Good morning again. Oh boy. If you have your Bible with you this morning, let me invite you to open it. We're gonna begin in the book of First Peter, chapter one. First Peter, chapter one. You know, one of life's embarrassing moments, at least potentially, could be you're in a crowd and something is said and you laugh at it and you realize no one else is laughing. And, you know, then you panic and you kind of like act like you're coughing or something because you try to cover it up. And, I mean, I've been there. You just kind of wish you could fade away and disappear and wake up somewhere else. And I was reading this week and one pastor said, he says, have you ever thought about how embarrassing it would be if your thoughts were uncontrollably linked to your vocal cords so that whatever you were thinking was broadcast for everyone to hear? And he said something benign like, well, I'm pleased to meet you, but you blur out, oh, why do I have to look at you again? Or I'm gonna miss the kickoff. Or people walk out the door and they say, great sermon, Pastor, but you find yourself saying, I thought it would never end. God in his mercy has allowed us not to read each other's thoughts, and that's something we should all be very grateful for. But you know, God can read our thoughts, so we're gonna see here in this passage today that he's gonna read Sarah's thoughts, and there's gonna be a purpose in it, and Sarah's gonna laugh when she should have never laughed. Because what God said to her wasn't funny from God's perspective, and that's, his is the only perspective that matters. I mean, she managed to conceal her laughter from everyone else, but like we were just saying, God sees the heart, he knows every thought. And the Lord's gonna ask her, why did you laugh? Or actually he's gonna ask Abraham, why did Sarah laugh? And Sarah's gonna deny it and God's gonna call her out on it, but there's a purpose in it. And hopefully we'll see that that is as we go forward. But again, this account will remind us at least indirectly, that when God gives a promise, you can take it to the bank. It's something that you should take by faith and really not laugh at, because it's God who did it, and it's God who made it, and it's God who's going to fulfill it. And so as we think of our study thus far in the life of Abraham, it's been a journey where God has taken time to reveal himself through many names and circumstances to Abraham. Abraham has learned through the process of direct revelation, but he's also learned through hard knocks and his failure to take God at his word. But the end result, and God is seeking to do this in your life and mine, is that growth can take place, and growth has been taking place. You know, God will provide opportunities. He's going to be faithful to give us what we need so that we can grow in the grace and knowledge of Him. That's His goal for each one of us. He's going to give you opportunities to exercise your faith. And so he's going to be faithful to bring you into situations so that you see you're not sufficient of yourself to think anything is of yourself and your sufficiency needs to be from him. And in the case of Sarah, it's going to come through a rebuke. And sometimes that's what we need, a rebuke, to wake us up and to realize, you know what, I'm not thinking like I need to be thinking. And this is all part of biblical faith. This is our description that we've used throughout this series. It includes an admission of our spiritual inability and helplessness, beginning with salvation. We don't merit it. We can't work for it. And secondly, even to handle our own life apart from God's grace provision as it's put forth in his word. You know, we've mentioned here a few times as well, as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in him. You live the Christian life the same way you got saved. You're trusting Christ to do something in you and through you and for you that you cannot do for yourself. When you think of salvation, in order for someone to be saved and to then live the Christian life, they have to chuck, if you will, the human viewpoint that we're all stuck with by nature, and often gets in the way, and then adopt a perspective that God puts forth in his word because he wrote the Bible, he's God, and we're not. You know, the unsaved have a hard time with God's evaluation of mankind. You know, you put together Romans 3, 10, and 12, and it says, none is righteous, no not one, no one does good, not even one, and the average individual, when he evaluates himself, has a problem with God's evaluation of him. He's thinking by nature he's not that bad of a person, or he's doing okay, that if there is a God, there's really no reason they can think of why God wouldn't accept him. I mean, I haven't killed anybody, right? And so the challenge that the spirit of God has to show him or her that they're not who they think they are before God. They have to come to grips with this truth communicated in Isaiah 64 in verse six, all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. There's nothing good in us and so we have nothing to offer God in terms of him being willing to accept us. And then you have to come to grips with God's evaluation of a son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says several things about Christ that are profound and need to be taken by faith. Jesus himself said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Jesus also said, I am the door. If anyone, and it's open to anyone, and this is the only way, you have to enter in by him. And if you do so, you will be saved. Peter, in addressing the crowd, said in the book of Acts, chapter 4, verse 12, salvation is found in no one else. There is none other name given under heaven among men. whereby we must be saved. You know, Paul writing to Timothy, he says, this is a trustworthy saying and deserves full acceptance. And for this, we labor and strive that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the savior of all men, especially those who believe there's only one savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is none else. There's only one mediator between God and man, 1 Timothy 2, 5 and 6 says there's one God, there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given in his proper time. Paul, using his own words, said this is a trustworthy saying and everyone should accept it. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, there's only one who can save, and Paul considered himself the worst of them all. We also have to recognize that eternal life is received and given as a gift. Jesus says, I give them eternal life. You don't earn it. You don't deserve it. You receive it as a gift. And the promise with that is you won't perish. Because eternal life means just that. It's eternal. It can't come to an end. Talking with the young people, I asked them this week, Bible school, is eternal life something you get while you're still alive or after you die? And you have to get it while you're still alive. And when you get it while you're still alive, since it can't come to an end, you can't lose it. That's why it goes on to say, no one will snatch them out of my hand. They will never perish. My father who has given them to me is greater than all. And no one can snatch them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. And so the believer receives eternal life, that life can't come to an end, so he's safe and secure in his savior. But the spirit of God needs to show him this, because the average individual, when they perhaps hear the gospel, that salvation is free, they say, no thanks, I got this. And they're gonna trust themselves and what they can do, and they are hoping that God will be equally impressed with themselves, so they can receive everlasting life. Well, here's the reality. Here's the things that won't get you into heaven. Good works, baptism, church, religion, Sunday school, charity, money, mass, communion, parents, political affiliation, denomination, friends, positive thinking, and just being a good person. The things that will get you into heaven, one thing, Jesus. And that's why understanding the cross is so important. A lot of people understand Christ died on the cross. And what they don't understand is that is to be paramount in terms of their understanding. Salvation only comes through Him because what He did on the cross, the good works you could try to do could never do. They removed your sins. Good works don't pay for sins. It's impossible. And the problem is you're a sinner and you can't do anything about it. Isaiah 59.2 tells us that sin separates us from God. Quote, it is rather your iniquities that have separated you from your God. It is your sins that have made him hide his face from you so that he does not hear you. And so Christ, who is God, chose to become a man and then go to the cross and die in your place by taking all of your sins upon himself. God, who had to exercise his justice, chose to pour it out on an innocent substitute, the one who never sinned, as he died in your place and mine. God's justice needed to be satisfied, so God had to punish sin. God's mercy intervened so that Christ suffered in our place. That's the good news of the gospel. And when he was on that cross, he cried out, it is finished. So everyone's sins have been paid for, but not everyone is saved because everyone has to make their own decision to accept it. And you accept it on one way, to believe, to trust in, to rely on, to transfer your faith from that which cannot save, which is anything to do with you and your performance, and place it fully in the Lord Jesus Christ who did all the work for you, and then salvation is received. And by the way, there's no other and in the gospel. There's faith in what Christ has done and it's plus nothing else. It's not a matter of you being faithful, turning over a new leaf, trying harder, not sinning certain sins or anything else that might enter into your brain. It's Christ and Christ alone. So important to understand. And so God offers salvation as a free gift through his son, Jesus Christ. The issue for everyone is will you accept this gift? And today's a good day to do it if you haven't. because you are not guaranteed tomorrow. None of us are. And once you die, there is no more opportunity to be saved. And so when you got saved, you transferred your faith from that which cannot save to the only person who can. And as a child of God, growing in the gracious knowledge of the Savior continues along that same vein. God is gonna continue to work in you and through you to show you that you're not sufficient of yourselves to think anything as yourselves and you need to rely on Christ moment by moment, day by day to enjoy the victory that he's provided for you in love. And what God usually brings into our lives in order for us to recognize that if we don't take it by faith is a trial of some kind. And trials take all kinds of forms, and God knows what we need, when we need it, and He allows it to come into our lives to accomplish His purposes in us. And Peter reminds us of this. Pick it up in verse three, 1 Peter 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again. He's given us new life. And by the way, it's to a living hope, and it's through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And what do we save to? Well, we're saved to an inheritance which is incorruptible, it's undefiled, that it does not fade away. It's reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. And so we are told here to greatly rejoice. Right? Verse six, in this you greatly rejoice because God in his mercy has given you life. And not only that, but you have something reserved, perfect tense in the Greek, in heaven for you. It's an inheritance. And by the way, it's incorruptible. That means it can't be tarnished in any way. It won't fade away. It won't change like a leaf in the fall. It won't wither and die. And it's reserved. It can't be undone. You know, and notice the word living hope there in verse three. Our hope is alive. You know, increasingly as society unravels or spins out of control, Hopelessness is raining. You know, ever since COVID, the suicide rate went up dramatically and it's remained quite high. The moral fabric that tends to hold society together in a measure is unraveling. People don't have the skills by which or the hope by which to weather the storms of life and they check out. And on top of that, we have a society in which many are taught that they don't have to take responsibility for themselves. They think that someone else should take care of them. And so they have no basis for hope. And so they're stuck in ruts. And apart from Christ, you don't have no hope. That's just the way it is. You know, I rejoice at least one time a week and that my times are in the Lord's hands because there's something I'm hit with sometimes rattles me. And I'm thinking, wow, which way do I go? What do I do? How do I process this? And I go, wait a minute, I'm in the hands of the Holy One who can do no wrong, who's working all things together for good, who's given us the Word of God with the promises and principles we need to process this thing properly. And then I'm recalibrated. I don't know what the unbeliever does. I don't know what they can do. But in verse six we're told here, in this you're greatly rejoiced, and though there's a but. Here it's translated though. Though now, in the immediate, during our time on earth, for a little while, if need be, you've been grieved by various trials. So Peter describes trials here as first of all temporary, for a little while. They're pressure filled, that they're only necessary and they're grieving. But again, what's the purpose, verse seven? that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it's tested by fire, may be found to the praise and honor and glory of the revelation of Jesus Christ. God allows trials to purify your faith, to show you that maybe what you were banking on isn't worth banking on and that you should transfer that to the Lord Jesus Christ in his faithfulness. with the end of Christ being honored and glorified and him even giving you praise if you're willing to come through it. And so you and I all need trials to see our shortcomings, to see we're insufficient at the same time to see the sufficiency of our Savior who's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think. And this is what God is gonna accomplish in the life of Sarah today in this passage. You know, God has been focusing on conversations with Abraham. This is the first time he's gonna speak to Sarah at all, and he's actually gonna do it through Abraham. So Abraham has seen God's faithfulness, he's seen his own failures, he's been given spiritual illumination, and all those things encourage faith. And God was faithful to meet Abraham along the way when he needed it to give him another bit of revelation to encourage him to go forward. Well, now he's going to have to do the same thing with Sarah. You know, it's so much easier to take the promise by faith, but if you're like me in any way, oftentimes you have to learn it the hard way. That seems to be the most effective way I learned. And that's why failure can be the backdoor to success. That's going to be the case to some degree. It has been with Abraham. And it's going to be this way with Sarah today. You know, sometimes people look at other people and they think, well, they don't have any problems. They don't have any difficulties. Everything's just rosy in their life. And, you know, our Circumstances never tell the whole story, and I hope you've figured that out. You peel back the layers and everybody's fighting a battle, everyone's got issues and difficulties, and God's on the throne and in charge of all those. You know, we've all got sin natures, we're all cut from the same bolt of cloth, so we're all inherently selfish, we're all predisposed to go our own way. We're actually born failures, and apart from the grace of God, we're stuck there. But we're gonna see here today that God looks at the heart, He looks at the heart. In fact, when he looked at your heart prior to salvation, this is what he saw. For from within, out of the heart of men proceed lovely things. No, evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eyeball, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. Anything positive in that list? All these evil things come from within and they defile a man. By nature we're all defiled, we're all stuck in a place we'd rather not be. And he wasn't talking about Adolf Hitler here, he was talking about you and me, because each one has the same potential he has for unthinkable things to be done in us and through us. That's why we're told in Jeremiah 17, nine, that by nature our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And so we're all deceived. And the tendency in our flesh is to continue to be deceived apart from us being transformed by the renewing of our mind in the word of God. This is why reformation isn't the answer. Turning over a new leaf isn't the answer. The answer is allowing the word of God to penetrate my thinking so that he can work in me and through me and get me to see life from his point of view. That's the Christian life in a nutshell. That's why God gave you a new heart when you trust in Christ as a savior. But you see, we all have a battle because your sin nature is you're stuck with it until the day you go home. And because of that, there's a battle going on that's captured in Galatians 5.17, where the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. And these are opposed to each other. So to keep you from doing the things that you want to do, that's the problem. To be carnally minded is death, and to be spiritually minded is life and peace. So there's always a battle going on. So the key factor to failure or success is walking by faith in the revealed word of God, or versus taking matters into your own hands. That's been the major difference in the life of Abraham and Sarah thus far. Abraham's learned through his successes and his failures and now it's going to be Sarah's turn. You know, and God's standard for success is in no way related to the world's. And that's part of the battle that we face too, because the world always has a standard and a mold to squeeze you into. And if I'm not resting in who I am in Christ, I'm gonna be drawn into that. I was talking to someone today and their niece was at Bible school. And this is what six-year-olds and seven-years-old that are affected by the world, this is how they think. Didn't want to eat the same sandwich for lunch two days in a row. I'm thinking, whoa, that's peer pressure. I'm thankful to have a sandwich. And yet to eat the same thing in her eyes was something that's, oh, you can't have that. Can you imagine dealing with such peer pressure as a six- and seven-year-old? It only gets better from there, right? Oh my. So Sarah needs to see that God is able and God's arranging circumstances for her to see just that. Let's get to it. Go with me, if you will, to Genesis chapter 18, and we'll pick up where we left off. Genesis chapter 18. Now we saw last time that Abraham, excuse me, God appeared to Abraham, verse one, the Lord appeared to Abraham by the terebinth trees of Mamre as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. And so Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, three men were standing by him. Who knows where they came from. And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them. He bowed himself to the ground. He recognized the Lord. And he said, my Lord, if I have now found favor in your sight, do not pass on by your servant, please let a little water be brought, wash your feet, rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread and you may refresh your hearts. And after that, you may pass by and as much as you've come to your servant, and they said, do as you've said. And so Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, quickly, make three ready, three measures of fine meal, knead it and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd. He ran, this is a 99-year-old dude. He's running to the herd. It may have taken longer than someone else, but he was running. He took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man and hastened to prepare it, and took butter and milk and the calf he prepared and set it before them and stood by them under the trees they ate. And this is impressive. And you know, we saw this week, this was Abraham desiring to fellowship with his savior with the Lord. And fellowship is not merely just knowing that you're saved. It speaks of an ongoing joint participation. It speaks of enjoying a relationship with the Lord by faith through the word of God. It speaks of intimacy, harmony, like-mindedness, the ability to share and communicate. And this is again, what the Lord wants to do with all of us. He saved us for that purpose. And so here they were enjoying fellowship by sharing a meal together. And I just want to review just some of these things from last week, just to have in your brain. When Abraham ministered, he ministered to the Lord. And that's where all ministry is to begin and ultimately end. And we saw this from Colossians 3, 23 and 24, whatever you do, do it heartily. It's to the Lord and not to men. Again, if you're cleaning a toilet bowl or having the vice president or somebody over at your house, it's the same thing. Knowing from the Lord you receive the reward of inheritance, for who do you ultimately serve? The Lord Jesus Christ. That's the key to it all. We saw he ministered personally. He ran and got the calf. He picked it out personally for the Lord and so forth. He took a vested interest in those whom he was seeking to minister to. We noticed he ministered immediately and speedily. He didn't waste time. He, no one put a gun to his head. He did this of his free volition. It was a willing and thankful heart. And that's why all God-honoring ministry is done voluntarily out of love. You know, when it comes to ministry here, you should never feel compulsion to do it. It should be a love response out of a thankful heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, because it's a privilege to serve. Out of thankfulness, I mean, for what he did for you in love, which can never be repaid in any way. And notice he was enthusiastic. He said, well, it's kind of hot out. I don't know. No, he was very excited to do it. And he served generously. He gave the best he had. And I mentioned last week, what are you going to give the Lord? Your junk, your leftovers, or the best you have? That's a mindset. We also saw he served with humility. He bowed to his guests. He called himself a servant more than once. He called his feast, though it was very nice, a morsel of bread. He served it to them and then he stood by seeking to administer as needed as they ate. And again, he did it during the heat of the day. Which means he served when it wasn't convenient. This is, you know, siesta time in South America, because it's hot, and it's siesta time in the Middle East, because it's hot. And finally, we saw he ministered cooperatively. He sought others to help, and he delegated where it was appropriate. And these are things we should all consider in our own life, because this is part of what God has designed for all of us to do. And Abraham becomes an outstanding example of what that is. Well, that brings us to verse nine, and there's a shift in the conversation. Verse nine says, then they said to him, where is Sarah your wife? So he said, well, she's 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, menopause, come and gone. Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying, after I've grown old, shall I have pleasure in 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, and according to the time of life, Sarah shall have a son. Sarah denied it saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid. And he said, oh yeah, you did too. You're busted. Just like that. Interesting story here, right? And so it was customary in these days, as it probably is in some cultures today, when the men were being served that the women were not present. And so that was the situation here. But she obviously put her ear up to the tent flap or whatever it might have been, anxious to hear the conversation outside. I'm sure I would have done the same thing. And so when the Lord addresses the need of Sarah's life, he asks Abraham a question. I find this is interesting. He's going through Abraham through this whole thing. And so obviously the Lord knew she was listening. And the Lord, in speaking with Abraham, gives actually Sarah a promise regarding the birth of Isaac. that she would have a son the next year. Now this is basically what God told Abraham in chapter 17 and verse 19 if you turn back it says, then Abraham fell on his face or verse 16, we'll pick it up in verse 15, sorry. Then God said to Abraham, Sarai, your wife, shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah, she'll be your name, and I will bless her, and also give you a son by her, and I will bless her, and she shall be the mother of nations, and kings and people shall be on her. Well, Abraham said, Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, again, he didn't verbalize this, shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old, and shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child? And so he reiterates the same promise to Abraham, but this time he's doing it in the hearing of Sarah. Now, what does this indicate about the communication between Abraham and Sarah on this topic? God told this to Abraham. Did Abraham ever mention it to his wife? Now, there's not a lot of time going on here. I mean, this might have been a week later when Abraham shows up, so I don't know. It might have been the next day. I don't even know that. I mean, obviously, though, there's not a lot of time that has passed between when Abraham spoke, or God spoke to Abraham in chapter 17 and chapter 18, because he's basically saying the same thing. Now, did he tell her? Did he not share with her? Or did he indeed, she didn't believe it? I've been pondering this all week. And I'm speculating here. Maybe he didn't tell her because she'd freak out at the news. Maybe she would have said, well, you know, I've planned all this time that it's gonna be Ishmael and, you know, she says, I meant well in allowing you to have Ishmael here. You know, of course that plan backfired. It's all flesh, plans in the flesh do. And then you think, well, you know, maybe God spoke to Hagar directly, and Sarah's never had anything like that happen. And maybe she was bitter. I don't know. Maybe she thought he was nuts. Maybe she didn't want to get her hopes up. Maybe in her own mind thinking, I'm going to protect myself emotionally. I've waited for years on God. He hasn't delivered. I'm not going to start that cycle again. I don't want to set myself up for another letdown. Thank you very much. She might have thought like that. The one thing we know for sure is that she didn't believe it, even if Abraham did tell her. But you know, the Lord never speaks without a reason, and certainly never repeats himself needlessly, and he's repeating himself here. So there's a point that needs to be understood. But why does the Lord tell this news to Sarah, and this will become clear a little later, Because it was vital for God's plan to be accomplished that she, too, would have faith in God's promise. This is why God's bending over backward. See, God wants people to take him by faith and cooperate with his plan. He doesn't force himself on anybody, but he'll bend over backward to get you to see what you need to see so you believe it. That's what he did with me when I got saved. That's what he's doing here with Sarah so she buys in, if you will. And so the Lord here, from Sarah's perspective, drops a bomb, gets very specific. Chapter 18 and verse 10, I will certainly return to you according to the time of life. And behold, Sarah, your wife, shall have a son, as Sarah was listening. So how does Sarah respond to this news? Well, we just read that in verse 12. She laughed within herself, saying, are you kidding me? After I've grown old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also? You know, I thought about this. Abraham knew the Lord was speaking, but did Sarah know that this is the Lord speaking? You know, Sarah's never met the Lord as far as we know. The Lord's only appeared to Abraham, never to Sarah. So she might not even know that this is the Lord. But note her reasoning. Again, her thoughts were internal. She never laughed or spoke out loud. But this should have caught her eye immediately because We're going to talk about how is her response different from Abraham's, though they both left. We'll talk about that in a second, but Psalm 139, 3 and 4 tells us, this is what David recognized about the Savior. You comprehend my path and my lying down. You're acquainted with all my ways. You know, I thought about that. God loves me anyway, and he's acquainted with all my ways. That's love. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, Lord, you know it all together. In fact, you've known it a bazillion years ago. You've always known it. But Sarah's response here is purely human viewpoint. She knew, humanly speaking, a child was out of the question for either Abraham or Sarah. And so her response is an expression of human reasoning, total lack of faith. And so she says in verse 12, am I gonna have pleasure, my Lord being old also? You know, I thought about how Abraham, or how, excuse me, Sarah referred to her husband as Lord here. And you know, this is actually what Peter uses in the New Testament to talk about how a wife is to submit to a bonehead husband. It says in 1 Peter 3, verses 5 and 6, for in this manner, in the former times, the holy women who trusted God, notice, and adored themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid of any terror. I thought, well, that's interesting. But as I thought about that this week, I thought, you know, That whole concept in God's design for marriage isn't readily embraced in our day, certainly not in our culture. I'm not calling the husband Lord, that's not my point. But it's the respect and submission of a wife to her husband. And what we have within Christianity today, a byproduct of what's happening in the culture, marriages are going down in flames because God's design for marriage isn't either understood or believed or applied. And it can be a disaster. I mean, sometimes I do marriage counseling and the wife will come in and explain everything that's wrong with her husband. And they'll certainly say, well, my husband doesn't love me like Christ loves the church. And sometimes they say, well, how are you doing in your responsibility? Are you submitting to your husband? I mean, have you ever thought the problem might be you? Maybe you're not walking by faith. Are you being the person God would have you to be? And the husband will come in and complain about his wife and, you know, my wife, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I say, well, are you loving her as Christ loved the church? You know, if you want to have a marriage that works, the husband needs to be who the husband's supposed to be. It doesn't matter what the wife's doing. And the wife needs to be who God would have her to be. It doesn't matter what the husband's doing. The issue in your marriage is the same issue in my marriage. Am I taking heed to myself? I have one responsibility in marriage, that's to love my wife. There's no qualifiers there. and they have a responsibility to respect their husband. There's no qualifiers there. And so if I'm being who God would have me to be, and my wife is being who she would have, the Lord would have her to be, life is very good. You know, one guy said something like this. He says, marriage where two, the couple is doing the opposite is the closest thing you'll find to hell on earth, and marriage where the two people are being who the God would have them to be is the closest thing you'll find to heaven on earth. I mean, that's kind of how it goes, right? I mean, I'm to sacrificially love my wife. and I've been at it for 34 years and I'm still swinging missing on a regular basis. You know, I've told guys, maybe if you love your wife in a sacrificial sense, like Christ loved the church, maybe she'd respond differently to you. Yeah, but you don't understand. I don't care. What do you mean I don't understand? Maybe I do. You know, the point, it doesn't matter though. You see, if I'm always looking for a way to wiggle out of my responsibility, am I gonna find something? Heck yeah. That's why years ago I put up that little meme. If it's important to you, you'll make a way. If it isn't, you'll make an excuse. It's very simple. I've said that applying even to coming to church. If it's important to you, you'll find a way. If you're looking for some reason not to come, you'll find that too. It's just a fixed principle of how we're wired. Where are we here? Verse 12, right? Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, am I grown? Yeah, am I grown? So Sarah here says to herself, I'm old, I'm dead sexually, so is Abraham. This is not humanly possible. But then back to the question. How was Sarah's response different from Abraham's, though they both laughed? Well, if you go back to Genesis 17, 17, Abraham fell on his face and laughed. and said in his heart, again, he didn't verbalize this, shall a child be born to a man who's 100 years old? Are you gotta be kidding me? And shall Sarah, who's 90 years old, bear a child? Why is there no rebuke? Because this was not a laugh of unbelief. It was a laugh of faith. It's kinda like he's saying, can you believe it? It's a laugh of joy. It's like, I'm shocked, can I even believe I'm hearing this? He's grown in his faith enough to realize if God says something, he means it. Well, Sarah's not quite there yet. And so there's a difference there. And it's seen by the fact that the Lord did not rebuke Abraham for laughing, but he did rebuke Sarah. Now, he had his heart fixed on Ishmael being the one, and the Lord had to correct his thinking in that regard. But Abraham took it in stride, knowing that God knows best. But Sarah's laughter was different. It stemmed from an unbelief, because she was stuck in human viewpoint. She was without hope. In her eyes, God was pretty small. And that was the test of faith. And she allowed human viewpoint to doubt the promise of God. Glad that's never happened to anyone here. It's happened to me. You know, I like to have my life all figured out. But God has chosen in his infinite wisdom not to allow me to live life based on how I think it should go. And he's gonna do that in your life, he's done it in my life. He has to back him into a corner, if you will, so that you see your only hope is Jesus. And so rather than getting upset with God, and getting angry with God, and not liking how he's intervening in your life, The best thing to do is to say, you know what, my Savior does all things well. He's got a good and acceptable and perfect will here for me and Father knows best so I'm gonna leave it right there. That's the test for all of us as we go through life. But God has a purpose in this interaction with Sarah and he's doing the same thing in your lives. You know, if you did not, if you do not, and this is something I tried to emphasize with the young people, If you don't live by faith in the promises of God, you're forced to try to live life through explanations. And you know what? Explanations aren't going to get her done. Because you're going to find one that you don't like. And then bitterness sets in. And then the road of life just got a whole lot longer and uglier because of that right there. You know, if you don't live by promises, your study of the word of God or your knowledge of God is merely academic. That's all it is. You know, you read Daniel 3 about Amednego and Shadrach and Meshach, they're thrown into the fire and the son of God himself shows up to protect them. Now you can learn about that and say, wow, that's really cool. But if you never get thrown in some kind of fiery furnace, how are you going to experience that for yourself? It was fun going over promises of God with the young people this week. Here's one I went over, and I said, there's always a condition for a lot of, there's unconditional promises given to the believer regarding salvation and eternal security and different things, but a lot of them for our Christian life have conditions with them. And so we went over Psalm 34 and 19, it says, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. What's the condition here? It's kind of a trick question, I said. He said, you gotta have afflictions. How can God deliver you if you don't have affliction? Well, I don't want affliction. Well, too bad. Because that's kind of what's coming. That's life right there. You know, Isaiah 26.3, remember this one. God promised you to keep in perfect peace, but what's the condition? Stare at your problem. No. Whose mind has stayed on you? You want peace? There's a condition. Similar to Philippians 4, 6, and 7. Be anxious for nothing. Why? Well, God says, I want the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, to guard your heart, but what's the condition? Well, I gotta prayer and supplicate, and I gotta be thankful, and I gotta let my request be known unto God, and then it comes. There's a condition that needs to be fulfilled. David said, after his deliverance, so taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts. How could he say that unless he tasted it himself? And he tasted it because he cast his burden on the Lord and God delivered him at the right time. My wife just went into a baking frenzy yesterday because family's coming home this week. I was eyeballing that stuff and finally said, I gotta taste it to make sure it's okay. And it was good. But I could have assumed it was good. But I wanted to do better than that. And I did. I like what one author said here. The problem with Sarah's laughter reflected her unbelief in the promise of God. Unbelief is more serious sin than most of us realize. To doubt God's promise is tantamount to calling God a liar. It's to say that I know better than the eternal creator. It's to demote God from his place of sovereign power and to promote myself over him. And God doesn't take kindly to that unbelief. And how do we know that? Well, we know that from Hebrews 3, when we're admonished not to harden our hearts, as in the rebellion, on the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers, this is the Exodus generation, where your fathers tested me and tried me and saw my works 40 years. Therefore, I was angry with that generation and said, they always go astray, where? In their heart. They haven't known my ways. They won't take me by faith. So there was a consequence. I swore in my wrath they won't enter into my rest. And so what's the admonition here? Beware, you and me, there being any of us, an evil heart of unbelief. I mean, how can God fail himself? He can't. And I get it, it's not unusual for us to struggle at different times and at different levels with the problem of unbelief. You know, people sometimes pray for something with the ears and nothing seems to happen. And so they think, why do I bother? Well, you take it by faith. You take it by faith. You know, I prayed for small things that even in ministry that would just help a little bit and they don't happen. I mean, come on, Lord, don't you see how this would help? Well, does he know better than I do? Well, yeah. So you go back to Psalm 27, 13, and 14. I would have lost heart unless I believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. So I need to wait on the Lord and be of good courage and he'll strengthen my heart. Wait, David says, I say on the Lord. That's what biblical hope is. Romans 8, 24 and 25 tells us. You know, hope is a positive assurance of what God has promised is certainly gonna come to pass. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that has seen us in hope, so why does one still hope for that what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with the dreaded word, perseverance. And so this accentuates the opposite principle. When I'm walking by sight, I will not embrace hope, or I won't enjoy hope, because there is none. I'll look for some temporal out that is tenuous at best that's sooner or later gonna fail. And so the Lord here, seeking to get Sarah to buy in, encouraged Sarah's faith by asking Abraham two questions. I just think this is interesting. Let's see. Verse 13. And the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say in her heart, I surely bear a child since I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? That's question number two. And he reiterates it again, at the appointed time I will return to you according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. You know, I wonder why he's asking Abraham that question. I thought about it, it could be that Abraham, like, didn't you tell her, Abraham? Didn't you tell her I was gonna do this? I mean, had he deliberately kept this promise from her? I don't know, I'm speculating. Maybe he did tell her and she didn't believe it, I don't know. But the question is, is there anything too hard for the Lord? Now the word translated in our Bibles, hard, it's really not the best translation. It's actually the word wonderful. Arnold Fruchtenbaum says, so the question in verse 14a was, is anything too hard for Jehovah? The Hebrew word for hard is pele, which means wonderful, extraordinary, surpassing. It is one of those Hebrew words that is only used of God and never of man. And literally, is anything too wonderful for God to do? You think God's able to pull this thing off? It's wonderful. But you see, this is an act of grace by allowing Sarah in on the conversation and he's revealing himself to her because he wants her to see her insufficiency and at the same time see his complete sufficiency in saying what he promised. You know, this is a bedrock issue. The only reason for unbelief on Sarah's part is she doesn't understand what God's able to do, what his power is, what he's like. Her God is too small. And this is how God's gonna glorify himself. The delay in the birth of Isaac was intended both to necessitate and nurture the faith of Abraham and Sarah and get her to believe that God is who he is. And he says at the appointed time, I mean, they've been waiting 25 years. And God waited until there was no human possibility whatsoever, no human remedy available so that he could see what he could do. That's why Isaac is the promise. He's the child of promise. Ishmael is the child of the flesh. And you need to cast out the bond woman and her son. You know, God, even today, is gonna do the impossible through us if we're willing to wait upon him in faith. But the principle is always true, I need to come to the end of myself, just like when I got saved and realized that I can't do it, Christ has to do it. It's the same principle. I gotta get out of the way so he can work. So how does Sarah respond to the rebuke? Well, at first, verse 15, she denies it. Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh. Why? She was afraid. And he said, oh yeah? You did too laugh. So here she's afraid now. She got busted. Maybe she realizes finally that this is the Lord. And this is a classic response to the flesh. You deny something because there's a risk of being exposed. This is why we have Proverbs 28, 13. He who covers his sin will not prosper. He who confesses and forsakes it has mercy. You should be ready and willing and able and quickly confess your sin to the Lord because he longs to be merciful. And he knows anyway. I found it interesting, she didn't deny her thoughts to the Lord, but she denied her laughing. This is God's way of saying, do you realize who I am and what I'm able to do? This is the rebuke Sarah needed. It reminds me of Mark 4, when Jesus is asleep in the boat and they're crossing and the waves are so bad that Peter finally wakes up Jesus, don't you know we're gonna die here? And he wakes up. And he, of course, as he rebukes the wind and the sea and it goes calm, and they're all amazed, and Jesus rebukes them. Why was your faith so small? That's what they needed to grow and see God in a way that they hadn't yet seen him. And this is what God is doing to Sarah. Saying, don't you know who I am? I'm the life-giving God. You know, what we can, I think, safely conclude here is that if God promises something, I'm an idiot to doubt his word, right? I mean, what obstacle could possibly get in the way that it's gonna thwart God from accomplishing what he said he's gonna accomplish? God declared that Sarah was gonna be the mother, even though this was physiologically impossible. Abraham believed it, Sarah did not, so she left. Now you might not have laughed at God, but we've probably all done the essence, right? His word should settle in our minds once and for all. You know, I'm encouraged by Jeremiah. There's a similar verse that's mentioned in Jeremiah 32 here. Jeremiah was a very faithful prophet. He was given the unfortunate task of preaching to the nation that hated him and rejected him. For years, he warned them about the coming judgment. If they didn't repent, they didn't want to hear it. They mocked him. They threw him in a muddy pit. They listened to the false prophets and told them what they wanted to hear. And so his false prophets repeatedly said God wasn't gonna judge them, that he was gonna give them the victory. And then his Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, comes down and besieges Jerusalem. Jeremiah is thrown into a prison by Zedekiah, because he predicted a Babylonian victory. But during that time, a strange revelation came to him from God. The Lord told him to buy a field from his cousin, because he was the closest relative and he had the right of redemption. I mean, in this scenario, it's like you living on the edge of Russia and Ukraine and someone says, why don't you buy a house on the edge of Ukraine there as the Russians are about to attack? You know, Israel's gonna be taken by a foreign king. He's gonna confiscate all the property. And so someone says, what are you buying a house there for? You're throwing away your money. But you see, this was God telling Jeremiah, guess what? I'm gonna take them out of captivity or they're gonna come back to the land. And so how did Jeremiah respond? Ah, Lord God, behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. There's nothing too hard for you. Isn't that encouraging? This is God's way of telling Jeremiah, My promise is true. The people will come back to the land. Go ahead and buy it. You know, if you think about this, if you're saved here today, I'm sure you go to bed at night and it never crosses your mind that you might lose your salvation and wake up in hell if you were to die here tonight. Why? Because it's a settled issue. God promised it. It's a done deal. Can you exercise the same kind of faith in your Christian life, what God promised he will surely deliver. I mean, even the perspective, and this has to be embraced because life is not a bed of roses, that God says all things are working together for good. And you might think, well, how on earth is that gonna play out? Well, you're not God, you don't have all the facts, just like Jeremiah had to take this by faith, you have to do the same thing. All things are working together for good. I mean, none of us knows what's on tomorrow, right? You don't know if tragedy's gonna strike your home or my home next week. You don't know if the Chinese are gonna take us over, there's gonna be some kind of plague coming out of the lab in China. Another, what's the word I'm looking for? Epidemic or pandemic? You don't know anything about that, but this we know. Our times are in the Lord's hands, and all things are working together for good, and we can walk by faith, and we can make the day count, because our Savior does all things well. Here's the deal. When it comes to enjoying a promise of God, faith is required. That's really it. God couldn't use Sarah until she believed that truly nothing was too hard for the Lord. And this is why it's important to tie all this together with Hebrews 11, 11 says. By faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed. And she bore a child when she was past aging because notice, the plan worked. She judged him faithful who promised. God had to back her in her corner so she raised the white flag and said, okay, I believe it. Because up until that time, she said, nope, it ain't happening. Like I said, Abraham may have shared God's plan and she just didn't believe it. So God knew what it would take for her to come to realize God is able. And so he planned it all out, he comes to Abraham, Sarah listens, he rebukes Sarah, and Sarah says, okay, I get it. I get it. She needed to come to the end of herself. That she was merely a vessel that God wanted to work in and through for his glory to fulfill his promises. But no, no, she had to buy in. This is why even though Christ died for everyone, not everyone's saved, they have to make a choice to buy in. And if you want peace and to see the will of God realized in your own Christian life, you have to buy in, buy faith. You have to do it. It's the same issue in her life, it's the same issue in our life. And so what can we learn about God and ourselves in this passage? One God has a plan. Secondly, in order for that plan to be fulfilled, he needs his children to wait upon him, to believe him. And he will provide the necessary revelation in his word so you understand his will. He's willing to do all these things. He's been leading Abraham along. He's been giving him the information he needs and now Sarah had to buy into. He may rebuke you to get you to see his plan so you're willing to see it and do it. Isn't that what he did with the disciples in the boat? Whom the Lord loves, he chastens. And sometimes a rebuke is just what the doctor ordered. Fifthly, you need to see that nothing is too hard for the Lord. But ultimately, you need to be willing to walk by faith for God to accomplish his will in you and through you, and for him to get the glory. You gotta walk by faith. Are you willing? No, I'm not, thank you very much. And I'm just going to stay in my own little corner here and allow life to pass me by. Powerful story, yes? What an amazing God we have. And he's amazingly patient, isn't he? At least he is with me. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your grace. Thank you for including this story. Thank you for you knowing all things and knowing what we need, when we need it, so that we can rejoice in the trials that come our way because they work together for good to draw us to you, to test our faith so that we see we're not sufficient of ourselves to think anything is of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of you. and that you work in such a way that your will is done, you get the glory, and we are benefited. Help us to just remember these things day by day and moment by moment as we navigate a life full of uncertainties. Thank you that you are the same yesterday, today, and forever, and you do all things well. And we pray these things in Christ's precious name. Amen.