Abraham, Sarah, And God's Big Promise

Why We Doubt: Filtering Promises Through Experience and Expectation 0:28

All right, imagine that I was to start a sermon. Let's say I say something outlandish. Let's say I tell you at the start of sermon, all right, in about three minutes, I am going to stand right here and I'm going to lift off and I'm going to hover around the room and I'm going to fly around.

Now, see, already we're laughing. Now, is such a thing believable? Well, no. But why no? Number one, you would say, well, hold the phone here. We've never seen that happen before.

No one's done that before. No one has just lifted up in front of me and flown around the room. It's never happened, so my experiences say that it's not plausible. Secondarily, we say that such a thing would exceed expectations.

Whatever limited expectations you have of me certainly do not involve my ability to lift off and fly around the room. Thirdly, we'd say such a thing just defies nature. I do not see wings on Pastor Holt, therefore Pastor Holt cannot fly. Now, all that's reasonable.

If I was to say I'm going to fly around the room, you're right to be skeptical of such a claim. There's no reason to think I'm going to fly around the room. There's no reason to think Pastor Fish, Roddy, any of us is going to do this anytime soon. So when a promise is made or when a statement is uttered, we filter the promise, we filter the statement through our own experiences and expectations.

And if our experiences and expectations don't line up with the promise that's being made, we are inclined to doubt it. Now, what if? What if the individual making an extreme, unequivocal promise, the likes of which you've never seen fulfilled in your lifetime — what if the person making that promise is not you and it's not me, but what if it is God?

What if God makes a promise that doesn't line up with your experiences or your expectations?

Evaluating the Promises of God: Ability, Track Record, and Nature 2:05

What if God makes such a promise? How should we evaluate the promises of God? Well, number one, we should ask ourselves, all right, let's say God has made a promise. Let's say he tells Noah, I'm going to flood the globe.

Let's say he tells Moses, I'll part the Red Sea. Let's say that he tells the apostles, I will die and will rise again. Let's say God makes a promise. How do we evaluate it?

Well, number one, we evaluate any promise made by God through this prism. Does He have the ability to fulfill it? Now, let me ask you, if God makes any promise of any kind, does He have the ability to fulfill it? Yes.

Why? Because He's God, right? See, they can do this in the education wing. The kids can figure this out.

Because He's God. It's in the job description of being God. If something God can't do, then He's not God, right? So if God makes a promise, He can fulfill it because A, He has the ability to do so.

B, does He have the track record? If you look at Scripture, does God make a lot of promises? Yes, a lot of promises. Has He fulfilled all of them?

Up to this day, His streak is unbroken. His track record is very impressive, especially given some of the things He did. I mean, Jesus told the apostles, yeah, the Son of Man will lay down His life, and three days later He will arise. He didn't have an expectation that this was plausible, and yet that's exactly what He did.

He tells Pharaoh the plagues are coming — the frogs and the lice and the hailstone and all this stuff is coming. He tells him that through Moses, and what happens? It happens just as God has said. He has a track record of doing the things He has said, both the things that we would consider wonderful and pleasant and kind and patient, but He also has a track record of fulfilling all the promises that involve wrath.

All of it from A to Z He has done. So He has the ability and He has a track record. Now C, we would say that God also has a nature that inclines itself to the fulfillment of anything that He declares. We said earlier that God means God.

God equals God. That if God is God, it means certain things. Well, if God makes a promise, if a perfect, divine, and good, and holy, and just God says something, will He do it? Yes.

Otherwise, it's not good, and patient, and kind, and holy, and just, right? If He is these things, if His nature declares that He is perfect, then when this perfect God says, I will do blank, you can take it to the bank. Why? Because His ability, His track record, and His nature all declare it to be so, no matter what the promise is, no matter what the covenant is that He makes, even if it seems flat out impossible.

God Refuses to Be Boxed In by Human Feasibility 4:32

Now, in today's text, God Himself is going to show up. He's not sending Prophet Jones. He's not sending just someone to wander into Abraham's camp and say, oh, by the way, this is going to happen. No. God Himself shows up.

He shows up, right, again. And this isn't like the first time He did it. It's the third time. Genesis 12, Genesis 17, Genesis 18, God appears before Abraham and He says the same thing each time.

You are going to have a child. Abraham, I know you're old. I know your wife is old, but believe me, trust me, trust me, trust me. He keeps saying the same thing.

Now, in fairness, earlier — I think it's Genesis 15 — it says that Abraham believed on God and was accounted to Him for righteousness. And yet one chapter earlier, Genesis 17, Abraham also laughs. It's not just Sarah who laughs at these things. Look, one chapter earlier, Abraham also laughs.

Again, why? Why would Abraham, why would Sarah — why would they have any doubts? Well, they had doubts because of this one word: feasibility. Feasibility.

What does that mean? Well, feasibility means, is such a thing plausible? If Roddy was to stand up here and say in five minutes I'm going to be a seven-foot man with long hair, is it going to happen? No. None of us can make these promises.

Now, let me restate this. We can make the promises. We simply cannot keep the promises. Why?

Because the promises that we'd be making are not feasible, not doable, can't happen, won't happen. But, but, although it's fair to judge Roddy or Gardner or myself or anyone in this room based on those standards, God is in an entirely different bracket. The minute you start saying, God, I know you said X, Y, Z, but it doesn't seem feasible to me based on my experiences and things I've observed and my presuppositions.

I know You've said You can do it. I know You've said You will do it. I know Your track record is really, really good. I just don't think it's going to happen, at least the way you said that it's going to.

It's because we're boxing God in. We say God can only work in the way that I've defined He can work. Is that the way it's ever unfolded in Scripture? Has God ever said, you know what, I think I'm going to confine my actions to what people expect of me?

If anything, He does the exact opposite. We put God in a box, and from Genesis to Revelation to today, God obliterates that box. He loves to do things that you don't expect, and He loves to do them in a way you'd never see coming. However, however, at the same time, God also likes to give us promises, promises that exceed our expectation, and then He likes to fulfill every last one of them.

The only box He's ever in is the box of His own promises. He will do what He has said He will do, no matter how extreme they might seem. This morning in today's text, we're going to see that God makes a promise to Abraham and Sarah, and their inclination at a human level is just not to think it's going to work out that way, or at least to think that they have to sort of help God along.

You know, like Sarah says, I don't know, Abraham too old, too old, it's not going to happen, hasn't happened yet. Maybe Hagar. Maybe Hagar. Maybe the problem's me.

I'll give Hagar, my maiden, and there could be a child through that. So sometimes we think that, God, yes, God, you're sort of right. You're sort of on track, but I'll help it. I'll nudge it.

Well, I'll take kind of a shortcut, and we'll get that promise fulfilled one way or another. Whatever the case is, we're going to see in today's text, trust God to do what He has said, the way He has said it, when He has said it will occur.

Abraham's Hospitality and the Ancient Near Eastern Custom 7:47

“So the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.”

— Genesis 18:1 (NKJV)

All right, let's look at verses one through five, and then work our way through the bounds. Verse 1, so 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. The heat of the day — this is a day you don't usually see travelers.

So he lifted his eyes and he looked and behold — he's surprised, it's so hot out — behold, three men were standing by him. They came up to him pretty quick, and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to go out and meet them, and he bowed himself to the ground.

And he said, My Lord — interesting, he addresses one of them in particular — My Lord, if I now find favor in your sight, do not pass on by your servant. Please let a little water be brought to wash your feet, rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh your hearts.

And after that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant. And they said, Do as you have said. All right. Verse 1, we have Abraham.

He's old, old, old. He's sitting there in the door of the tent in the heat of the day. It's hot out. The reason they open up the tent door is to let drafts, let air breathe through the tent there.

But again, this is not a time when you expect company. He's also not in a place that there are a lot of travelers. So he's sitting there, and all of a sudden there's three people. Now, they're a little ways off, because it says that he had to kind of run out to them.

There's three people, and he goes, ah, and he runs out. But he recognizes one. He falls down, says, I am your servant. And he says, come in, come in.

You know, I'll give you a morsel of bread and a scoop of water, something like that. One of the cultural things of this time is that there was great hospitality in this region at this time, but it began by offering something small and then exceeding the expectations of your guests. So that's what he does here.

The Doctrine of the Christophany: Christ in the Old Testament 9:27

He says, come on, come on in, come on in, come on in. Now, who are these men? Are these just three strangers, three nomads, three traveling, you know, salesmen or something like that? Well, of course not.

Have you ever heard of the theological term Christophany? You heard that? What's a Christophany? What do we got?

Think about that. What is a Christophany? Well, a Christophany is an Old Testament appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ. In other words, a Christophany is a time when Jesus shows up in the Old Testament.

Now, did you know that was possible? I met someone once — this was just, gosh, this was probably my last year of seminary — and this individual was talking about the Bible, but talking about the Old Testament in a real negative way, saying, I love the Bible, at least the right half of the book.

And I went, what? What is this of which you speak, the right half of the book? Well, which part is that? Well, you know, the New Testament.

I said, really, the New Testament? Well, I love the New Testament too, but what's wrong with the Old Testament? Well, I just love the Jesus parts. The Jesus parts?

Where do you think, pray tell, the Jesus parts are? They're in the right hand of the book. And then the person said this, you know, the red lettering, the red lettering. And I said, all right.

I said, you know, I love that part too. I love those parts. That's wonderful. I love the New Testament.

But I said, I also love the Old Testament. And part of the reason I love the Old Testament is because Jesus is there too. Jesus is there too. The person went, what?

They'd never heard that. What do you mean Jesus is there too? I said, Jesus shows up all the time in the Old Testament. Not all the time, but lots of the time.

I said, let's start in the garden. In the garden, the Garden of Eden, Genesis 1, 2, and 3. You have a garden. God has made it.

He creates Adam and Eve. And then we see that Adam and Eve, while they're in the garden before the fall, that they would walk and talk with who? They walk and talk with God in the cool of the afternoon. They would walk and talk with God in the person of Jesus Christ.

They weren't walking and talking with the Father. They weren't walking and talking with the Spirit. They were walking and talking with the Son. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, created Adam in the garden, and then he didn't just go up in the cosmos and stare at him through a microscope or telescope, but he comes into the garden, he talks with him.

He hangs out with Adam and Eve in the cool of the afternoon, and it doesn't stop there.

The Fourth Man in the Fire: Christ Among Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego 11:43

We see all sorts of examples in the Old Testament where Jesus Himself shows up. One of my favorite ones, one of my very favorite ones, is Daniel and his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. You remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego — they wouldn't do what old nasty King Nebuchadnezzar wanted them to do. Nebuchadnezzar wanted them to fall down and bow when they heard the sounds of the various instruments — bow down to the gold idol he had made.

And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, no deal, no dice, not going to happen, not going to do it. And King Nebuchadnezzar gets so furious, he commands his men, he commands his mighty men of valor, to heat up a furnace seven times hotter than usual in order to throw these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, into the midst of the furnace.

And so that's exactly what happens. He throws Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into a fiery furnace. Now, what would you expect would happen next? Well, not much, really.

On human terms, remember, if you're judging things only by experience, what happens when anything is thrown into a fire? It burns, right? That's a reasonable expectation, 100% reasonable. You throw something in a fire, it's going to burn.

But, fascinatingly, King Nebuchadnezzar, he thinks his work is done. He says, all right, I got rid of those heretics. They were burned to a crisp. Surely they're gone.

Now, let me just take a look here. And he looks into the furnace, and what does he see? He threw in three men. How many men does King Nebuchadnezzar see in the fiery furnace?

He sees four. And he probably, you know, wipes his glasses, you know, because he looks again. He says, no, no, no, this can't be. And he called over his advisors and says, guys, help me out with this.

Let's look in there. How many men do you see? There was Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And he says, but I see a fourth man in the fire walking.

And this one looks like the Son of God. King Nebuchadnezzar looked into the fiery furnace, saw not just three men that were consigned to the fire, but a fourth man who saved them from the fire. The gospel's in this message. You have three men consigned to the fire, thrown to the flames.

Well, the fourth man enters into the flame only to spare them, to save them, and takes them out, leads them out. And when they come out, they don't even smell like smoke. And even this pagan king, King Nebuchadnezzar, recognized when he saw the fourth one in the flames, recognized that the fourth one looked like the Son of God.

Now, help me out here. What testament is the book of Daniel in, old or new? Old. This is a great example of Christ in the Old Testament.

In Genesis, you have Genesis chapter 32. We'll see this a few weeks from now. You got Jacob. Jacob, he's wrestling with someone at night, which is just the most interesting thing.

We'll study this at some length. But Jacob's wrestling with this individual at night. It turns out he's wrestling with God. But is he wrestling with God the Father, God the Spirit, or God the Son?

God the Son. You see this, Jesus keeps showing up. You have Joshua on the road to Jericho. He meets the angel of the Lord outside.

It's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. There's more examples than we have time for, but the point is this. Christophanies, the Old Testament appearance of Jesus, happen throughout the Old Testament. Jesus Himself shows up again and again and again, not just in the red lettering in the New Testament.

Divine Omniscience: The Lord Knows Sarah Will Bear a Son 14:55

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

— Genesis 18:10 (NKJV)

So with that said, here we have a Christophany. Here we have an Old Testament occurrence by which the pre-incarnate Christ comes to meet with His people. And it would appear that Abraham recognized him as such. And we know that in part because, as verses 1 through 5 demonstrate, he treats him accordingly.

He had seen this one, this Jesus, before in Genesis chapter 12 and Genesis chapter 17, and so he treats him accordingly here in Genesis chapter 18. And what we're going to see is that in the verses that follow, verses 6 through 12, Jesus will back up the fact that He is, in fact, the pre-incarnate Christ by saying things that only the divine God would know.

In the verses that follow, which I'll read in just a moment, we're going to see Jesus is going to tell Abraham things that only one with a divine mind could possibly know. Number one, he's going to say, where's Sarah, your wife? He knows Abraham's wife's name. These are not just strangers who have no understanding who this Abraham is.

He knows who his wife is. Number two, he knows that the wife is going to have a child. Number three, he knows when that child is going to happen. Number four, he knows that the child is going to be a son.

All this stuff demonstrates omniscience. It demonstrates that this is the divine presence here standing before Abraham. Now, before we look at verses 6 through 12, let me ask you this. You have three men.

If one of them is Jesus, who are the other two? Angels. We agree? I agree.

I think they're angels, and we'll explain why in just a few moments. But briefly, I'll mention this, that if you look further into chapter 18 and at the start of chapter 19, you'll see that they're referred to as angels. So you have Jesus, and you have two angels with Him. All right, let's look at verses 6 through 12 to see how Abraham tries to show some hospitality.

Verse 6, so Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, quickly make ready three measures of fine meal. You know, not the bad meal, the fine meal. Knead it and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd and he took a tender and good calf, the best he's got, not the three-toed, lazy-eyed, buck-toothed lamb.

He gives the best he has to give here. So he says, prepare the calf, give the calf — gave it to a young man, in verse 7, and he hastened to prepare it. Verse 8, and so he took butter and milk from the calf that he prepared, and he set it before them, and then he stood by them under the tree as they ate.

This is one of the greatest signs of hospitality in this culture. Not only did he give them much more than a scoop of water and a morsel of bread, he slaughtered the best calf he had, he gave them the fine meal, everything was good, but then you notice Abraham stood by and watched them eat in case they had any needs — he wanted to immediately be able to go address them.

This is how you showed great hospitality at this time. You fed your visitors, and then you essentially waited on them in case they had any needs whatsoever. And that's what we see there in verse 8. He stood by them under the tree as they ate.

Then verse 9, then they said to him, where is Sarah? Where is Sarah, your wife? And so he said, here in the tent. And he said — and if you're reading from the New King James, you'll notice that the H is capitalized because it's the divine person — and He said, I will certainly return to you according to the time of life.

And behold, Sarah, your wife, shall have a son. Notice the certainty. He doesn't say she might have a son. I'm going to show up in a year.

I sure hope you've had a son by then. He doesn't say that. He says, where's Sarah? Well, she's in the tent.

All right, I'm coming back. And when I come back, take this to the bank. Sarah will have a son. Not just a child.

No, he determines ahead of time.

Sarah's Laughter and Why God Repeats His Promises 18:28

This is the best gender reveal of all. He says, you will have a son. Now Sarah, verse 10, she was listening in the tent door, which is behind him. I can only imagine she was.

What is going on? I think I heard my name. What are they talking about? So she's listening in the tent door behind him.

Now, verse 11, Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age, and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. And therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, after I've grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? You know, God doesn't have to tell anybody what He's doing before He does it.

He doesn't have to, not a bit. He could just do all He wants and not tell anyone what's coming. So in this case, God could have, through His providential decree and sovereignty, He could have made sure that Sarah would have a child without necessarily telling them that it was going to happen. So why did He do it?

Why did He do it repeatedly? Why did He keep doing it? God keeps telling them the same news. Why?

Well, here's the thing. When God tells Abraham, or when God tells you something multiple times, it has the effect of testing our faith and also cultivating. At Genesis 15, God had made Abraham some really big promises, not just about childbearing. That in and of itself was nothing short of a miracle.

But also, also, that this old man, he would have descendants more than the sand and the beach and the stars in the sky, but also that they would have their own land. And that ultimately, his ancestors and their own land, through them, through one who would ultimately come from them way, way, way, way down the line, that the entire world would be blessed.

Remember we talked about that last week. The promise wasn't just to Israel. It's that through Abraham, all the nations would be blessed. As promises go, that's crazy big.

That's a huge, huge, huge promise. So again, why does God tell Abraham all this stuff? Well, part of it, part of it, is to test Abraham's faith in believing it. And Abraham did.

In Genesis 15, Abraham believed unto God in spite of how big the promises were. He believed them. And it was accounted to him as righteousness. You know, it's interesting — it doesn't say Abraham was awesome every day of his life and he attended to all the people's needs and he ran around doing errands and he was a good deed doer and that was accounted for him as righteousness.

That would be salvation by works. You do all this crazy good stuff, and God's watching, and He says, all right, golf clap, golf clap, golf clap. You did great. You did great.

You're in. You're in. That would be salvation by works. That would be works righteousness, but that's not what God saw in Abraham.

Abraham had faith.

Justification by Faith: Abraham Believed and It Was Counted for Righteousness 21:10

Abraham believed unto God, and that was accorded to him as righteousness.

The Promises God Has Made to You Exceed an Old Woman's Child 21:16

I wonder, what promises has God made you? What promises has God made you? I guarantee you this. The promises God has made you that your future hinges upon are way bigger than the promise that an old lady is going to have a baby.

Think about it. Just think about that for a moment. God has made a promise to you, among other promises. He's made a promise that He will be with you every day, every hour, every moment of your life, including right now, this moment.

Do you believe that? That's a big promise. God is with you right now, and He will be with you tomorrow. Furthermore, God has promised you this.

He said, even when things happen in your life that are not good, no fun, unenjoyable, hard, difficult, painful, God has promised that He will use them to a good end. Do you believe that? Think of some of the hardships you've undergone. Think of some of the difficulties.

Think of some of the cancer that you've suffered or loved ones have suffered. Think of the losses that you've had. What good can come from those? I assure you, your faith has been tested regarding promises that way exceed the promise that an old lady is going to have a baby.

Do you believe God when He says, I'm going to prepare a place for you, that where I am, you may be also? And not only will you get to go there, but you'll be there for all eternity. Do you believe the promise that when you breathe your last, you'll be ushered into paradise, into a kingdom where God is the center, God is the light, and He will welcome you there, and you will never be cast out, and every tear will be wiped away?

Do you believe that? I hope so. And that promise is way bigger than an old lady is going to have a baby. You understand this?

That promise looks like a big deal here, but in the greater context of Scripture, the promises God has made you — you, not just Sarah, not just Abraham, but you — are way in excess, way larger in scale and magnitude than the one we're reading about here. God has told you ahead of time amazing things that He's going to do in you, for you, with you.

Do you believe? If you do, that's the basis for your righteousness. Not that you're a good deed doer. I hope you do good deeds, but that's not the basis for your righteousness.

God doesn't look down upon you and say, on the basis of the things you do, I will account it as righteousness, but on the basis that you believe, that you have the faith of Abraham, that you're the seed of Abraham — not necessarily because you're his ancestor, but because you share his faith.

The basis for being a child of Abraham is not that you have the same DNA as Abraham, but rather that you have the same faith as Abraham. That's the basis. If you share the faith of Abraham and a God who makes promises and keeps them, and that He has promised, if you trust into a son and salvation, that you will be saved.

If you believe that, then you are saved, full stop. Nothing you can add to that, nothing can ever be taken away from that. What's going on here in this promise made to Sarah, about a child that she'd have when she's old — small potatoes compared to the promises that He has made to you.

The question again is, do we believe this? And do we believe all the promises? Some of them we believe because we have to. I guess I have to believe I'll go to heaven.

I sure hope it works out that way. But how about the promise that He's bringing good out of the terrible thing you're facing this week, this month, this year? Again, do you believe that? The difference between Abraham and, say, Jonah, or Doubting Thomas as another example, or Peter when he's on the waves, the difference is this.

God told Abraham things like, leave your homeland, leave your country, go to a land that I will show you. And Abraham did, because he believed God, he trusted God. Abraham also is told later on — we'll study this as well — go sacrifice your son, the son I give you, the son you've been waiting for, the son that he thought was the fulfillment of all things.

My son is finally here through Sarah. His name is Isaac. Happy days. And then what happens?

God says, let's take that son, and let's go to the top of Mount Moriah, and he will sacrifice him to me. What did Abraham do? He said, son, let's get going. How?

Faith. Faith, faith, faith. In spite of what his circumstances looked like at any given time, he had faith in who God is and that God would do that which is right. Will not the Judge of all the world do right?

Do you have that sort of faith that tomorrow will turn out well, that your future is clear, that your hope is secured?

Is Anything Too Hard for the Lord? 25:47

“Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

— Genesis 18:14 (NKJV)

Or are you a Thomas only believing that which your eyes have seen and your hands have touched? Let's look at verses 13 through 15. Verse 13, now the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh, saying, shall I surely bear a child since I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord?

At the appointed time, I will return to you according to the time of life, and Sarah will have a son. But Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid. And that's sort of understandable. But God said, no, but you did laugh.

All right, why did Sarah laugh? Again, Abraham laughed in chapter 17, and we can all relate, so we're not going to critique Sarah here. We can all relate to how this works, but why? Why?

Why did she laugh? Well, once again, she laughed, not because she didn't think God is able, not because she didn't think God is powerful, not because she didn't think God is mighty. She believed all that stuff to be true, but at the same time, she said, is it feasible? She took a promise that God had made, forgot for a moment that it was God who made it, and matched that promise against her age and her skin and her wrinkles, and said it can't happen, so it won't happen.

Or at least she laughed at the very prospect that it might occur. And God simply answers this, is there anything? Abraham, Sarah, is there anything that's too hard for the Lord? Is there anything, anything — just name it, list them off if you got it.

Is there anything that's too hard for the Lord? The right answer is no. Of course, there's nothing that's too hard for the Lord.

Nothing Beyond His Power: No Disease, No Sinner, No Loss He Cannot Redeem 27:20

As we wrap up this morning, let me ask you, if you are sick or you have a loved one who's sick, is there any disease that God can't cure? No, not a one. Now, does God sometimes ordain diseases unto death as part of his divine plan? Absolutely.

But as anything, any diagnosis you have or might ever have outside of the scope of His ability, if it's His will, to cure? Well, of course not. Is there any lost person in your life that Jesus can't save? Now, some of us know some really pagan people.

Some of us in our old family life, we go, oh my goodness, this individual, this friend, this neighbor, this coworker, this son, this father, this daughter, this sister. They are too far gone. They're walking too far afield. Let me ask you, is there anyone truly that is outside the reach of God's saving grace?

No. If anyone was going to be, it would have been the Apostle Paul. He was out murdering Christians when he was Saul of Tarsus. If there was anyone you think would have been outside the grace, it would have been him. There's others in Scripture.

In Scripture, there's some people who are flat-out villains that got saved. Saul's one of them. Nebuchadnezzar is another. You have to look back at our study on Daniel to see how we explain that.

But there are people who say, no, no, no, no, not that person, not that person. That person can't be. They're too far gone, too far gone, too far gone. There's no one so far gone.

There's no disease He can't cure. There's no person in your life that He cannot save. There's no situation that you're in that He can't fix. There's nothing He can't do.

Now, some will say this, well, He can't restore what I've lost, or more importantly, who I've lost. Some will say, there's a hurt that I bear because of someone I've lost, and that person is not coming back. Well, here's the thing. In the eternity of times to come, there's not a single loss that you've experienced that He cannot restore, not a single tear that you've shed that He cannot wipe away.

In the Fullness of Time: Faith That Trusts God's Timing and Decree 29:25

The question is a matter of timing. In the fullness of time. How many times does that phrase come up in Scripture? In the fullness of time.

God has a plan. God has a decree. God is in charge. And in the fullness of time, He does His good pleasure.

And in the fullness of time, we can look and see what He has done. And in the fullness of time, the faith you have today will be validated. There's things you desperately desire God would do for you, for a loved one, for the world in general. In the fullness of time, God will do what's right.

In the fullness of time, God will do everything that needs to be done, leaving nothing undone in the fullness of time. Faith says, I believe it. Faith says, this world is crazy. This world is a cesspool.

My circumstances are a cesspool. Everything is going terrible. But faith does not trust in the circumstances. Faith does not need your circumstances to be optimal in order to be faith.

In fact, faith is often tested the most and cultivated the most when your circumstances are rough. Look at Abraham's story in the next few weeks. We'll study it. But out of those rough circumstances, God refines us.

He tests our faith. He refines our faith. He cultivates the faith. And in His time, in the fullness of time, every ounce, every drop, every iota of our faith will be validated.

This morning, God's promises to you and I exceed the promises that an old man and an old woman are going to have a baby. This morning, God has made promises to you that are to the extreme of imagination. He has said things to you. I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am you may be also.

I call this place paradise, and you're going to be with me forever. He has made you promises that you can't even grasp how big they are. And in time, He will fulfill every last one of them.

You Can Take God at His Word: He Will Fulfill Every Promise 31:09

This morning, I'll close it off, I'll say this. For some of us, our circumstances are difficult enough. The scar tissue of the past is deep enough. The thing on the horizon is dark enough, where we wonder, how can He?

Or maybe — maybe, maybe — this stuff applies to someone else, to the person down the pew, to some other people, but not me. Because God knows who I am, He knows what I've done, and He's leaving me out of this equation. He makes promises, yes, but I'm somehow not a recipient. Dear heavens, if you are a child of God, if you are a son or daughter of the Most High God, He will not neglect you.

He'll not forget you. And in His time, He will fulfill every promise He has made to you. That's the story of chapter 12, chapter 15, chapter 17, chapter 18. When God says something, you can take it to the bank.

Let's pray.