“Sarah”
[Hebrews
11:11-12]
September 1, 2013 Second Reformed Church
When we talk about faith, we are not
talking about something we do, but a gift God gives us to receive from
Him. It is through faith – like gutters
and leaders catching the rain and moving it to the place we would have it go –
that we have complete assurance that the things God has promised will come to
pass, and we are convicted beyond doubt that beings that are invisible exist,
and events we have not seen – because they happened before we existed or will
happen sometime in the future – are absolutely real and true.
Last week we began to look at the
faith of Abraham – as God called him to leave his home and heritage behind and
travel to somewhere, God did not tell him where, which would be the inheritance
of him and his descendants.
Now, Abraham was married, but they
had no children because Sarah, his wife, was barren – it was physically
impossible for her to conceive – and so we see the faith of Sarah represented
in this morning’s text – specifically in four doctrines:
God is sovereign over the opening
and closing of the womb.
God is not limited by our physical
limitations.
When we receive God’s promises by
faith, He fulfills them.
God has raised a people for Himself
without our help.
The first three of these doctrines
are found in the first of the two verses we are considering this morning: “By faith Sarah herself received power to
conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who
had promised.”
First,
God is sovereign over the opening and closing of the womb.
When
God made His promise to Abraham and Sarah, Abraham was seventy-five years old
and Sarah was sixty-five years old – quite old to bear a child – especially
after never being able to conceive a child for all of their married years. Yet, Abraham and Sarah received the promise
of God by faith and believed. And they
waited.
After
ten years – when Abraham was eighty-five years old and Sarah was seventy-five
years old – doubt crept in. We read:
“Now
Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian
servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, ‘Behold now, the LORD
has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I
shall obtain children by her.’ And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So,
after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife,
took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a
wife” (Genesis 16:1-3, ESV).
Abraham
and Sarah doubted and sinned. The
recognized that God is the One Who opens and closes the womb, and yet, because
of their age, they doubted that God could open the womb of one as old as she
was, and they decided to “help” God by having Abraham have a son by Sarah’s
servant.
And
we know that Abraham did have a son by Hagar named Ishmael, but they were cast
out – Ishmael was not the son of promise – he was not the one God would raise
up a people through and give the Promised Land to. Still, God had mercy on Ishmael and gave him
all the land surrounding the Promised Land, making him the father of the Arab
peoples.
It
was an astounding promise, but isn’t God an astounding God?
We
have a similar history in the New Testament:
Elizabeth, the cousin of Mary, was a barren woman, but the angel of the
Lord came to her and said that God was going to open her womb and give her a
son after the prophet Elijah. And
Elizabeth believed by faith and did not doubt.
Her husband was another story:
“And
Zechariah said to the angel, ‘How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and
my wife is advanced in years.’ And the angel answered him, ‘I am Gabriel. I
stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you
this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the
day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which
will be fulfilled in their time.’ And the people were waiting for Zechariah,
and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he
was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the
temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. And when his time
of service was ended, he went to his home.
“After
these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself
hidden, saying, ‘Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on
me, to take away my reproach among people’” (Luke 1:18-25, ESV).
She
bore John the Baptist, and when he was born, his father was able to speak
again.
From
the Scripture, we see that God opens and closes the womb. A child is conceived if and only if God
chooses the child to be conceived. Does
that mean we can be irresponsible and blame God if we become pregnant? Of course not. God is equally clear that only one man
married to one woman, who is his wife, are to have sexual relations. Under those circumstances, every child born
would be born into a family.
Unfortunately, we know that is not the way things are in our world. (More on that another time.)
For
now, if you are part of a mairred couple, or if you know a married couple, who
are experiencing difficulty becoming pregnant, or if you want more children and
are having difficulty – do, indeed, go
to your doctor and have everything checked out – but also pray to the Almogihty
God Who opens and closes the womb, and as He is willing, your womb – your
wife’s womb – your friend’s womb – will open and bear a child. We ought to use the medical expertise
available to us, but we ought not to forget that the One Who created our bodies
is able to make them function as He wills.
Second, God is not limited by our
physical limitations.
As we have just suggested in
thinking about women who have difficulty bearing children, God is not limited
by that physical limitation. God can
open the womb. God can heal the sick and
raise the dead. The Creator of our
bodies is able to do with them as He wills.
And as He promised Abraham a child by Sarah, that child was to come, and
a barren womb and aged bodies we not a problem to God acheiveing His promise.
The Lord came to Abraham again, when
Abraham was ninety-nine and Sarah was eighty-nine:
“They said to him, ‘Where is Sarah
your wife?’ And he said, ‘She is in the tent.’ The LORD said, ‘I will surely
return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.’
And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were
old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah
laughed to herself, saying, ‘After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have
pleasure?’ The LORD said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, “Shall I
indeed bear a child, now that I am old?” Is anything too hard for the LORD? At
the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah
shall have a son.’ But Sarah denied it, saying, ‘I did not laugh,’ for she was
afraid. He said, ‘No, but you did laugh’” (Genesis 18:9-15, ESV).
Sarah doubted to the point of
laughter, but God caught her on it and asked her a question we need to keep in
mind for ourselves – not just regarding pregnancy, but in all things, “Is
anything too hard for the Lord?”
Why do you think God can’t use
you? Are you too old? Too young? Too feeble? Too sick?
Too “not so smart”?
Do you remember the history of
Balaam? When he was on the road to
prophesy against Israel, his donkey stopped and rebuked him – actually saving
him from being killed by an angel (Numbers 22:22-41). If God could use a donkey to rebuke the
prophet, I believe God can use me – I believe God can use you – don’t you? No matter what physical state you’re in, God
can use you for His purposes.
We ought to notice that Sarah’s
barrenness – and several others throughout the Scripture – prepared Israel for
the Incarnation – for the Virgin conception and birth of Jesus. Remember, the angel came to Mary and told her
that she would bear a son:
“And Mary said to the angel, ‘How
will this be, since I am a virgin?’
“And the angel answered her, ‘The
Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow
you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And
behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and
this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be
impossible with God.’ And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let
it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her” (Luke
1:34-38, ESV).
Did you notice that the angel told
Mary about her cousin, Elizabeth, becoming pregnant? Why?
Surely, one reason was to strengthen her faith in the message he was
bring by saying, “God has opened the womb of you elderly cousin, Elizabeth, and
she bears a son – so it is not too much for God to cause you to be with child,
even though you have never been with a man, is it?”
What physical limitation is too
great for God? God called the Creation
into being out of nothing. God opened
Sarah’s womb, and she bore Isaac. God
incarnate into the Virgin Mary’s womb and lived as a man among us to grant salvation
to His people. No physical limitation is
too great for God! Nothing!
In fact, God is not limited by us in
any way – which is good, otherwise, none of us would be His sons and daughters
– as Paul wrote:
“Where is the one who is wise? Where
is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know
God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save
those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach
Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those
who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of
God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is
stronger than men.
“For consider your calling,
brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many
were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in
the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the
strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are
not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in
the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to
us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that,
as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians
1:20-31, ESV).
God chooses people to be His (often)
who make it easy to see that they could only be sons and daughters of God if
God made them sons of daughters of God.
I am told it would be very difficult
for me to find another pastorate since I am chronically ill. Who would choose a pastor whose health is
deteriorating with a disease for which there is no known cure? God.
God’s wisdom is greater than ours – and I don’t mean that God could see
I would be such a great pastor – no, God is using me, despite my frailties and
failures and sin. God didn’t choose me
because I’m any great shakes – and He didn’t choose you because you’re so great
either – as we have seen again and again, we are all born spiritually dead
sinners, but God can raise the dead to His purposes.
Do we believe that? It took Sarah some time, but she believed.
Do we believe that God can do what
seems impossible to us?
Do we believe that God can use the
people we would send away to His glory?
Do we believe that God can use this
church?
Third, when we receive God’s
promises by faith, He fulfills them.
Again, we’re told, “By faith Sarah
herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she
considered him faithful who had promised.”
We remember that we have seen that
faith is a gift of God, and we have said that faith is not a thing or a work
that we have but the way we receive what God has for us – and so we see here,
“by faith Sarah received power to conceive.”
Sarah was unable to conceive, but God promised that she would conceive, so
God gave her faith, so she could receive the power – the ability – to conceive.
Faith has an assurance of things
hoped for and a conviction of things not seen.
Sarah hoped for a child, God promised her a child, and she received that
promise by faith and was convicted – she knew it to be true – that she would
bear a child – even though she was not pregnant yet and didn’t know how she
could become pregnant being as aged as she was.
(Now, we know she had doubts – we talked about that already – but she
came back to faith.)
And she considered – that is she
judged – God as faithful. We have noted
– and here it is again – the ultimate focus of faith is not on things or
promises, but on God, and especially on God the Son, Jesus Christ, the Only
Savior. Sarah’s faith was strengthened
because she knew the character of God, and she evaluated what she knew about
the character of God, and believed that what she received from God – that she
would bear a child – was true. Not
because of the promise, but because of God Who made the promise. Ultimately our hope and the strength of our
faith is not in the promises of God, but in God Himself and what we have come
to know about Him, especially through His Word, and especially with regards to
salvation.
This is very much in line with
prayer – do you think Sarah prayed at all during the twenty-five years she
waited to become pregnant after God promised she would?
In faith, we receive what God has
promised based on Who God is.
In prayer, we receive what we
desire, if it is what God desires.
What does that mean? It means that if Sarah prayed to become pregnant
and have a child, God answered that prayer and gave her the desire of her
heart. It means if we pray for anything
that is according to God’s Will, He will give it to us. Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in my name,
this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13, ESV).
God will not give us something that
He doesn’t want for us. Praying in
Jesus’ Name is not magic – what it means is if we pray for what God wants us to
have or be, it will be granted. When our
will and God’s Will are aligned, we will pray for and receive what we ask for.
Paul told the Corinthians about a
prayer:
“So to keep me from becoming
conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was
given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from
becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it
should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my
power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly
of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of
Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions,
and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10,
ESV).
Sometimes we pray for something, and
our prayer is not God’s Will – as we see with Paul. Paul got a “no” from God – some scholars
think Paul had really bad eyesight and he was praying for healing –
but—whatever it was – God said “no” – but rather than get depressed about it,
Paul sought to show how great Christ Jesus is by showing Christ’s greatness
through Paul’s weakness.
I pray for healing. I see numerous doctors. But for now, God has chosen to keep me ill
and have me show His greatness through my illness.
Sarah prayed for a child and God
said, “yes”:
“The LORD visited Sarah as he had
said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and
bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.
Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him,
Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God
had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born
to him. And Sarah said, ‘God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will
laugh over me.’ And she said, ‘Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would
nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age’” (Genesis 21:1-7,
ESV).
If you don’t know, the name “Isaac”
means “laughter.” Sarah laughed when God
said she would bear a child, but the laugh was on her, and they name him,
“laughter” – “Isaac.”
What do we pray for? Do we give thanks for in answer to
prayer?
If you don’t have a church
directory, there are some in the racks outside Freeman Hall. Pray for the people listed in there – even if
you don’t recognize a name – pray that God would supply them with whatever it
is that they need that is according to His Will.
And pray for this church. It doesn’t take more than a second to see
that the pews are not filled. Most of us
don’t see the finances except once a year – our bills are far greater than our expenses
– our money is running low. Pray for
this church. Pray that God would use us
to His Glory. Pray that God would help
us to accomplish His purposes in this church and in this community. Pray for the wisdom of the leadership. Pray that we would all grow in faith and
obedience – like we discussed when I preached on church growth about a year and
a half ago. Pray, if God is willing,
that more people would come into this church to hear the Gospel preached. Pray, if God is willing, that we would all be
faithful in our giving to the work of this church and that God would provide
for us financially. Pray.
Fourth, God has raised a people for
Himself without our help.
“Therefore from one man, and him as
good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many
as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”
Abraham, at ninety-nine years old,
was as good as dead, insofar as the baby-making department was concerned. But God had promised Abraham that He would
raise up a people for Himself – Israel – out of the descendants of Abraham –
and He did it – without our help!
Peter explains:
“But you are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may
proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once
you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10,
ESV).
Peter explains that those who
believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ – those who receive salvation through
Jesus Alone – were born spiritually dead, not God’s people, those who did not
receive God’s mercy. In that state,
there was nothing we could do to make things right with God. Only God could make things right and make for
Himself the Israel of God – all those who believe in the Promised Savior.
God called a Chaldean man and his
wife who were childless, to move to Canaan – a land that God promised to them
and their descendants. God caused Sarah
to become pregnant and she bore a son named “Isaac” – and through the
generations, a young woman named “Mary” would be born, and before she had known
a man physically, God, Himself, would cause her to become pregnant, and God
would incarnate, becoming Jesus – the God-Man, Who would live a perfect life
under God’s Law, die for the sins of everyone who would every believe,
physically rise from the dead and ascend back to His throne, having
accomplished salvation for His people.
God
is sovereign over the opening and closing of the womb.
God is not limited by our physical
limitations.
When we receive God’s promises by
faith, He fulfills them.
God has raised a people for Himself
without our help.
Let us pray:
Almighty and Sovereign God, we are
quick to want to give You help, rather than to submit ourselves to Your
Will. We thank You for the example of
Sarah’s faith, and we ask that we would be faithful, not doubting You, but
believing because we know Your character through Your Word. And let us not see our limitations as excuses
to give up, but opportunities to show Your Glory. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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