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As we come, we have the gift from God, His Word, and tonight we're reading some verses from Proverbs chapter 10, verses 6 through 11. Proverbs chapter 6, verses 6 through 11. How wonderful to read the book of Proverbs. Actually, in my own devotions, I've been reading it lately, and we come to the 10th chapter and some important words here. So let me read for us Proverbs chapter 10, verse 6. Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will wrong. The wise in heart receive commandments, but a babbling fool will come to ruin. Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out. Whoever winks the eye causes trouble, but a babbling fool will come to ruin." There ends the reading of God's Holy Word. As we prepare to come to the Word of the Lord to have it preached this evening, let's bow before our Heavenly Father and ask for His guidance. Our Lord, our God, we thank you that this day we are given the privilege of hearing from you, that you have not left us in the dark. We thank you that you are God who not only acts, but you are God who speaks, and you have interpreted those acts that you've done in your word. And we thank you, O Lord, that in a world of confusion, of sin, a heartache, of rebellion, of darkness, Lord, that there is a light that is shining in the darkness, namely Christ, but then there is as well your word to guide us and help us. So now, Lord, as we look at your word together tonight, we pray for great blessing upon our hearts and minds and may glory be given to you for your abundant goodness and kindness in Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen. If you would turn to two texts in your Bible this evening, we are looking at Genesis 18 verses 1 through 15, and then just one verse. You can go read the second one a little bit more closely a little later, but that is Luke 1 verse 37. And as we go along, it'll make more sense why we go to both these passages. Genesis chapter 18 verses 1 through 15. Hear the word of the Lord. And the Lord appeared to him, that is Abram, by the oaks of Marmara, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under a tree, while I bring a morsel of bread that might refresh yourselves, since you have come to your servant. So they said, do as you have said. And Abraham went quickly to the tent of Sarah and said, quick, three seals of fine flour, knead it and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the young man who prepared it quickly. Then he took the curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared and he set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate. They said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, She is in the tent. And the Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will 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 that ceased to be with Sarah. And so Sarah laughed to herself, saying, after I am worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have this pleasure? The Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh? She shall indeed bear a child, 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 will have a son. But Sarah denied it. I did not laugh, for she was afraid. He said, no, but you did laugh. And then tucked away in Luke's gospel is chapter 1 and verse 37, chapter 1 verse 37. It says, for nothing will be impossible with God. There ends a reading of God's holy word, may he bless it to our hearts and minds. We had an incredible experience at Emanuel recently. We had what was called a community fest to reach out, of course, to those around us in our neighborhood. The weather reports for our community fest weren't very good. The day before they were talking about 40 to 60 percent chances of rain and during the hours we were going to have it. So our people were praying, praying that good enough weather would come so that we would be able to witness to the Lord to the community. Well Saturday came and the rain chances were diminished to 20 to 40 percent I think for the hours we were holding it. But on Saturday, something amazing happened. A storm was headed right for us, according to the radar. One of our deacons was watching the storm on the radar, and then the storm split in two directions, and we were right in the midst, in the center of it. The Lord had heard the prayers of his people and changed up the weather. It seems rather absurd, this happening of God, but it really did happen. And our mouths were filled with amazement, our hearts were filled with laughter. Now, the Lord doesn't always do this, but he changed the weather as a great meteorologist in answer to the prayers of his people. He did it right before our very eyes. We went on. We finished the fast and we had a 10-minute meeting. About 20 minutes after the end of it, the fast, it began raining. And some of those, thank you for people from Mission who came and helped out and others who just visited, some were cleaning up in the midst of some of the rain. It was truly an amazing occurrence, a wonder of God, that God is not just the great I am, or the great I was, He is the great I am. Now He doesn't always change the weather based on our prayers and answer to prayer, but this time He did it. He did an absurd deed on our behalf. It was a sign of the care of our God. Who else would God show such care to beyond Emmanuel? We dig back into a story about a couple, Abraham and Sarah, and their relationship with God. In their case, they had a particular promise, absurd promise of blessing, something that the Lord had explicitly pledged to them. And so what we have unfolded in our text is a confirmation of God's absurd promises. First, from the perspective of the kindly appearance of the heavenly visitors. Verses one and two, you pick up on it. We don't know exactly when Abraham picked up on at least who was one of his visitors. It might have happened from the get-go, it might have happened as time went on, but there are three visitors or characters that come to Abraham. Now, some have speculated on who those characters were. Many of the early church fathers believed it was different persons of the Trinity coming in a veiled form. Others throughout church history have seen this as a Christophany. In other words, a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus. And we find sometimes in the Old Testament Christophanies. But let's look a little bit in short at what it could be and what was going on. In verse 10, you'll note that it says, the Lord said, and so we know that one of them, at least one of the spokesmen, was the Lord himself. In verse 17, you have the same idea. The Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham? But if you go over to 19 and verse 1, it says two angels went about. Now the word for angel is messenger and it can be more than just those beings that we see that are heavenly beings. But then you come back in our text in verse 3 and it says, Oh Lord, that can either be a direct address to God or it can be a polite address in the day and age. And then as you go on in verse 3, it uses a singular form and then is followed by three forms. Now, this is getting maybe a little confusing. Then if you go over to verses 4 and 5, the word that is used is a plural there, to speak to the three or of the three persons who have come to visit him. Then if you go over to 19 and verse 10, the two of them are called men. So how do you get it? How do you summarize it all? Well, at least we have what's called a theophany, or appearance of God. And you wonder who those two other beings were. I believe they were members of the heavenly court, his angels who came with the Lord to appear to Abraham and Sarah, but not dogmatic on it. Now, if that wasn't enough confusing, you wonder why this incident? What was the significance of the appearing in message? Well, some years ago, I read a sermon by Gerhardus Voss in little volume, and as I read it, he basically preached the sermon as I remember it. I couldn't find the book in my library. On one verse, basically from Psalm 25, it's verse 14, and the verse says this, the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. Really, what we have is a personification of that principle. Basically, the friendship of the Lord is with those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. Here, God gives two revelations to Abraham and Sarah. The first one is the promise of a miraculous son who will come about Isaac at this time next year to old parents there. The second of them comes in the last part of chapter 18, starting at verse 22, and that's God showing his intentions towards the cities on the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. But out of the outflow of what it was, it was this revelation was given to those who were in covenant with God, Abraham and Sarah. A covenant is very briefly a relationship of union and communion. It is, you could term it in the right sense, it is a friendship between the living God of the universe and the servant or the person who's involved. We keep the sense of God's greatness, His majesty, His altogether differentness, but yet there is a sense where God's people have this relationship with God. And here is a friendship where God lets us know what he is doing, and he breaks promises so that we can trust his promises. In other words, the Lord lets us in on his confidence. Imagine this, that the Lord who is exalted on high, who is so high and mighty, stoops down and explains certain things to us. He owes us no explanation, but in his kindness he does it. He's not bound to tell us, but sometimes he condescends to us, and that's what's happening here. Have you ever tried to develop a friendship with someone that was kind of closed? You know, they would not share much and they would not open up to you. You feel sort of like they're a stranger to them, to you, and how hard it is to really get to know them. But here and throughout the Bible, we find this concept of Abraham is the friend of God and God is the friend of Abraham. And you as believers and your children are in a friendship relationship with God, the God of the universe, a remarkable thing that the God of the universe would stoop down and explain things to us. You'll remember Jesus with his disciples in the upper room as he's about to die in John 15, 15, he says something remarkable. He says, no longer do I call you servants. For a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends for all that I've heard from my father I've made known to you. And then you march out the rest of the upper room discourse, and you see the Lord revealing to his disciples the inside scoop on his death. What is the significance of it? How he will protect them, and how they will get on without his earthly presence as he sends his Holy Spirit. He doesn't owe them that information, nor does he owe us that information. Because our God is our covenant God and our friend, at times he comes in his love and care, fellowships with us and reveals things to his people in his Word. Here it is, the stooping of God down to our weakness and limitations. In chapter 17, verse 21, God had proclaimed to Abraham that basically this time next year, you will have a son by Sarah there. And now he repeats the promise in our text this evening. He repeats it to Sarah himself. Amazing, because you recognize how prone to unbelief we all are. Especially when the ways of God are slow or mysterious or cloudy. We don't easily trust his promises at times, but he comes in a shepherding visit here to Abraham and Sarah to encourage them to reiterate his promise because he's that kind of God. He is his people's friend and such a kind friend. And so, we have the confirmation of God's absurd promises through the kind appearance of the heavenly visitors. Secondly, we move from there to responded with extravagant hospitality. Responded with extravagant hospitality. Abraham had had visits from God over in chapter 17, verse 1, he had one. In verse 22, God leaves and departs from there. We're not sure when Abraham caught on to what's going on, whether it was at the beginning or later, but at least we know that Abraham saw this as a visit from someone much greater, if not immediately a visit from the Lord, which it indeed was. Now, when God visits Abraham, you'll find different responses. In chapter 12, God visits him, and Abraham responds by building an altar. But in this case, when God comes to him, what does he do but he prepares a meal and shows extravagant hospitality to the appearance of God? And you notice he is someone with a flurry of activity, and he's very generous with his provisions. It was estimated by one that when Sarah needed these cakes, there were 30 pounds of bread that she prepared for what? Five of them, basically. My grandpa and grandma on my mom's side had a cottage about an hour or hour and a half from Chicago. They had it for a number of years, but they gave it up, and they bought a cottage about six and a half or seven hours from Chicago. You know why? I'll tell you why. Two reasons. My grandma had asthma. The doctor thought she would do better way up in northern Wisconsin. But there was another reason, I have to admit there. They got sick of all the uninvited guests who dropped in. And now, you have to realize, my background is Dutch, and that is a family trait of people from that background. And what would happen is guests would be, oh, we're just dropping, driving by, and they would stop in. And my mom was the youngest of the crew, and my grandma would say to my mom, put more cornflakes in that, so it goes a little further. And so they would do that. But this, in Abraham's case, was not like my grandparents. I love those grandparents. But he went to extreme measures to make them feel at home. He killed the fattened calf, you could say, the veal was set before him. Sarah makes a ton of bread, and then there was this bitter milk, like buttermilk. And Abraham, in a typical way of self-depreciation, says, basically, come for a little morsel of bread. And this was quite a feast that went on. He's running around and is preparing the meal, implying the guests were extraordinary, and he gives them the royal welcome, fitting when you realize that one of the guests is the Lord Himself. The Lord joins us at a meal. I think you have it once a month here as you have communion. When the Lord joins us at a meal, our hearts should be filled with generosity and extravagant hospitality, in a sense. Now, you wonder the significance of this meal, you scratch your head. Well, it could well be a confirmation of the covenant. Let me explain. As you work your way through the Old Testament, you'll find the covenant, the old covenant given in Exodus 20 through 23. As you come to 24, it's interesting. There's Moses and the 70 elders joining in a meal in the presence of God. You'll remember when our Lord is in the upper room and institutes basically the new covenant, he sets out the Lord's table as part of it. And here in our text, in chapter 17, God renews his covenant to Abraham and his descendants. And then here in 18, there's a follow-up with the covenant meal that happens. And then there is the confirmation of the word of us at the end of that meal, as God says, this time next year, Sarah will bear a son. So this is a rather typical pattern by our triune God. Now you might say, well, why in the world does God eat this meal and why do the angels eat it too? Eating, as some have said, was by accommodation, not by necessity. What it was, he sought to draw, as some have said, Abraham near in friendship over a friendly meal. That's what he's doing here. So God accepts Abraham's hospitality. He eats his food. He sits under his tree. Now S.G. de Graff, commenting on this, says this, there was the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, eating at the table of his servant. And then it's asked, what does that prove? And de Graff notes it proves this, that Abraham was really God's friend. The Lord had drawn near to him. I remember in one of the churches I served there was this lady in the church and I thought it awkward through the years because she referred to her dad always as father. but not father in the sense of someone close and intimate with me. But it was a cold, formal reference to her father, and he was in the church. And I wondered what relationship they truly had when you got down to it. Not bad to call someone father, but not in a cold and formal way. And our God is not like that, although He is exalted on high and full of majesty there, our God is not like that. We recognize that in John 1, 14, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, that our God is a God who is drawn near to us. In fact, the Lord Jesus and the Father make their home with us. John 14, 23 speaks of that beautiful reality as it says, Jesus answered him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. The Father and the Son in their love do this. In the meal, God comes to us to offer the friendship of the Lord. He rolls out as we especially come to communion, an extravagant welcome to his children. Andrew Bonar, the great Presbyterian minister, was ministering, sitting down at a communion celebration, and he said this, Jesus is walking among the seven candlesticks and he will stop here at our communion table to see if any of you want anything from him. That's the friendship of our God. Treasure his meal. Treasure the friend. Treasure the provisions. Treasure the extravagance of what God would do to signal and to have us as his friends. A confirmation of God's absurd promises responded to with extravagant hospitality. Lastly, this evening, it's reiterated with the announcement of Isaac's birth, verses nine through 15. Now, if we were to characterize Abraham and Sarah, we could compare them to a later biblical character, You could say Abraham in chapter 17 is doubting Thomas. Lord, no, that's too much. How about Ishmael? Let him live underneath your blessing, not this guy, Isaac, who's going to come through Sarah, the old lady. They're not going to happen, Lord. That's too much. I doubt that. Well, now in chapter 17, you have doubting Thomasine, that is Sarah. Really, you're going to make good on that promise, Lord? That's a little bit too much. And what you recognize is Abraham and Sarah were equal, opportunity sinners there. Yet God comes to them and reassures that Sarah will bear a son. The promise of an heir is given here. And there's Sarah. She's in the tent. The three visitors and Abraham are out in front of the tent or whatever. And Sarah is a small-town girl, and so she eavesdrops in on the conversation, what's happening. Out of sight, she is there, and God makes the promise that Sarah, indeed, will have a son by this time next year. Well, notice how Sarah describes herself. I think that's most telling. Verse 12, after I'm worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have this pleasure? The word for worn out is used in other cases of the Old Testament. One is Deuteronomy 8, verse 4. Another is Deuteronomy 29, verse 5. Another is Joshua 9, verse 5. in the sense of the usage of that word is so worn out it can't be worn again. Okay, you've heard of born again, this is can't be worn again. Now let me explain it to you a little bit. There are some sacred things in my life, and one of them is flannel shirts. I would wear them every day if I could get away with them. You'll probably find me in flannel shirts oftentimes, and they become like part of the family when I have them. But then what happens is they begin to get frayed, and they begin to get holes in them, and Bonnie puts down her foot on them. And by that time, they're so worn out, I don't even, as a Dutchman, think that I'll get rid of my hoarding, I'll bring it to goodwill, at least someone else can do it. No, they go in the trash from there. You throw it in the trash. And Sarah is saying, I'm 90 years old, basically. I'm well advanced in years, and I'm past the years of my procreative power, and I'm long past menopause that has come upon me. And she laughs at the promise of God. She laughs like Abraham said, Lord, you know, Ishmael is enough. Let it be him. Again, Abraham and Sarah are equal opportunity doubters. And Lord to Sarah, this was one big cruel joke along the way. But she thought that the guest didn't know what was going on, that it was a secret. And the Lord spots her laughing, not from ordinary observation, but from divine omniscience. And it was the laughter of unbelief. This is just too much. Her unbelieving hand was caught in the cookie jar. And God has not only drawn near in friendship to her, but he disturbs her masquerading in her masks and jokes. And here you go, Sarah, your example for Mother's Day. No thanks. Your foil for Mother's Day may be a little more likely she's reluctant to believe this lady that we hold forth as a woman of faith. But you would never do that. You're better than Sarah. Do you ever consider God's promises with a bit of reluctance? For instance, let me throw one out there. Do you believe that God can forgive every sin by the blood of Christ? Oh, yes, there is that one sin, you remember. Some youthful indiscretion. No, there is that adult rebellion that you did. God cannot forgive that. No, no, He can't. I don't have enough faith to believe that God can take that one as far as the east as from the west. I'm under the bondage of it all my life, and I have to pay for it all my life. You might say, I don't have enough faith. I really don't have enough faith. I don't think that's the problem. You operate by faith all the time. What happened this week? You went to a doctor whose name you can't pronounce, whose degrees you have never verified, who gives you a prescription that you cannot read, who gives you a chemical compound that you don't understand, you flunk chemistry, then you go home and take the pill according to the instructions on the bottle, all trusting along the way. In other words, it's not that you don't have faith, but where is your faith? Is your faith in the promises of God, and do you stake your life on them? Now, I know you're feeling all very good, and now you're checking your phone because you want to see what your doctor's background is, and you're going to check and recheck and triple-check whether this guy is up to snuff or not, because you're unsettled by that. She struggled with faith. We do. But we have the best promises in all the world laid out by our God. Verse 14 leads us there of our text. Is anything too hard for the Lord? This is really the climax of the whole chapter. And now we'll do a little Hebrew lesson here. The word for thing is anything too hard for the Lord is the word dabar. And it can be translated thing, but it also can be translated word. Let me translate it that way a minute. Is any word too hard for God? Or put it another way, is any promise of God too much? Jeremiah 32 verse 17 says, ah Lord God, it is you who have made the heavens and the earth and by your great power in your outstretched arm, nothing is too hard for you. Jeremiah 32, 26 and 27, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh, is anything too hard for me? It would require supernatural resources to accomplish this laughable promise from God. But this is no biggie to the Lord to provide a miraculous child Isaac, something that seemed too extraordinary, too miraculous, too wonderful. But God, in His infinite wisdom and His incredible power, makes the laughable into the believable. and this son would forever be known as Isaac, he laughs. For God would have the last laugh in the midst of unbelief and struggle. This context is interesting. The remarkable birth is heralded by angelic visitation and something that is extraordinary beyond natural happenings happens. Now the same phrase is basically used in Luke 137. You have to do a little translation there because it basically says, is anything possible or that impossible for God? But the word thing that time is the word rhema. And it can be translated rhema, but it also can be translated word. In other words, is any word of God impossible? And in the context of Luke 1, what is announced to Mary is that she will bear a supernatural son, and that Elizabeth, her cousin, an older lady, is pregnant with John the Baptist. Just like the birth of Isaac required a divine miracle, the birth of Jesus required God to do a miracle. In this case, what we often call the virgin birth would come about. Actually, technically, we as Christians don't believe in the virgin birth. Hear me carefully. Because his birth was rather normal. It was the virgin conception that was the shocking thing, that Mary became pregnant apart from a man. She didn't have any sex with a man to result in Jesus, but the Holy Spirit did a special work to make sure she was pregnant, a miracle, a supernatural happening, and Luke 1.37 comes true. No word of God has proved void. God brings his absurd promise to fulfillment in a child who is fully God and fully man. The virgin birth or virgin conception secures that reality. And even the more miraculous child than Isaac is this Jesus, the wonder of a one, one who is mighty God and lowly man. The promises of God are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. Praise God. Before us, the promises are renewed. while there's humanly insurmountable obstacles to fulfill them. And don't hear me wrong, God does not teach that he will do anything that you dream of if you just believe it enough, if you have possibility thinking and name and claim it. No, that will not happen. But God will do what he promises, even if it seems too good to be true. You see, divine revelation, promises, not merely possibility thinking or where we put our faith. Our day and age, if you look at the evangelical church, is a day of great immaturity when it comes to faith. John Calvin had it in his day, he said this, how many do we find demanding miracles while others murmur against God that he does not indulge their wishes? We've come to treat the living God as our great genie in the sky, but he is the high and exalted one. And yes, why does God do it that way? It seems like a dead end. It just seems that it won't happen. Why does God insist on the impossible way? So that in the end, we will know that it can only be done by him When every human strategy fails and all human resources are completely depleted, only then did the promise come to pass. It was sure and powerful supernaturalism. That happened with a postmenopausal Sarah, and it happened later with a virgin conceiving by the name of Mary. Only God could do that. In the midst of our dark world, God has not forgotten His promises. The children show us that no word of God is devoid of power, that our God is true and faithful and powerful to fulfill His promises, which at times seem foolish to human beings. A child born of a virgin, a woman born to a woman is past that age and that. Well, you realize in the passage as Dale Ralph Davis has summarized it, so here you have it. His friendship for you to enjoy and his foolishness for you to adore. You have both friendship and foolishness in the passage. You have a divine miracle promised and a divine miracle brought forth. Yes, enjoy the friendship of your covenant God, but also endure Him. That what seems impossible, if it is His promise, will happen, and we can trust Him for it. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we gather before You with grateful hearts that You are not just the great I was, You are the great I am. And so, Lord, Give us a sense of your promises to rest in them, to feed on them, to live by them in faith, O Lord, and strengthen us. Thank you for that ultimate promise of the one born of a virgin and, O Lord, for all that he accomplished. And we thank you that all your promises are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. Thank you so much for it, Lord, we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Reiterating the Promise
Series Guest Preachers
Sermon ID | 5152316347447 |
Duration | 38:05 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday - PM |
Bible Text | Genesis 18:1-15; Luke 1:37 |
Language | English |
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