Hebrews 11:11-12

Hey everyone, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Hebrews 11 verses 11 and 12. We're looking at Hebrews 11 verses 11 and 12 tonight. As a quick recap of where we've been over the last couple weeks, we've been looking at Hebrews 11, some I call it the Hall of Faith, and we've been seeing how various characters of the Bible have been doing things for God by faith, what God has accomplished through their faith. Last week, we looked at Abraham. Tonight, we're gonna be looking at Sarah, Abraham's wife. Read along with me, Hebrews 11, 11 through 12. By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive. even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 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." Tonight, I want to encourage us to trust that God is faithful to fulfill his promises. It's our big main idea tonight. Trust that God is faithful to fulfill his promises. I wanna look at this through two points. The first point is how God, how Sarah trusted God to fulfill his promises to her. And second, I want us to look at how we should trust God to fulfill his promises for us. So point number one, how Sarah trusted God to fulfill his promises through her. In Genesis 12, 21, we all, after last week, I'm hoping we all know the story about Abraham, how God made great promises to Abraham to give him land, to give him children, to give him blessings. And in that passage, in that story of Abraham, we see that God gave promises to Sarah as well. Sarah received a promise to be the mother of nations. She would be giving birth to Isaac, the promised son of Abraham, with whom God would establish his covenant with. But Sarah had two problems. First, she was infertile. During her childbearing years, she was unable to conceive and eventually got to the point that she was past the age for conception. Her second problem was that she just didn't believe that she could conceive. She laughed in disbelief at God's pronouncement of Isaac's birth, and when God confronts her, she just responds by lying to him. And yet in all this, one year later, after Sarah struggles with infertility and struggles with unbelief, Genesis 21, one and two says that 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. So in Genesis, we see that God was faithful to his promise. And it's clear that God fulfills his promises through his sovereign faithfulness alone. But in our passage tonight, we get this really neat kind of behind the scenes look at what was going on during that whole process. You know, in Genesis, we don't see Sarah having faith or repenting of any sins or really believing God at all. We just see what God does through Sarah. But here in Hebrews 11, 12, we see that Sarah's conception was through her faith, that God used Sarah by her faith. She considered God faithful and she received power to fulfill God's promise. We see the means that God used to fulfill his promises through Sarah. We see that God chooses to fulfill his promises through those who consider him faithful. Faith and God's promises are absolutely inseparable. At the heart of Sarah's faith was the one who she put her faith in. Sarah first tried to accomplish God's promise through her unbelief and in her own ability. Because she wasn't fertile, she had Abraham sleep with Hagar, and Ishmael was born. But God would not establish his covenant with Ishmael. He would establish his covenant with the child of the promise, the child who was born by his ability, the child who was born by faith. He would establish his covenant, his way, on his terms. Isaac was born upon Sarah's exchanging the object of her faith. She abandoned her faith and her own ability and placed her faith in God. Sarah's faith was not passive, it was not abstract. Her faith in God drove her to action with expectation. Sarah trusted God by doing what God deemed necessary for his promise to be fulfilled. And God was faithful to Sarah. He was faithful to fulfill his promise through the means that he had ordained. By that faith, Sarah received power to conceive by the natural God-ordained means that was required for conception. You notice Isaac was not conceived in the same way that Jesus was conceived. One author, one commentator notes that the author of Hebrews concentrates all his attention on the active faith through which Sarah and Abraham became capable of resuming normal relations, in the course of which Abraham was enabled to become a father. So it's through this active, this expectant faith that God began to make descendants for Abraham. As many as the stars of heaven, as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. It's through that faith that the sons of Abraham are still being born to this very day. Galatians 3.7 says that those who are of faith are the legitimate sons of Abraham. So that leads us to point two, how we trust God to fill his promises for us. You'll see as we read throughout scripture that in Abraham and Sarah, God was doing something even greater than proving his faithfulness and power. He was saving the world. Promised son would bless the nations in the same way that Adam and Eve's offspring would crush the serpent's head. Abraham and Sarah's descendants would bring about salvation from sin. And God's promise of salvation is ultimately fulfilled in a son of Abraham who blessed the nations by becoming a curse for sinners. When Jesus died on the cross, he fulfilled God's greatest promise. Now through faith in Jesus Christ, sinners are justified before God, they're counted as righteous, they're redeemed from the curse of the law, they're freed from the bondage of sin, and they're adopted into God's family. Whoever believes in Jesus by faith shall not perish, but have eternal life. And just as Sarah was blessed with childbearing through faith, sinners receive salvation and all its benefits through faith in Jesus. If you want to think more about that, I'd encourage you to read Galatians 3 and 4 tonight. Brothers and sisters, Sarah teaches us that we must place our faith in God and his faithfulness to save us. We must place our confidence primarily in God's ability to accomplish salvation for us and for others. We must trust that God will use the means of spiritual discipline and the means of the local church to sanctify us. We must trust that he will use the means of evangelism and missions to save lost souls. So I was thinking about this passage, I was reminded of the missionary William Carey. William Carey was an 18th century British missionary and was known as the father of modern missions. He rested on the promise of the Great Commission and trusted that God would use his efforts to save souls in India. 1792, he formed the Particular Baptist Missionary Society. And in his first address, he charged the society to expect great things from God and attempt great things for God. That motto, along with 41 years of faithful ministry in India, inspired thousands to the missions field in the 19th century. It inspired men like Adoniram Judson and Hudson Taylor and David Livingston to dedicate their entire lives to reaching the lost. Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God. Think about it, Sarah expected a great thing from God. As a result, she attempted a great thing for God. I mean, some of our members here, we see them expecting great things for God and attempting great things for God week in and week out. I mean, just a few minutes ago, the evangelistic request that we received from three people, Rebecca reaching out to somebody in Poland and meeting with her on what, a weekly basis to share the gospel. We see a number of people reaching out to entire communities of lost people for the sake of sharing the gospel to them through outreach and Bible studies and soccer. We've got two guys in our congregation that go to an abortion clinic once a week to share the gospel and plead with women not to kill their unborn children. You know, as I've talked with these members, they don't sound like they're motivated by their own prominence or discouraged when there's a lack of results. They're not trained coaches or public speakers. They're simply just trusting that God is faithful to save sinners through the proclamation of the word. So maybe you're hearing these stories of our members and William Carey, and it's inspiring you to get involved in one of these outreach ministries of the church. Maybe you're inspired to attempt a gospel conversation with that unbelieving friend or coworker or family member. Expect a great thing from God and don't be afraid. Make that attempt to reach a lost soul for Christ. I know there are other of us who might be in a different situation tonight. We might be in a tough place and just looking for a promise of God to cling on to. I know there are some of us who are suffering through a job right now that only promises a paycheck if you work long hours or if you affirm an unchristian agenda. You oppose the work culture, but you don't know how else you're gonna get a paycheck. Matthew 633 says that God promises to provide for those who seek first his kingdom and righteousness. It's been one of my favorite verses to hold on to my entire Christian life. What if you refuse to work on Sundays so that you can go to church? What if you refuse to teach the curriculum that's been placed in your lap? Would you overlook for a promotion or be fired? Would God or would someone else hire you? Brothers and sisters, if you're in that situation, I wanna encourage you tonight just to read Matthew 6, 25 through 34, and meditate on God's promises of provision. I wanna encourage you to pray, seek counsel, and expect that God will give you the wisdom to navigate your situation. Other of us here tonight may have just fallen back into a pattern of sin. At this point, you just feel stuck in your lies, or in your lust, or in your addiction. But God has promised us that in 1 John 1, 9, that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God's given us confession as a weapon against indwelling sin. He'll cleanse us from all unrighteousness through the means of confession. So for you, brother or sister, will you trust in God's promise to forgive you and cleanse you? Will you confess your sin with confidence in God's faithfulness? And as we're talking about doing all these things for God right now, some of us might just be doubting our salvation altogether and just walked in tonight spiritually empty. And as we're speaking more about you need to do more for God and do more for God and do more for God, you're looking back at me and saying, Matt, I can't do a great thing for God. Right now, I can't even do anything for God. You know, if I have to do all this stuff and I have to keep doing more and more and more, I don't know if I'm gonna be saved. Brother, sister, if that's your case tonight, I want to encourage you of the greatest promise that God has given us in the gospel. Above everything else, God has promised that your salvation is not accomplished by your works. You've been saved by God's grace through your faith in Jesus Christ. God promises to assure us of our salvation through our rest in Jesus' finished work on the cross, not through our works. Look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, and cling by that faith to what he's done for you. In conclusion, Hebrews 10.23, just a chapter above our verse that we looked at tonight, tells us to hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. He who promised was faithful to give Sarah the ability to conceive through her faith. He's faithful to save sinners through faith in Jesus. And he is faithful and able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us. How will we trust God to fulfill his promises for us? Let's pray. Father God, you are faithful. Father God, I pray that we cling to your faithfulness. I pray that we lay aside the sin that entangles us. Father God, I pray that we proclaim the riches of your glorious name. You've done great things for us. May we trust that you will continue to do great things through us and in us as well. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.