Admonition Podcast

Good morning.

To all of the mothers who are here this morning, happy Mother's Day.

to all of the children and husbands who are here, it's Mother's Day, just in case you
didn't know.

Take your Bibles if you will and open them to Hebrews chapter 11.

As I was thinking this week.

Who, which mothers have I not preached on?

In the years since I've been here, I know I've preached on Mary.

I know I've preached on a few other mothers found in scripture, Hannah and others.

And dawned me, I don't know that I've ever preached a sermon on Sarah.

In Hebrews chapter 11, we read by faith Sarah, verse 11.

herself also received strength to conceive seed.

And she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged him faithful who had
promise."

This morning I want us to spend some time considering Sarah because she judged God
faithful to His promises.

Sarah is one who, if you were to look at her from Old Testament texts, you'd say maybe
she's uh kind of one of those 50-50 characters.

She's got some good things about her.

She's got some baggage she carries.

But the Hebrew writer doesn't mention the baggage.

The Hebrew writer, as he does with many of the faithful of Old Testament scripture,

focuses on what they did because of what they believed.

is we're introduced to Sarah, we're introduced to her in Genesis chapter 11, so I
encourage you to take your Bibles and follow along with me there.

We're gonna spend some time in Genesis, some time in Hebrews.

But in Genesis chapter 11, we're introduced to Sarah in the record of the genealogy of
Tira.

Beginning in verse 27, this is the genealogy of Tira.

Tira begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Haran begat Lot.

And Haran died before his father, Tira, in his native land in Ur of the Chaldeans.

Then Abram and Nahor took wives.

The name of Abram's wife was Sarai and the name of Nahor's wife, Milka, the daughter of
Haran, the father of Milka and the father of Iska.

But Sarai was barren.

She had no child.

As we are introduced to Sarai, as we will later know her,

Sarah.

She has no child.

She has the experience that some who experience this day have.

This day as a celebration of mothers would have been one more reminder that she wasn't.

Though she desired to be, though she desired to bear children, though she desired to bear
offspring, she was barren.

And as you consider what the text is telling us, it's telling us that though there is a
desire, there's an inability.

And yet this is going to be the foundation of this recognition of Sarah in the New
Testament.

It is a reminder to us that it is often the things that we struggle with.

It is often the things that we are powerless to overcome and yet are faithful during that
define our lives.

So often in history, in talking with people, in paying attention to cycles of American
history, you notice that it is the desperate times, it is the hard times that alter the

complexion of a person forever.

Many of us have known grandparents, great grandparents, maybe parents, depending upon what
age we are, who grew up in...

a time that came out of the Great Depression, who reacted towards things very differently
than we do, because they grew up in a very different time than we did.

Those of us who grew up in the post 1950s live in a time of full industrialization, full
electro-electricity, I can't even get that word out.

We grew up with electricity.

We grew up with running water in the house.

We grew up with cars.

We grew up with machines.

People who grew up in the Great Depression often grew up with none of that.

People who were early adults who were just trying to get their family going and they
couldn't even keep a stable job grew up with none of

We often chuckle as we think back to grandparents, great grandparents, and the pantries we
would go into with just shelves of canned food.

from years we can't even remember how many years ago it was and if you dusted the dust off
of the top, nobody wrote on it.

You just know that it's been there as long as you can remember.

but it was the hard times that defined their choices.

And for Sarah, it was the thing that she was powerless to overcome that defined her glory.

You find in chapter 12, now the Lord said to Abram, get out of your country from your
family and from your father's house to a land I will show you.

I will make you a great nation.

I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing.

will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you.

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him.

And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son and all their possessions that
they had gathered and the people whom they had acquired in Haran.

And they departed to go into the land of Canaan.

So they came to the land of Canaan.

As we are further introduced to Sarah's history,

We are introduced to her not only as someone who is barren, but someone who is already
aging.

When Abraham, as we will later know him, leaves his home, leaves his family, leaves his
country, as he is told by God, he takes Sarah, his wife, with him naturally.

But I say naturally and then we should really honestly pause and think about that for a
moment.

How many husbands live in the place they live near their in-laws simply because his wife
refuses to move?

How many people live in one place and will never move because their wife says, no, I grew
up here and I'm staying here.

It's easy for us to just pass over and say, Sarah went with Abram.

think about that.

Sarah departed from all the family she knew.

Sarah departed from the only country she knew.

Sarah departed from the only land that she had.

It wasn't just Abram who left.

Sarah chose to go with Him.

So Sarah, who is barren?

Sarah, who has no child and is powerless to do anything about that,

will still follow the command, the instruction, and the promise of God even when she's 65
years old and she's looking at that promise going...

Okay, sure.

I'm gonna bear a child?

At 65?

but she goes out as Abram did.

believing the promise.

She went out trusting God's promise.

So she went to a land that she didn't know.

She went to a people that were not hers.

She went with the people that she had and she took what family she could have with her,
but she departed from all the family that she knew.

And as she went forth, she trusted God.

We turn over to chapter 12, I'm sorry, further into chapter 12.

We find that life wasn't easy as they left their home.

They had many concerns about the place they were going.

The land of Canaan already had a reputation.

If you remember a little bit of your Old Testament history, you know that Canaan was not
just a land, it wasn't a country, it was a father of descendants.

For the descendants of Noah, one of the grandchildren is known as Canaan, and his people
were those who were known as the Canaanites, and their people were those...

who were made up of a number of different peoples and yet they were those who had rejected
God.

So as Abram departs from his land, we know from other texts and from other things that not
all of Abram's family were those who worshiped God and were faithful to him.

There were issues with idolatry among his people, but it seems as though at least the
character of his people were somewhat different than the reputation of the Canaanites.

as Abram comes down into the land of Canaan as he has been instructed by God because God
didn't tell him where to go, God said, I will show you where to go.

As he arrives there, there is concern about what the people in this new country will do to
him, to his family.

Whether they will kill him to keep his wife and his possessions and his servants.

So we find chapter 12, verse 10, Now there was a famine in the land and Abram went down to
Egypt to dwell there for the famine was severe in the land.

And it came to pass when he was close to entering Egypt that he said to Sarai his wife,
Indeed, I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance.

Therefore it will happen when the Egyptians see you that they will say this is his wife
and they will kill me, but they will let you live.

Abram looks at the situation as they're preparing to go down to Egypt and he looks at his
seventy five or sixty five plus year old wife and says, You're so beautiful, they'll kill

me to take you.

We find out Sarah was very beautiful.

We find out based upon a number of passages that she was beautiful such that this occasion
will, or this type of occasion will occur not only when she's 65 plus, but when she's 85

plus.

But as they go, we see some of the blight, some of the imperfection in Sarah's record.

For Sarah will lie on behalf of Abram.

She will deceive on behalf of her husband.

He conceives the plan.

She agrees to carry it out.

Verse 12, therefore it will happen when the Egyptians see you that they will say,

This is his wife and they will kill me, but they will let you live.

Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake and that I may
live because of you.

Sarah will proceed with Abram's plan, though it will be proven to be unnecessary.

For the people in the land of Egypt are not like the Canaanites.

They are not like those who had rejected God, and they would have honored Abram in spite
of the fact that they were mistrusted.

If you go down to chapter 16, you find another blight on the record of Sarah.

as Sarah will determine eventually that this lineage thing, this offspring thing isn't
going to work out.

Time has passed.

She's now not 65.

She's now nearly 75.

And no son has come forth.

No child has come forth.

No nation has come forth.

And so Sarah is going to give Hagar, her handmaid, to Abram.

And so Abram will...

father a child through Hagar, and yet this is going to cause strife, contention, and
hardship among the family.

It is going to cause a problem even among Sarah, and yet Hagar is going to be protected by
the Lord, as will her offspring.

You go again to chapter 18 and a little while further ahead in history.

At the time when the Lord appeared to him by the terrible trees of Mamre, verse 18, verse
one, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.

So he lifted his eyes and looked and behold, three men were standing by him.

And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the
ground and said, My Lord, I have now uh if I have now found favor in your sight, do not

pass on by your servant.

Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the
tree.

and I will bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh your hearts.

After that, you may pass by.

In as much as you have come to your servant, they said, do as you have said." So Abraham
hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, quickly make ready three measures of fine meal,

knead it and make cakes.

And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man and he
hastened to prepare it.

So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared and set it before them and
he stood by them under the tree and they ate.

And then he said, then they said to him, where is Sarah your wife?

So he said, here in the tent.

And he said, I will certainly return to you according to the time of life and behold,
Sarah, your wife shall have a son.

Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age, and Sarah had passed the age of
childbearing.

Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I have grown old, shall I have
pleasure, my lord, being old also?

And the Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I surely bear a child,
since I am old?

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall
have a son.

But Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid and said, and he said,
no, but you did laugh.

We notice here in the text as we get to this passage that Sarah is going to find it
impossible from a physical perspective.

She looks at herself and she considers herself as you notice in the text and the things
that are going on.

Sarah is well advanced in age.

Sarah is at this point where the idea of bearing a child from a physical perspective was
an impossibility.

And yet, in the midst of this, we learn some things.

And that is that the promises of God are not always easy to understand.

The promises of God are not always those which make complete sense to us.

The promises of God are not always those things which we...

look at and we immediately grasp and we immediately know exactly how God's going to do it.

Sarah laughs at the promise of God, but the Hebrew writer reminds us she also considered
God's promises to be faithful.

In Genesis chapter 20...

We find another occasion where we find somewhat of a blight on Sarah's record.

Similar to the prior event, we also see some protection from God.

For God has told Abram that within a year, Sarah will bear a son.

And yet again, another time occurs where they need to journey.

And so we find chapter 20, verse 1, and Abraham journeyed from there to the south and
dwelt between Kadesh and Shur.

and stayed in Gihar.

Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister.

And Abimelek king of Gihar sent and took Sarah.

But God came to Abimelek in a dream by night and said to him, Indeed, you are a dead man,
because the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.

But Abimelek had not come near her.

And he said, Lord, will you slay a righteous nation also?

Did he not say to me, She is my sister?

And she, even she herself said, He is my brother in the integrity of my heart and the
innocence of my hands I have done this.

And God said to him in a dream, Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your
heart, for I also withheld you from sinning against me.

Therefore I did not let you touch her.

Now, therefore, restore the man's wife, for he is a prophet and he will pray for you and
you shall live.

But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.'
So Abimelek rose early in the morning, called all his servants, and told them all these

things in their hearing.

And the men were very much afraid.

And Abimelek called Abraham and said to him, What have I done?

What have you done to us?

How have I offended you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin?

You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done."

Then Abimelek said to Abraham, what did you have in view that you have done this thing?

And Abraham said, because I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place and they
will kill me on account of my wife.

But indeed she is truly my sister.

She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother and she became my
wife.

And it came to pass when God caused me to wander from my father's house that I said to
her, This is your kindness that you should do for me in every place wherever we go.

Say of me, he is my brother.

Then Abimelech took sheep, oxen and male and female servants and gave them to Abraham.

And he restored Sarah his wife to him.

And Abimelech said, See, my land is before you.

Dwell where it pleases you.

Then Sarah, then to Sarah, he said, Behold, I have given your brother

A thousand pieces of silver indeed this vindicates you before all who are with you and
before everybody.

Thus she was rebuked.

In this occasion, we find that the story that they had been telling was not a two-time
occasion.

This was just the story they kept telling.

and it was out of fear for their lives.

As we pause for a moment and consider, sometimes the fears that we have are entirely
unjustified.

Sometimes the fears that we have exist only in our mind and in no sense of reality.

Sometimes we consider things about people because they're strangers to us, because they're
not like us, because they dress differently than us, they live differently than us, they

come from a culture that is different than us, and we surmise that therefore they're not
trustworthy and they certainly must not fear the Lord.

and Sarah and Abraham are rebuked.

Because instead of allowing the character and the life and the righteousness of the person
to determine whether or not they should be considered trustworthy, they assume

and they failed to trust God instead.

As we consider the promise of a son, God protects his promises.

God is going to enact the things that he will with this individual and with his household
because God made a promise and God is going to deliver on his promises.

even if it means he has to keep Sarah and Abraham and Abimelek from messing it up through
miraculous means.

One last thing that I want to point out back in chapter 17, as you'll notice that Sarah's
name has changed.

Back in chapter 17, after the reiteration of the covenant we find in chapter 17 and in
verse 15, then God said to Abraham, for Sarah, Sarah, your wife, you shall not call her

name Sarah, but Sarah shall be her name.

I will bless her and I will give you a son by her.

Then I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations.

Kings of peoples shall be from her.

Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, Shall a child be born to
a man who is one hundred years old and shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?

And Abraham said to God, Oh, that Ishmael might live before you.

Then God said, No, Sarah, your wife shall bear you a son.

And you shall call his name Isaac.

I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his descendants
after him.

And as for Ishmael, I have heard you.

Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly.

He shall beget twelve princes and I will make him a great nation.

But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time
next year.

as Sarah is promised by God, her name is changed by God to become the mother of many
nations.

And she will have a child, his name will be Isaac, and she will receive the promise.

But as we consider Sarah, I want us to notice that the receiving of the promise wasn't the
end of the story.

for after she received the promise, she then had to let go of the promise.

In Genesis chapter 22.

And in verse one, now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said
to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am.

Then he said, Take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love and go to the land of
Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall

tell you.

So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young men
with him.

and Isaac his son, he split the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the
place of which God had told him."

As you consider her belief, faith, and obedience in God, consider that she was faithful
for 25 years before receiving the promise.

and that she counted God as faithful who promised.

So much so that when God told Abraham to take his son, his only son, her son, her only
son.

and offer him as a burnt offering to the Lord, she didn't refuse.

She didn't tell her husband, no, no, you're not.

She didn't tell Abram you can kill me, but you're not taking that boy.

Quite often we come to this text in Genesis 22 and we think about Abraham.

And because her name's not mentioned, we don't always think about Sarah.

Sarah was faithful even after receiving the promise.

Sarah considered God faithful even when the possibility of losing that only son and all
the promises that came with it could be taken away.

I want us to notice one last thing from Hebrews chapter 11.

In Hebrews chapter 11, beginning in verse 8.

We read, By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go to the place where he would
receive an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

By faith he dwelt in the land of promises in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with
Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.

For he waited for the city which has foundation, whose builder and maker is God.

By faith, Sarah herself also received strength to receive seed or conceive seed, and she
bore a child when she was past the age because she judged him faithful who had promised.

Therefore, from one man and him as good as dead were born as many as the stars of the sky
and multitude, innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore." These all, notice the

all there.

These all died in faith, not

having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them,
embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.

And truly, if they had called to mind the country from which they had come out, they would
have had opportunity to return.

But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the
promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, In Isaac your seed shall

be called, concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from which he
also received him in a figurative sense.

By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning the things to come.

By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped,
leaning on the top of his staff.

By faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of
Israel and gave instructions concerning his bones.

As you walk through the successive lineage from Abraham and Sarah to Isaac, to Jacob, to
Joseph.

You see a pattern.

It was a pattern of lives built on promises.

when you consider four lessons as we close from Sarah's life.

Consider first that Sarah believed God's promise when physical circumstances denied it.

She didn't have no questions about God's promise.

She didn't always act as though she believed God's promise.

but she believed God's promise even when physical circumstances denied the very
possibility of that promise being fulfilled.

Number two, Sarah believed God's promise when fulfillment wasn't immediate.

too often in life, are adept at receiving a promise and then going, all right, come on,
where is it?

We are impatient.

If somebody says, I'm going to give you X, great, give it to me now.

And yet Sarah was faithful even when the fulfillment of the promise took years in the
terms of Isaac and was never experienced in this life in view of the promise of the land

and the descendants and the nations.

And yet she lived in faithfulness to that promise that she never received while she was on
this earth.

But then consider number three, Sarah believed God's promise when obedience to Abram was
required.

Over in 1 Peter chapter three, Peter will reference Sarah and show her due honor because
he sets her forward as an example of one who called Abram Lord.

The idea there is not

Well, the husbands are better than the wives and she needed to be in subjection and she
needed to do, no, no, no.

She called Abram Lord.

The text is making it clear it was her choice to go with her husband, to obey her husband,
to submit to her husband, to dwell with her husband, even though at age 65,

they started a brand new adventure.

home.

Then consider number four, Sarah believed God's promise and did not withhold that promise
once it was given.

Sarah surely is the mother of the faithful.

In Romans chapter 4, Paul will write about Abraham as the father of the faithful.

But a father doesn't have children without a mother.

And Sarah sets a shining example of trust in God and the results that can be had
generation after generation after generation of a life lived faithful to God, trusting His

promises.

Now, let's all be assured Sarah's descendants had their own problems.

Sarah's lineage had their own difficulties and not all of them were faithful.

But Sarah is recognized as a mother who believed the Lord and counted him faithful in his
promises.

You're here this morning.

You should know with great assurance that God is faithful to his promises.

He was faithful to Sarah when it was impossible in physical terms.

He was faithful to Sarah after she had died.

He was faithful to Sarah in bringing forth His Son, the seed of her womb that would be
ruler and Messiah and King over all the earth.

And that promise was fulfilled generations after she died because God is faithful to His
promises.

So as you look at your life, shall we ask, do you count God faithful to His promises?

And if you do, are you living like it?

Are you living like Sarah lived when there were some doubts, when there were some
hesitancies, when there were some failures, or are you living faithfully?

even though it's an impossibility in some people's minds.

When you look at your life, do you count the Lord faithful who is promised?

If you have need of the invitation of our Lord to put Christ on in baptism to become born
a child of God, you say, Aaron, I don't know how that could possibly happen.

I don't know how I could be forgiven.

I don't know how all of the things that I've done could be wiped away.

I don't.

It's okay.

There's someone who's faithful to his promises.

and he knows how.

If you have need of the invitation, why not come as we stand