I told you Winsden and I that the
subject of this chapter is faith, believing God. Not just believing
there is a God, not just believing in God, but believing him, believing
believing his promises, believing his word, believing him. When
Paul was on board that ship and the storm arose, and the ship
was tossed about, and the sailors had already thrown everything
overboard that they could spare, and they were thinking about
abandoning the ship. And it says in Acts, I believe,
chapter 27, that Paul stood in the midst of them. And he said,
Brethren, don't leave the ship, stay aboard. There stood by me
this night the angel of the Lord, whose I am and whom I serve. And he declared unto me that
the ship would perish, but every soul on board would be saved.
And he concluded with a statement. In spite of the surrounding tempest
and storm and conditions that prevail, wherefore says, Be of
good cheer. Be of good cheer. For I believe
God. I believe God. He didn't say,
I believe there's a God. I believe there's somebody up
there smiling on us. There's somebody saying, I believe God. That it shall be exactly as it
was told me." That's what we believe. We believe God. And
believing God, we believe his word, because the word is the
foundation of faith. Christ is the object of faith,
but the word is the foundation. And it's a gift. That's the three
things I gave you. Someone told me I left off the
last one. But faith is the gift of God. It's the gift of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Faith's
the gift of God. It's given to you, not only to
believe on Him, but to suffer for Him. Faith's the gift of
God. Trials are the gift of God. Repentance
is the gift of God. Life is the gift of God. God
has given us eternal life, this life from His Son. It's the gift
of God. Every good gift and perfect gift worth having is from above,
from God, with whom there's no variableness, no shadow of turning.
He's a changeless God, he's an immutable God. And faith's the
gift of God. And faith rests in Christ. God's
revealed in Christ. No man has seen the Father at
any time. The Son hath declared him. God
told Moses, his beloved servant, no man can look on me and live.
God dwells in a light to which no man can approach, invisible,
immortal, eternal. But Christ hath declared it.
He that hath seen me, Christ, hath seen my Father. So the object
of faith is Christ. A Christless person is a godless
person. You can't know God without knowing
Christ. You can't come to God except
by Christ. You say, I'm the Word, I'm the
truth, I'm the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. And faith's eternal. Yes it is. Yes it is. He says they'll never
perish. My sheep hear my voice. I give
them. I give them repentance. I give
them faith. I give them life. And they'll
never perish. Never, ever, ever, ever perish. That's right. And true faith
may be strong, it may be weak, it may be little. Our Lord accused his disciples
of being men of little faith. Oh, he said, ye of little faith.
How long will I be with you? Faith may be little, it may be
great, it may be strong, it may be weak, it may rest one day
and fear the next. But it never fails to believe
God. Wherefore, sirs, I believe God.
I believed him yesterday, I believe him today, I believe him tomorrow.
My mind may grow weaker and my memory displaced, but you cut
into my heart and you'll find a love for him. I believe God. I always will. It's the gift
of God. The faith will continue in faith. That's what Paul said he was
confident of. In Philippians 1, if you want
to look at this, I know you already know it without even turning
to it. Philippians 1.6, Paul says, I'm
confident. Being confident of this very
thing, that he, Almighty God, which hath begun a good work,
it's not finished yet. I'm not what I ought to be, I'm
not what I want to be, I'm not what I'm going to be. I'm not
what I used to be. The work's begun, though, and
he began it. It's not of the will of the flesh,
it's not of the will of man, it's not of natural genealogy,
we're born of the will of God. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. And he that hath begun a good
work in you, he will. He doesn't say he might or he
will if you hang on or if you keep on keeping on, if you don't
stray away. He will. Will, will, will, will,
will. Not your will, his will. He works
all things after the cancel of his own will. He will perfect
it. He will perform it. He will,
in your margin there, says, finish it. until the day of Jesus Christ. Whom he foreknew, way back yonder
in the council halls of eternity, he did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son. And whom he did predestinate,
he called. And whom he called, he justified. And you write it down. Whom he
foreknew, predestinated, called, and justified, he glorified. Write her down. Write that in
cement. It's so. Old Job said, write
it in a book. No, he said, write it on a tombstone.
I know my Redeemer living. And on this earth you stand in
the latter day. And though after my skin worms
destroy this old body, yet in my flesh I'm going to see God. And not of nothing. I said, My
eyes shall behold him whom I love. That's just so. You can have
all this wishy-washy, in and out, up and down, saved today,
lost tomorrow, that's a bunch of tummy rot we used to say down
south. Salvation is eternal. Well, verse
11, we'll get a little encouragement from Sabra here. I like to have
encouragement on this matter of faith, because we whose faith
is not perfect and we who have to regularly say, Lord, I believe,
help thy man unto thee. But Sarah will give us a lot
of comfort here. It says in verse 11, Through faith 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. My faith saved her, she judged
him faithful. But I'm telling you, this lady,
this mother in Israel had some times of up and down. I want you to read about it.
Let's turn to Genesis 18. Genesis 18. She's encouraging
to me. Genesis 18, verse 9. Listen to this. Genesis 18, verse
9. The angel of the Lord appeared
to Abraham. Genesis 18, let's look at verse
9. There were three angels, but
one of them was the angel of the Lord. They were all angels
of the Lord, but one was the angel of the Lord, because he
speaks in first person. And they said to him, these angels,
verse 9, chapter 18, Where is Saba, your wife? And he said,
Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will return unto
thee according to the time of life. And lo, Sailor thy wife
shall have a son. You say that's God. Yes, sir,
he's the only one who can give life. He's the only one who can
say, I say unto you. An ordinary angel would have
said, the Lord said. But he said, I will. I will. And Sailor thy wife shall have
a son. And Sailor heard it in the tent door which was behind
him. Now, my friends Abraham and Sarah were old, old, well
stricken in age. And it ceased to be with Sarah
after the matter of women a long time ago. She was already 90
years old. And Sarah laughed. The Lord said,
You have a son. She laughed. She laughed within herself, saying,
After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord, being old
also, my husband? And the Lord said unto Abraham,
Wherefore did Saber laugh, saying, Shall I have a surety by a child
which I know? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee according to
the time of life, and Saber shall have a son." Then Saber, here
she is again, she encourages me, she's denied. She says, I
didn't lie. I didn't lie. She was afraid. He said, No, you did lie. You did lie. She heard the promise,
and she lied. And she did so because everything
that he said was contrary to nature, just absolutely contrary
to nature. There sat Abraham, a hundred
years old and seven ninety, and the Lord said, You're going to
have a son, an heir. The promise was so contrary to
nature, against hope, Paul wrote in Romans 4, against all human
hope. She experienced this time of
doubt, but let me tell you something, she believed God. It says over
here in our text, by faith, favor herself, receive strength to
conceive seed. The faithfulness of God. She
believed God. He'll bless those who believe,
but let me tell you something. It's not the strength of your
faith. It's the strength of your God. I know there are a lot of
religious people that are telling people you're sick because you
don't have enough faith. I don't have to have enough faith to
heal myself. I just got to have enough faith
that believes God. I believe God. And the strength
is in him, it's not in my working up some kind of faith. Sola didn't
have that kind of unshakable, unquenchable, undeniable, unchangeable
faith. She loved what God told her. She believed God. She believed
God. And God shall bless those who
believe him, but it's not the strength of our faith that determines
the blessing, it's the faithfulness of our God, and the will and
the purpose of our God, that we believe God. But Abraham believed
God, but Abraham also had his times of doubt and isolating. Turn to Genesis 17. Let's read
about Abraham a moment. Genesis 17. I'm trying to preach a faith
that's real and genuine, and not try to put on some religious
shenanigans that people can't match or meet or come up with.
I'm trying to preach a faith in God, a faith that believes
God, but a faith that's susceptible to a lot of things. But it's,
that's a, Job, Job, he had a terrible time with his trials. But he
said, The root sent me. The root sent me. I believe God.
And here in Genesis 17, Abraham believed God, he's an example
of faith, but his faith was subject to doubt, his faith was subject
to imperfections. Look at verse 15. And God said
to Abraham, As for Siaiai, Siaiai thy wife, thou shalt not call
her name Siaiai, but Sarah shall be her name, princess. That's
the word, Sarah means princess. I'll bless her, and I'll give
to you a son also of her. Yea, I'll bless her, she'll be
the mother of nations, and kings of people shall be of her." Abraham
fell on his face and laughed. It wasn't a holy laughter, it
was a laughter of doubt, because we don't. And he said in his
heart, He didn't say it out loud, he said it in his heart. Shall
a child be born to him that's a hundred years old, and Sarah
that's ninety years old? So he said, Lord, let Ishmael
live before thee. Let Ishmael be there. God said,
Savior, thy son shall bear thee a son indeed, and you'll call
his name Isaac, and I'll establish my covenant with him for an everlasting
covenant and with his seed. After him. You write there above
that word seed, Christ. Because that's what it says in
Galatians chapter 3. And he saith to Abraham, the
promise was made to Abraham and to his seed. Not seeds, as of
many. Seed, one, Christ. This is God's
way. And both Sarah and Abraham had
difficulty with this, but turn to Genesis 21. The son was born. All right. Now, you've got to
see this, the Son was born in chapter 21 of Genesis. I love
the Word, don't you? Don't you love this? You come
Wednesday night, Brother Seuss, the Roach is going to preach,
and he's one of the fellows that has to get into the Word and teach the
Word. He does it so beautifully. But
turn to Genesis 21. I love to read God's Word. And
the Lord blessed Sarah as he had said. I believe God, Paul said, it
will be exactly as he told me. Don't you like that? I live the
shadows and the wills of God's word. He will. And the Lord did
unto Sarah as he had spoken. And Sarah conceived a baby boy
and a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had
spoken to him. Our Lord Jesus came into the
world in the fullness of time. And he'll come back in the fruits
of time. And you don't need to speculate
or set times or be doubtful. He'll come, as he says, at the
time he says. Listen, read on. And Abraham
called the name of his son which was born unto him, whose Savior
bore to him Isaac. And Abraham circumcised the child,
his son being eight days old as God commanded him. And Abraham
was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Back to my text, Hebrews 11,
verse 12. Therefore sprang there even of
one, and him as good as David, so many as the stars of the sky
in multitude, as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. Who is this Isaac, and who are
these many as the sands of the seashore? And as the stars in
the sky. That's a whole lot of folks.
That's a whole lot of folks. In fact, the word of God says
a number innumerable. A number which no man can number.
A vast multitude. But I thought there was just
going to be 144,000 of them. I thought it was just going to be a handful. Oh, no. No. Who is this, Isaac? Well, number one, he's a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a picture of the Son of
God. One more time, let's go to Genesis, back to chapter 15.
Now, this is so beautiful here. Chapter 15. Isaac is a picture
of Christ. He's a type of Christ Jesus.
He's the seed. Unto Abraham and his seed will
come through Isaac. All right, Genesis 15. After
these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision,
saying, Fear not, Abram, I am your shield, your exceeding great
reward. And Abraham said, Lord God, what
worth thou give me, seeing I grow childish? And the steward of
my house is Eliezer of Damascus. Abram said, Behold, to me you
have given no seed. This is the 4th house he was
born. And lo, one born in my house is my heir. In other words,
a servant's son. or Hagar's son. And behold, the
word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be your
heir, but he that shall come forth out of your own bowels
will be your heir." Out of your own bowels. That's Isaac, out of your own
bowels. But read on. And he brought him
forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars
If you're able to number them, he said unto him, so shall thy
seed be. You can't see it here, there's
too much pollution, but in some countries, like Mexico, you can
look at the stars and it looks like billions, millions, billions. He said, count on Abraham, impossible.
So shall thy seed be. Thy seed. These Arabs and Muslims
and Jews and all these folks that came out of him through
Ishmael and Isaac and everybody else. He's talking about his
seed through Christ. That's right. And he believed
in the Lord and counted to him for righteousness. Who is this
Isaac? Well, let me tell you, he's Christ.
Picture Christ. Both births. Christ's birth and
Isaac's birth was announced by God, both births. The angel of the Lord came to
Mary and said, Blessed art thou among women, not over women,
among them. I shall bear a son, the Son of God. The angel announced
his birth. Secondly, his birth was long
awaited. Abraham waited and waited and
waited and waited, and finally he came, as God said. Number
three, both births, contrary to nature. Isaac was born of
a man that couldn't conceive children, and a woman that couldn't
give birth. And our Lord Jesus was born of
a virgin, without the aid of a man. Isaac came out of the bowels
of his father. The Lord Jesus Christ said, My
father sent me. I came from the father, I go
back to the father. This is my only begotten, my
beloved son, my son. Hear ye him. Isaac was the only
heir. Nobody else was the heir but
Isaac. Christ Jesus is the heir of all things. The Father loves
the Son and has given all things into his hand. He is the heir.
If we have any part in the kingdom of God, it will be as a joint
heir of Christ Jesus. That's so. Isaac is the heir. That's when Eliezer the servant
went to look for a bride for Isaac. He said to that bride,
My master is wealthy in everything he owns. belongs to his son. And my father is quite wealthy,
and everything he owns belongs to Christ, his son. And if I'm
married to Christ, it's mine too. Isaac carried the wood on
which he was offered as a sacrifice. Went up Mount Moriah, and Mount
Moriah is Mount Calvary outside Jerusalem. And Isaac walked up
with the Father, only the Father and the Son, nobody else was
present. At Calvary, no one was present but the Father and the
Son. It pleased God to bruise him. You see, a lot of folks
around there, they ain't mouth to nothing. They're just means
to accomplish the will of God. It pleased God to bruise him.
Thou hast made here so an offering for sin, that as he went up that
mountain, Isaac carried the wood, and the Father the knife, and
the fire. And Isaac said, Father, where's
the lamb? And that's when Abraham said, My son, God himself will
provide a lamb. And God will provide himself
a lamb. And God will provide a lamb for
himself. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He walked up that
very mountain and died at the hands of his Father. Or you say
the Romans crucified him, the Jews crucified him. They did
what God determined before to be done. Isaac was offered on the mountain
by his father, as Christ was. Isaac didn't die. The Lamb did. The Son of God, Jesus Christ,
didn't die. The Lamb did. He didn't die. No man takes my life from me.
What are you talking about? The body that God prepared for
him, the Lamb of God, he died. The Son lives. He is life. He cannot die. And then both
Isaac and his father went back home. And when our Lord finished
his work on Calvary, he said, it's finished. My father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit. He went back to glory. But he
said, if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and
receive you unto myself. Isaac is my Lord. Picture my Lord, your Lord. And
you can preach the gospel from the Old Testament as well as
you can from the New if you've got New Testament eyes, if you
have New Testament eyes. Yes, you can. Well, what's this
multitude? When God took Abraham out there and showed him a billion
stars and talked about the sands of the seashore, that's a heap
of folks. God has a heap of folks. He sure does. He sure does. Turn to Revelation 7. While you're
turning there, I'll tell you this. Everybody who is of faith
is the seed of Abraham. Everybody who believes the gospel
is of the faith of Abraham and the family of Abraham. Here in
Revelation 7, verse 9, it says, After this I beheld, and, Lord,
great multitudes which no man could number. A multitude which
no man can number, of all nations. Are there people of all nations
saved? Yes. Of all kindreds. Now wait a minute,
you're narrowing this thing down to kindreds. The word says in one place tribes, and of all people. And they're
all tongues. I think New Guinea alone has
four or five different tongues, and Africa has more than that.
Tongues, tribes, kindred, people, nations. There's going to be
somebody out of all of them. I'll tell you how. I'll tell
you how. Turn with me to 2 Samuel 12. 2 Samuel chapter 12. And here's David. Here's a man
after God's own heart. Here's David, the sweet psalmist
of Israel. Here's David who wrote the inspired
word of God. Here's David who was God's prophet
and king. Here's David, a man after God's
own height. And this is what David believed. In 1 Samuel 12, he had a child
that was born, and that child died. 2 Samuel 12. That child died. But the child was sick, and David
was mourning and crying and weeping and praying that God would spare
the child. Just hours old, a day or so old. In verse 19, on the
seventh day, verse 18, it came to pass that on the seventh day
the child died. The child died and he was seven
days old. And the servants of David feared to tell him the
child was dead. They said, Behold, while the
child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he wouldn't even
listen to us. We couldn't cut through his grief.
How would he vex himself if we tell him the child's dead? If
this man's grieving like this over this child's sickness, and
he won't even talk to us, what's he going to do if we go in there
and tell him this boy's dead? But when David saw his servants
whispering, David perceived the child was dead. And so therefore
David said to his servants, Is the child dead? And they said,
He's dead. David arose from the earth, washed,
anointed himself, changed his apparel. Now this is not your
pastor here. This is not some, Barney, you
say one gallus evangelist that came in town on the back of a
pickup truck. This is David. Man after God's own heart. This
is a man who walked with God, who knew God intimately, who
spoke for God, who ruled for God, who was that type of the
Son of God who was called the Son of David. Listen to him. He changed his apparel, he came
into the house of God and worshiped. Then he came to his own house,
and when he required, they shed bread before him, and they did
eat. And his servant says, what is wrong with this man? What
kind of person is this? What thing is this that God has
done? You fasted and wept for the child
when he was alive. When the child is dead, you rise
up and celebrate and eat bread. David said, you can write it
down. While the child was yet alive,
I fasted and wept. I said, who can tell? God may
be gracious to me and let him live. But now he's dead. Why should I fast? Why should I grieve? Can I bring
him back? I shall go to him. Where was
David planning on going when he died? He said, Surely goodness
and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will
dwell in the house of the Lord. That's where he was planning
on going, and he was planning on meeting that child. He believed it so strongly, so
powerfully, that he didn't grieve anymore. He had a feast. He shall not return to me, but
I'll go to him. Let me tell you this. There's
been more infants die in this world, in the history of this
world, than ever survive. Now here in America where the
life expectancy is now 72 or three or four, at one time back
when early history was 45 or 50, in some countries less than
that, in some countries one day, just about life expectancy of
most children. The babies have died from the
North Pole to the South Pole, all the way around this well
to the equator for 6,000 years of human history. Some families
in some places don't even name children until they're five years
old because they don't waste names on them. That's what a
missionary told me. Mothers have had eight and ten
children, one living. According to David, the truth
according to David is that if an infant dies, wash your face,
set the table, and thank God he's with the Lord. Elect infants. The old pilgrims call them elect
infants, that's all right by me. But I do know this, my God
is a good God, a gracious God, a merciful God. He delights to
show mercy. And it looks like to me that
the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore which portray
His, He's the Lord of H-O-S-T-S. They said, open up your gates,
be ye lifted up, ye have a last to know, the Lord of hosts is
coming in. What does that mean? He's leaving
a host with him. Redeemed children, redeemed people,
given him by the Father before the foundation of the world.
No truthful evangelical preacher of the past ever believed that
infants went to hell. It's been some quirks and some
quacks and some queer people who preach that infants not a
span long were in hell. That's a lie, according to David. That's good enough for me, is
it? Yes, it's good enough for me. I listen to it. I listen. All right, in verse 13, I've
got the quote. We'll be here again tonight.
Never will get through chapter 13. All right. These all died in
faith, believe in God, not having received the promises, or they
received them in type, they received them in pictures, they wrote
about them. Isaiah said he was wounded for our transgression,
he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace
was upon him. Moses wrote of me, Christ said,
Abraham saw my day and rejoiced. Job saw the Lord's day, they
died in faith, not having received the fulfillment of the promises,
but listen, they saw him afar off. They do it, they saw him
afar off. We see Christ by faith, having
not seen, we love, whom though we see him not, we believe. That's
faith, eyes of faith. And here's the truth, they saw
him afar off, they were persuaded, I'm persuaded of it. They embraced
them, and they confessed that they were strangers. For they
would say such things. They say it plainly. They declare
it plainly. They seek a country. That's why
I like to hear preaching, plainly. That's why I like to hear a man's
testimony, declare it plainly. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. Say so. I believe God. I believe Christ. No wishy-washy thing about this.
They declare it plainly. They seek a country. Truly, if
they'd been mindful of the country they came out of, if their hearts
had still been back there, they could have gone back. Abraham
could have gone back, if he'd wanted to. He didn't want to.
God changed his want to. Little Cyclus could have gone
back. Christ said, will you go back? Will you turn away? They
said, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of life.
They'd been mine for that idolatrous country they came out of. They
had opportunity to go back, and people do. But John described
them, he said, they're not of us. If they'd have been of us,
they'd still be with us. But they went back to prove that
they never were of us. Lot's wife never left Sodom,
or her feet did. But her heart didn't. God saves your heart before he
does your feet. That's right. Now you come to him in the heart
before you ever come with feet. Before a man is ever baptized,
his heart already belongs to Christ. Her heart never left Sodom. But
Abraham's heart left his home country. But now they seek a
better country, a heavenly country. And God's not ashamed because
they're God, and they're not ashamed because they're his children. For he hath prepared for them
a city. Oh, what a city! I'm getting anxious.