in us, that Christ Himself would dwell in us by faith, and that
we would live upon Him and drink and eat and draw from Him this
life that we need to live. and live in hope of the promises,
the fulfillment of the promises you've given us in Him, we would
search diligently for them, and find that everything we need
is in Christ, and come to Him for all that we need, for life
itself, to know You, and to be with You, and to be brought into
Your presence, conformed to the image of Your dear Son. Lord,
we pray You'd give us all these things. Help us, dear Lord, by
this precious faith, to work out our own salvation with fear
and trembling, knowing it is you who works in us to will and
do of your good pleasure. Help us to understand these things
in our heart and to meditate on them, and to go to you in
prayer and ask you to unfold them for us so that we might
find your wisdom and your purpose in our lives, fulfilled in Christ. Thank you for this word that
teaches us so much. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.