Hebrews 11:11
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
One of the lessons that we learn in life growing up is the value of keeping your word. We learn that for ourselves, we learn that for others, for our friends. I learned one of these lessons in college on a Friday night. My friends and I decided we were going to go to a rock quarry that we'd heard about and jump off a cliff into the water in the pitch black. so three or four of my friends and I went we went out to this rock quarry had never been there before just heard that it existed and we got out to the spot where you jump into the water I look down into the murky blackness below and I say you know the good news is I really don't want to do this but hey I'm here with my buddies so I said okay so we all look at each other we say all right we're gonna jump on three so I look over you know everybody's we're all jumping on
three one two three and I jump and I'm the only one in the air my friend stayed up top and I find myself at the bottom of this place I'd never been before in darkness no way I didn't know how to get out or anything obviously I made it out I'm survived I'm here so it was fine but I learned a lesson then at that moment, and that was I wish my friends had been more trustworthy. Or maybe I needed new friends. I'm not sure. Some kind of lesson there. But the idea is it's important for people to keep their word, and when they don't, there are ramifications in our life. Our verse tonight is looking at a word that was kept, a promise that was kept, and one that was utterly trustworthy. What we see from our passage tonight is this. You can always trust the promises of God.
You can always trust the promises of God. So let's read our passage together. It is on the front of your bulletin or page 1008 in your Bible. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age since she considered him faithful who had promised. So we're going to look at this in two points today. The first point is Sarah's imperfect faith and the second point is God's perfect promise.
So let's start with Sarah's imperfect faith. So we find ourselves in the middle of or towards the ends of the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11. many know this as the hall of faith. It's sitting here in the book in this particular place for a reason. So the book of Hebrews begins by saying, long ago God spoke to us by the prophets, now he has spoken to us by his son. His son who is better than angels, who is better than Moses, who is better than anything that is or was, he's here now. This Jesus who is here now is the great high priest, the guarantor of a better covenant. It's better because he's the mediator of this covenant, and it's secured not by the blood of bulls and goats, which have to be offered year after year to pass over sins, but it is secured by his own blood. And now Jesus appears
in heaven on our behalf. He offered a one-time sacrifice for sin and sat down at God's right hand. And because of this, we, those of us who have placed our hope in Jesus, we can draw near to God and we can hold fast to the confession because he who promised is faithful. So in light of all that, the question is, how do Christians live? Jesus has done this at work on our behalf. How do Christians live? Well, in the end of Hebrews chapter 10, the author of Hebrews says, the just live by faith.
So, in other words, because we are wholly dependent on another for salvation, that other person being Jesus, we have nothing else but dependence on Jesus. And what that looks like is faith, trust in him, belief in him. So that brings us back to our verse today. By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age. I think a natural question that might pop into our heads when we read this verse is, what is the author saying about the nature of Sarah's faith?
In other words, did her faith bring about this child, Isaac? Or is the faith, in other words, is the faith the reason that she conceived? Well, that's not what the author is saying here. What he is saying is that Sarah trusted God that he would bring to pass the thing that he had promised. She walked by faith against all odds that she would be given a son.
And we can see that, first of all, knowing that the promise of Isaac, the promise of a son, it was made before the faith. God promised, I'm going to give you a son. And that promise was made before the faith was there. The second thing, what we saw in Genesis this morning, what is really clear is if Isaac's birth was dependent on Sarah's faith, he never would have been born because her faith was not perfect.
Her faith was flawed. She doubted God when she heard that she was going to conceive and have a son. I think we can pause right here, and we can take encouragement from this truth. First of all, the Bible is holding up Sarah as a model of faith, as a model for us of faith. Her imperfect faith is something that we ought to, her faith is something we ought to emulate.
So Sarah had reason to doubt. She was old. She was so old, if you saw her walking around the mall, you would have been like, she's doing good. That's awesome, you know. She was old. She was old. It was hard for her to get out of bed. I mean, people lived longer then. But for her to get out of bed was like, my days, I did it. You know, it's good. She was past childbearing years. She was old. You get the point.
The second thing is Sarah didn't have a long history of seeing the Lord work. She didn't have the entire Bible testifying to God's faithfulness. She had seen God work and she had seen God being faithful. Some, but she didn't have the history of the Lord's work like we do in God's word. And so she did doubt. She did sin in that doubt against God. And yet, she's held up as a model of faith.
So Genesis doesn't tell us exactly when, at what point, Sarah trusted the Lord. But at some point, she repented of her doubt and she put her faith in the Lord. She trusted that the things that she could see, her being old, her Abraham being old, The promise being given years and years before and still nothing happening. She trusted God over all those things.
She trusted God to be true to what he had said he was going to do. And you know, for us, we can be encouraged by that. There is no sin that you cannot repent of, Christian. There is no time that you cannot turn from your sin and put your faith, continue to walk in faith in the Lord. So I would encourage you to do that. Trust that that reality is what God says it is.
And turn and put your faith in Jesus. This is the whole Christian life. It's not that our faith is perfect. It's the object of our faith that we can put our trust in. In suffering, as Sarah endured and as many of us endure, our faith is not in an outcome that God's going to bring to us. It's in an ultimate outcome that God will bring, but it's not in a temporary outcome that God is going to bring.
It's not in a feeling. It is in a person. It is in the person of Jesus Christ. And he is always true. He has never lied. He has never failed. If you're not a Christian and you're here tonight, I think it's a good question to ask, do I want this kind of assurance? Do I want this kind of hope? Something that is sure.
Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus has said he is the way to eternal life. And it's true and it's real. It's more real than anything that there is. And so I would encourage you, turn from your sin and put your faith in the risen Christ. I do want to take a moment here and focus in on one element of this passage. Knowing that it's something that in many of us, it probably pops into our minds.
And that is for those of you who are currently struggling with infertility or have struggled with infertility. I do believe there's some clear lessons that we can take from this passage. The first thing I want to say is that if you are struggling in that way, Third Avenue Baptist Church loves you. The elders of Third Avenue Baptist Church love you and we pray for you.
And Jesus loves you. And while God doesn't promise any of us children in the way that he does Sarah and Abraham here, there still are some clear truths I think we can gather from this passage. The first is this. The Lord has the power to open and close the womb. God is the one who has the power to open and close the womb. He had the power to close Sarah's womb for 90 years of her life.
And he had the power to open it even when it was not openable, right? God has the power to open and close the womb. The second thing is, God's plan in your infertility may be veiled, but he still has plans nonetheless. He closed and then opened Sarah's womb for his glory, for our salvation, and for our instruction. He was working in and through that.
While she might not have understood that at the time, that's what the Lord was doing. And he has plans for you as well. The third thing is, your infertility is not caused by your lack of faith or your abundance of faith. In whatever the Lord gives us in our lives, we trust him. We trust whatever circumstance he brings into our lives. He is always good, and we can trust him.
So the second thing I want to look at tonight is God's perfect promise. So again, faith is only as valuable as that which we put it in. Sarah trusted God because she knew that he always keeps his promises. He told Abraham and then he told Abraham and Sarah that she would have a son. And she trusted this promise. She hoped against hope. This takes us back to the nature of faith itself. So, Hebrews 11.1 says, Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen.
What the author, I think, means by this is that faith rests on realities that we cannot currently perceive with our senses. Realities that we cannot currently perceive with our senses. They're realities simply because they rest on the promises of God. Because anything God says happens. He cannot lie. His promise is reality. And this is how we live as Christians each day. Day by day, we live by faith. Everything we do, each choice we make, can be one made in faith. So what do we do then? We trust God's promises. We believe God. We don't put expectations on God that he has not promised and then say, well, God didn't do this thing for me that I asked him to do, and so his promise isn't true.
Instead, we trust what God has promised. So how do we know what God has promised? Well, we know that by reading His Word and also understanding how to read His Word and understanding how to apply the promises of God in our lives. And so, one of the ways we can do that is we gather together here each week and we hear God's Word, we pray God's Word, we sing God's Word, We talk about God's word with other Christians who can help us to grow in applying the promises of God to our lives.
Just a few that came to my mind when I was thinking about the Lord's promises in our lives. Do you feel alone? Do you feel that God is silent in your life? Have you been praying and praying and getting nothing? Jesus says he will never leave us. He will never forsake us. Trust that to be true. When you feel alone, when you feel like God has left you in your suffering, or you feel like you're in a dry season in your life, you can know that Jesus' word is more secure.
His word is more true. He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. Do you feel discouraged in your Christian life? Like you're not growing in the ways that you would like to grow. You can't shake off certain doubts or fears that you have. Paul says in Romans 8 that we, if you're in Christ, we will be conformed to the image of Christ. Know this, if you are in Christ, a day is coming when you'll see Jesus and you'll be like him.
You'll want nothing else because you will see with clear eyes and know there is nothing better. Are you facing something that you don't know where to turn? Psalm 46 says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. There is nothing that can come into your life that is bigger or more powerful than the God of the universe. Seek refuge in him. Trust him. Are you wrecked with worry and anxiety, with sleepless nights?
God's word tells us, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Bring your anxiety, bring your worry to the Lord in prayer. And trust the Lord that the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
As Christians, we walk by faith. And we do that because we can trust that God's promises are always true. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for Jesus. We thank you for the work that he has done on our behalf. And I pray that you would bear fruit in our hearts tonight from your word. In Jesus' name, amen.