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Well, we turn our attention to God's Word and our current sermon series, which we've been in for the last, well, few months now, that we have called The Gospel According to Abraham. Our aim in this series has been to see how the grace of God is put on display in the life of this otherwise ordinary and, at times, somewhat bumbling patriarch.
And we come this afternoon to Genesis chapter 18. So if you have your Bibles, and I hope you do take them and turn with me to Genesis and chapter 18. Genesis chapter 18 of the day. He looked up, and he saw three men standing near him.
When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them, bowed to the ground, and said, My Lord, if I have found favor with you, please do not go on past your servants. Let a little water be brought that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree.
I will bring a bit of bread so that you may strengthen yourselves. This is why you have passed your servants way. Later, you can continue on. Yes, they replied. Do as you have said. So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, Quick, knead three measures of fine flour and make bread.
Abraham ran to the herd and got a tender choice calf. He gave it to a young man who hurried and took curds and set them before the men. He served them as they ate under the tree. Where is your wife Sarah? They asked him.
There in the tent, he answered. Yahweh said, I will certainly come back to you in about a year's time, and your wife Sarah will have a son. Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.
Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. So she laughed to herself, after I am worn out and my Lord is old, will I have delight? But Yahweh asked Abraham, why did Sarah laugh, saying, can I really have a baby when I'm old?
Is anything impossible for Yahweh? At the appointed time, I will come back to you, and in about a year, she will have a son. Sarah denied it. I did not laugh, she said, because she was afraid. But he replied,.
No,.
You did laugh. Gospel withers, the flower fades, but this word of our God will abide forever. Let's pray, ask for the Lord's help, and then we will dig into his word. Well, our Heavenly Father, we are thankful to you for your goodness and mercy to us.
We thank you for another opportunity to open up your word, and we pray that as we dig into this passage, that we would have ears to hear what your Spirit is saying to us through your word. Father, help us to see the glories of your work and our desperate need for your every grace.
Father, it's our custom to pray for another local area church, and we take a moment this afternoon to pray for our friends at First Baptist Church of Phoenix. Thank you for Pastor Brett and the work he's doing there.
Father, we thank you that in your goodness, you have provided two men to labor with him now as elders. Father, we thank you for that. We pray for Dustin and Paul, who will be serving as elders with Pastor Brett, that they would provide faithful shepherding leadership to that body.
We pray for their ongoing evangelistic efforts and their ongoing efforts to disciple their body, that in all these things, you would be glorified. Lord, we need more healthy and God-glorifying churches in our valley, and so we thank you for what you're doing there, and pray you continue to bless it.
Be with us now as we open your word, for we ask you in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Please be seated. Well, this afternoon, we're beginning the first of two messages that I have entitled, Is There Anything Too Hard for the Lord?
Is there anything too hard for the Lord? If you grew up in church like I did, you probably heard this song mostly in Sunday school. My God is so big, so strong, and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do.
My God is so big, so strong, and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do. The mountains are his, the rivers are his, the skies are his handiwork to be thankful. I'm not singing this to you, but my God is so great, so strong, and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do.
They're simple words. Again, we typically have them for kids to sing, but these simple words actually pack a great deal of truth about God into a short space. And as I was preparing this message, those words came to mind, because that's wrath of Abraham.
As we come to this passage, really those words capture the heart of what we're going to see here. I've given this and the next message the title, Is There Anything Too Hard for the Lord? Because really, that's the big question that arises to us right out of this text.
So we read it again, look at verse 14. Is there anything impossible, literally too hard, or too wonderful for Yahweh? That's the big question that is being asked and answered as we come to this passage.
As one writer put it, is anything too hard for Yahweh? That is the question around which this confrontation revolves. It is an open question, one that waits for an answer. It is the question which surfaces everywhere in the Bible.
We must say that it is the fundamental question every human person must answer, and how it is answered determines everything else. Those are some big words, but I think there's something to them. Because I think what we're going to see in Genesis chapters 18 and Genesis 19, and by the way, those are one unit.
You should not think of them, I know we have chapter breaks in verse divisions and what-have-you, and we're using some of them just to make this a bit more manageable, but really 18 through 19 is one big unit.
And this one big unit is really an insight into who our covenant God is, and who we are in light of that. Is there anything too hard for Yahweh, as our text asks? Is there really anything beyond God's power to do?
That's really the question that we are faced with this afternoon. And very simply, I think we can boil down an answer like this. That actually nothing is too hard for the God who makes and keeps covenant.
Nothing is too hard for the God who make, keeps. From this message, bear that in mind that we're supposed to walk away from this.
Text,.
Understanding that there is nothing that is too hard for the God who makes and keeps covenant. To help us see that glorious truth in full living color, as it were, I want us to consider this afternoon three insights into the God who makes and keeps covenant.
Three insights that rise up from this text, and each of them answer this question of, is there anything too hard for Yahweh? Is there anything too hard for the Lord? Well, is there anything too hard for the Lord?
Well, actually there isn't, point number one, for not when it comes to the God who communes with his people. The God who communes with his people, verses 1 through 8. Point number one, the God who communes with his people.
Really, verses 1 through 8 set up this passage. They are the establishing shots, as it were. If this were a movie, or a TV show, and we were just starting the episode, here's where we're getting that opening shot that tells us where we are and what's going on, as we come to verses 1 through 8.
The passage begins with Abraham's invitation in verses 1 to 5. Abraham's invitation in verses 1 to 5. So look at verse 1. Yahweh appeared to Abram at the Oaks of Mamre, and Hebrews lets us know that Abraham has been at the Oaks of Mamre for quite some time.
This has kind of been his long-term settling spot. Yahweh appeared to Abram at the Oaks of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent during the heat of the day. This is something of an editorial comment, as we come to Genesis chapter 18.
We, the reader, are being clued into the fact that Yahweh appeared to Abraham, but it's very apparent that Abram didn't know at the time that this was Yahweh. Now, he's going to know as this passage unfolds, but as we enter into this narrative, and we're seeing it unfold, we know something, at least the way this is structured.
We know something that Abraham doesn't quite know yet. But he seems to pick up pretty quickly. Look at verses 2 through 5. He looked up, Abram, and he saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of his tent to meet them, bowed to the ground, and said, My Lord, if I have found favor with you, please do not go.
Let a little water be brought that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. I will bring a bit of bread so that you may strengthen yourselves. This is why you have passed your servant's way.
Later, you can carry on. So many questions here. So many questions here. We know that Yahweh's appeared because the author has told us, but if Yahweh has appeared, why are they three men here? That's the first question.
Why are there three men here, not just one? Also, if the Bible is clear, as it is in so many places, that Yahweh, Israel's covenant God, the God who made everything, if this God cannot be seen, to quote the words of Jesus in John 4, if God is a spirit and a spirit cannot be seen, then how is it that he's appearing in a form that Abraham can see?
Two rather big questions. I mean, the reality is, yes, God the Father indeed cannot be seen. One of the great joys that Laura and I have is every evening with Gareth, we do a children's catechism. It's a simple way for us to get him thinking about spiritual things, even at a young age.
And one of the questions that we ask him, it's the second-to-last question in the set we're doing right now. Every night, we ask Gareth the same question, who is God? And we repeat the answer because he can't repeat it yet.
Who is God? God is a spirit and does not have a body like men. Who is God? God is a spirit and does not have a body like men, because that's what the Bible teaches, that God is immaterial. He cannot be seen.
So if that's the case, who is this that is appearing to Abraham? Well, I would argue that at least one of these men is the second person of the Godhead appearing prior to his incarnation. We think, okay, wait, what?
How did we get from there to here? We have to do a little bit of work here, but let's see if we can do this. So in God's outworking of the act, all the time when God is working, each of God's plans are given specific roles to function in.
So the father is typically in the role of the architect. He is the planner of salvation, as it were. He is the one who sets things in motion, so to speak. The son tends to be the agent, the one who acts on the father's will, and then the spirit is the one who applies the work of the son to the people that the father has chosen.
That's typically how salvation works.
Well,.
Zero in on the son for a moment. His function in the eternal economy of salvation, if you will, is that he is the one who is always revealing. He is always the one who is making the God who cannot be seen,.
Known.
So I think it's a.
Good.
Assumption, and it's an assumption shared by the majority of God's people down through the ages who've read the same Bible we have, that when you read Genesis chapter 18, and it says they appear to his people.
Okay, so that's at least one of these. Who are the other two? Well, to give you a bit of a spoiler for next week's message, I think the other two are angelic beings who accompany him. We'll see them again in chapter 19, and it becomes very clear that they themselves are not Yahweh, but they are messengers of his.
And now the text doesn't tell us how it is that Abraham figures out that Yahweh has come by the house. Well, the tent, I suppose. But we gather that he picks up pretty quickly from his response. Once he sees them coming, he wastes no time in greeting them.
Secondly, not only does he waste little time in greeting them, he adopts the posture of worship. Did you catch that in our passage?
It says that he.
Saw them. He ran, which by the way, a dignified man of his age in this culture did not just run for anybody. So he ran from the entrance of his tent to meet them. He bowed to the ground. The posture of worship.
And he petitions his visitors to stay and to receive his hospice. Something momentous is happening, and he really doesn't want to waste any time. Also, can I have you look back at verse 3 and also look at verse 5?
There's a play on words there. So end of verse 3, it says, and he said, my Lord, if I found favor with you, please don't go on past your servants. But in verse 5, he says, this is why you have passed your servants way.
Painting the scene that the guests made like they were just gonna walk on by past Abraham, and Abraham said, no, no, no, no, no. We can't have that. Whoever they are, they need to come here. They made like, we're gonna keep on going, but that only heightened Abram's resolve that they should join him.
And again, I think it's pretty clear that he picks up very quickly that this is not just three random visitors in the desert. And I think it's fair to say that as we look at this, this is Abraham at his best.
He desires, as it were, to commune with God, and if we can be so bold, he doesn't take no for an answer. There's an urgency to the way in which he greets these men as they appear at his house, and in the way that he invites them to come on him.
And I have to pause here for a moment and simply ask, I know we can't make a one-to-one comparison with Abraham, we have to distinguish between who we are, and who Abraham is, and where Abraham is, and the covenant of, excuse me, not the covenant, the outworking of redemption, and where we are, that we have to make those things very, very distinct.
And yet, I think there's something we can learn from this. If I can put it in the form of a question. Do we, as God's covenant people, seek communion with him with this kind and this level of urgency?
Yes, the circumstances between us and Abraham couldn't be any more different. That's all, God is not physically appearing to us, and we are not patriarchs in the wilderness, we understand that. Yes, don't press the point too far, but I do think that there is a very important similarity between us and Abraham.
You see, we and Abraham together has made a particular promise to us as his people, if you will. And so, here's Abraham, who is a pilgrim on the way to the land of promise, and what is it that he desires more than anything when the opportunity arises?
It's communion with his God. Yes, the circumstances couldn't be more different, and yet our need for communion with God is no less desperate. As I was putting this message together, I came across a quote from the Puritan John Owen.
Some of you who have been in Bible studies with me know that one of my favorite books is John Owen's little book, Communion with God. I highly recommend it all the time. Listen to this, this is John Owen commenting on John 16.
You don't need to turn there, but I'll read it. John 16, 26 and 27, Jesus said, On that day, you will ask in my name, and I am telling you that I will ask the Father on your behalf. For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
This is Owen paraphrasing and expanding on those words. Take no care of that, nay impose that not on me. He's now speaking as though he were Jesus, of procuring the Father's love for you. In other words, don't ask me to procure or to gain the Father's love for you, but know that this is his peculiar respect towards you and which you are in him.
He himself loves you. It is true indeed. And as I told you that I will pray the Father to send you the Spirit, the Comforter, and with him all the gracious fruits of his love. Yet in the point of love itself, free love, eternal love, there is no.
For eminently the Father himself loves you. And so resolve of that, that you may hold communion with him in that love and be no more troubled about it. I love how Owen puts that. He says, yes, you have, the Father loves you.
That's never in doubt. If you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus loves you. You can say that, if I can borrow a colloquialism from where I grew up, you can say that with your chest, as it were.
You can say that with confidence that Jesus loves you. And because Jesus loves you, the Father loves you. You can say that with confidence. And yet there is a direct communion with him that we are to press into.
That as Owen says, we are to hold communion with him in his love. One of the things that saddens me about so much of modern Christianity is just how content we are with surface level relationship with God.
That in our generation, and again, I want to be very careful not to sound like the guy who's always yelling, get off my lawn. But there's just a reality that as you encounter the wider professing church around us, that there is this sense in which we want to play it safe in our pursuit of communion with God.
We are happy, as it were, to do the church thing, kick a few dollars into the church coffers. Provided I feel fine afterwards, I don't need to pursue more. How many of you have heard this from people?
I hear this constantly, really sold out ones. The phrase I no longer use, the on fire people. You know, the really hardcore folks. Here's why I don't use that phrase anymore. The Bible's assumption is that all of us are on the same level playing.
There are not Christians who are higher than others and Christians who are lower than others. The ground is level at the foot of the cross, as the saying goes. And since that is the case, we are called to pursue our final destination, the glory that awaits us.
We are called to pursue that with zeal and with passion. The Bible's assumption is never that some Christians experience communion with God and that some don't. That some have a deep relationship with God and some don't.
It's assumption is that every believer has union with the triune God. And as a result, we then push for deeper communion or fellowship with God. Abraham's an imperfect man. And when he is wrong, as he has been wrong several times already, we would do well to call it what it is.
But I truly believe that we are seeing Abraham at his best here. Because he clearly understands that the presence of God is worth everything. And so he's not too proud to run. He's not too proud to beg.
Not too proud to ask. He's not too proud. Again, in the ancient Near East, a man of Abraham's stature and age running for anybody would be considered embarrassing. And yet he's not too proud to embarrass himself.
Why?
Because he desires earnest communion with God. And so I simply leave you with this question as we move on. Do we feel the same way? When we come back to our text, Abraham invites God to commune with him as it were.
And that communion meets with God's acceptance. That communion meets with God's acceptance. From the end of verse 5 through to verse 8. So verse 5, I will bring a bitter bread to you may strengthen yourselves.
This is why you have passed your servant's way. Later you can continue on. And here's the response of the three beings who have appeared. Yes, they replied. Do as you have said. Picture that. God condescends as it were.
In the real sense of the term, not the way that we often use it. Comes down to Abraham's level and he accepts Abraham's offer of hospitality.
And so what does Abraham do?
Verses 6 to 8.
He goes straight to work.
Takes his best. Asks Sarah, quick, get three measures of fine flour. Fine flour in the ancient world was the flour that was sifted a number of times. So all the impurities were out. This was the good stuff as it were.
He goes and gets a tender choice calf. Again, a young calf. This was again considered a delicacy in these days. Brings out curds and milk as well as the calf that he's prepared. And he sets it before them.
He puts on a spread as it were. He takes of his best knowing that, yes, I have this opportunity for deeper communion with God. It, as it were, propels him to service. It's not that he puts on a great spread and then they say,.
You know what?
We've seen all this hard work you've put in. Yeah, we'll hang around a while. No, it's after they have said that we will extend our communion with you as it were. That he says, now I can give my best.
And this is who God is. This is the God that we are introduced to in this passage. That he is the God who indeed communes with his people. But there's a second insight we get about God from this passage.
Not only is he the God who communes with his people. Secondly, he is the God who confirms his word. He's the God who confirms his word. Verses 9 and 10. The God who confirms his word. As this meal unfolds, the emphasis shifts from Abraham's hospitality.
Accepting and him giving his best to the real reason for this visit. This is not a dinner party. So can I draw your attention to verse 9? Where is your wife, Sarah?
They asked him.
Ah, this really isn't for Abraham's benefit. I mean, it is to a degree. But we're also here to talk to Sarah. So where is Sarah? And they said, they're in the tent. Yahweh said, verse 10, I will certainly come back to you in about a year's time.
And your wife, Sarah, will have a son. Now please note something that is missing from this passage. Always dangerous to argue from stuff that isn't clearly said.
But go away.
I think there's something to be said here. Have you noticed that Abraham doesn't say a single word in response to this? Before we move on to the end of verse 10. He doesn't say a single word. God says, I will certainly come back to you in about a year's time.
In the Hebrew, there's a kind of Hebrew idiom that's used. According to the time of life. Yahweh was speaking about a year. I will certainly come back to you in a year. And your wife, Sarah, will have a son.
I've been a broken record with this in our study in the life of Abraham. But I'm simply awestruck by how many times God affirms, reaffirms, and confirms his promise to Abraham and Sarah. Over and over and over again.
God is gracious to confirm his promise to them. And he does so in person we might add now.
This time.
Confirmation. It's an interesting word, ain't it? Confirmation. Confirmation. Sometimes Christians can give the impression. I don't think they intend to. But we can sometimes do this. That wanting confirmation of anything God has said is almost a sign of weakness.
I mean, what's the phrase that people use?
God said it.
I believe it. That settles it. I mean, that's true as far as it goes. I'm not trying to say we should throw out that phrase. And let's be clear. We have to distinguish between a desire for confirmation that is riddled with doubt.
If you talk with non-Christians, you hear this all the time. I'll believe in God when God gives me a sign. When he gives me proof that he exists, then I'll believe in him. And to that, we should be honest and say, excuse you.
God is not obligated to meet your standard of proof before you believe. So there's a kind of desiring confirmation that is indeed faithless. And we should not give in to that, in my opinion. But that is very different from saying, Lord, I believe you.
I hear your word.
I hear it. I hear it read.
I read it on my own.
I hear it preached.
I believe you.
I hear what you are saying. So please help me in my faith. It's very different from saying, Lord, remind me of what you have said.
Remind me of your word.
The beautiful thing about this scene in the life of Abraham is that Abraham didn't even ask this time. I don't doubt that Abraham wanted confirmation. He wanted assurance. But here's the beautiful thing we learned from this.
God is more eager to assure us than we are to ask for that assurance. Have you ever thought about that? The beautiful reality that God desires for you to have assurance more than you do. Look at verse 10 in the CSB.
It uses the word certainly. I will certainly come back to you. In the original language, it's literally the same word for coming back or returning twice. In other words, returning, I will return. It carries this idea of doubling down, as it were, on his promise to come back.
Trust me on this.
I will be back.
And when I am back, you will have a son in your arms. Think about it. God says, I'll come back in a year and you'll have a son. Typically, for attention in biology to know this and also have a son, it's about nine months from conception to giving birth.
So in other words, God says, you'll have the child. The child will be about three months and complete and utter confirmation. Now, we may say, wait a minute. Wait a minute, Kofi.
Okay.
God was very specific here. I'm not waiting on a child. So how can this apply to me? It can apply to you if you go through the cross on this one. Follow me here. Numbers 23 verse 19. You don't need to turn there, but if you're taking notes, you can write it down.
Number 23 verse 19 says, God is not a man that he might lie or son of man that he might change his mind. Does he speak and not act or promise and not fulfill? Picking up on those words. Listen to this from the authors of the Hebrews.
It's Hebrews chapter six. Hebrews chapter six. I'm going to read a long section verses 13 to 20. You can turn there if you'd like. Hebrews chapter six verses 13 to 20. For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself, I will indeed bless you and greatly multiply you.
And so waiting patiently, Abraham obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves and for them, a confirming oath ends every dispute. Because God wanted to show his unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise.
He guaranteed it with an oath. So that through two unchangeable things in which is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us.
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. Jesus has entered there on our behalf because he has become a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Okay, Kofi, what does this have to do with anything? Follow me here. Follow me here. I know firsthand what it feels like to follow the Lord, to trust the Lord, to trust the one who has said,.
I will never leave you.
The one who has said, Jeremiah 31 for you, one of my favorite Old Testament promises, I have loved you with an everlasting love. I know what it is to hear that and to say, you know what? I believe you and yet what God said,.
But I struggle,.
But I don't know if he can do it. Can I give you the encouragement that the preacher to the Hebrews gives his audience? It's a very simple one. Whenever you get tempted to doubt the goodness and the promises of God and his ability to fulfill those promises, when you have those moments, what should secure your soul is not your own perseverance, but the fact that you have Jesus who stands as a perfect testimony to all the promises of God.
If you want confirmation, all you have to do is look at what God has done in the person of his son. Paul argues it like this in Romans chapter 8, Romans 8 32. He did not even spare his own son for us, but gave him up for us all.
How will he not also with him grant us everything? Abraham and Sarah were waiting on a son, but for us who are the people of God,.
A son,.
Don't we call it every Christmas Isaiah 9 6? For to us a son is given and to us a child is born. They were waiting for a son. We have been given a son and in that son has been graciously given to us by the father.
We have all the confirmation of God's promises and if that is true, the question simply becomes, will we trust him? And so come back to our passage. We see the God who communes with his people. We see the God who confirms his word.
There's a third and final insight we get from God. We get about God from our passage. He communes with his people. He confirms his word. Thirdly, our doubt. He's the God who confronts our doubt. Verse 10 to verse 15.
So end of verse 10. Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him. Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Now we already know this because you've been told multiple times in the life of Abraham that they were old and getting on in years and that Sarah could not have kids.
We have been told this multiple times. So why is it being told to us again?
Simple.
It's showing just how stacked the deck was against them. They're both old. They're only getting older. Unfortunately, the curious case of Benjamin Button is only a movie. It's not reality. Reality is as time goes on, we get older, not younger.
They're both old. They're both getting older. And they still have no son. Even the most super faithful person would struggle in a moment like this. And so you can kind of, not entirely, but kind of understand Sarah's response.
So verse 12.
So she laughed to herself after I am worn out and my Lord is old. Will I have delight? Why is it significant enough for the author to tell us that she laughed? Why would Moses, writing words that are inspired by God, highlight this?
Well, think back to when we were in Genesis 17 over a month ago now. Do you remember what happened, what God said in Genesis chapter 17? Genesis 17, 19. Remember, Abraham says to God, if only Ishmael were acceptable to you.
19. But God said, no, your wife Sarah will bear you a son and you will name him. Now, we anglicize this name.
Isaac.
In Hebrew, it's the name Yitzhak. It's from the word to laugh. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son and you will name him Yitzhak, Isaac. Laugh to her. I will confer my covenant with him as a permanent covenant for your future offspring.
The promise of a son back in Genesis chapter 17 caused Abraham to laugh with joy. In his commentary notes, Abraham had laughed before as appears in the preceding chapter, but the laughter of both was by no means similar.
For Sarah is not transported with admiration and joy on receiving the promise of God, but foolishly sets her own age and that of her husband in opposition to the word of God, that she may withhold confidence from God when he speaks.
Sarah still has her doubts about all of this. And none of this has escaped God's notice. So look at verse 13. But Yahweh asked Abraham, why did Sarah laugh saying, can I really have a baby when I'm old?
Did you catch it? Did you get what was so unusual about that question? Look back at verse 12.
What did verse 12 tell us?
So she laughed to herself. After I am worn out and my Lord is old, will I have delight? I have to give the NIV points for this. It picks up on the nuance here. So in the NIV, it says,. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought.
After I am worn out and my Lord is old, will I now have this pleasure? Sarah's doubt and kind of doubtful laugh that came with it was internal. But again, God knows everything. So of course he heard it.
Unbelief and distrust are a great offense to the God of heaven. He justly takes it ill to have the objections of sense set up in contradiction to his promise. I think Matthew Henry's on to something because Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6, now without faith is impossible to please God since the one who draws near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
If faith pleases God, then the lack of faith must be more than disturbing to him. It must be displeasing to him. And so he confronts it. And again, how does he confront it?
He doesn't, it's interesting.
He doesn't confront it head on, does he? He does what he has done so many times in Genesis already. He answers the sin and doubt of man with a question. So verse 13, why did Sarah laugh? But then he gives another question.
It really is the question at the heart of this passage. Verse 14, is anything impossible for Yahweh? My mom used to say that there are some questions that are answered by the fact that you even asked.
And this happens to be one of them. Of course, nothing was too hard for Yahweh. Who, I mean, give me a moment here. Who does Sarah think she was dealing with? Is this one of the gods of the desert? Is this one of the idols that she grew up with who was powerless and couldn't do what is...
Seriously, who does Sarah think she was dealing with? At the roots of the questions that God asked Sarah are really two crucial truths about God. So when God says, is anything impossible? Is anything too hard for him?
Well, firstly, nothing is too hard for the God who knows all things. If he could hear the internal rumblings of Sarah's doubting heart, what else do you think he doesn't know? Like, you're going to have a child in a year?
Not only is nothing too hard for the God who knows all things, nothing is too hard for the God who can do all things. Like I said, if God asked this question, it's answered on sight. Think about it. God made hardly a stretch.
Essentially, Sarah is reminded in two simple questions of the presence of God and the power of God. God's presence and God's power, that is all that should be enough here. And so God declares, verse 14, at the appointed time, I will come back to you in about a year.
She will have a son. By the way, again, you are not Sarah, but here's the reality. If you are one of God's people, if you place your faith in Jesus, you are one of God's people. If you are one of God's people, you have the presence and the power of God at your disposal too.
You have his presence. Remember what Jesus said, John 14, 23? If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. If you are one of his and you have faith in Jesus, then you have the promise of the presence, get this, of not just the Holy Spirit, of not just Jesus, but all three members of the Godhead.