Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Sarah and the Laugh

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

Two times God appears to Abraham, but this time is utterly different than the last time. This time, God has come to get Sarah’s attention. In Genesis 15, God speaks to Abraham in dread darkness as an unapproachable thing. Here, in Genesis 18, in the heat of the day and in the most approachable possible way, God has come not so much to talk to Abraham—he has come to talk to Sarah. God is going to establish Sarah in his promise. We’ll look at 1) why, 2) how, and 3) what lessons we can draw out. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 10, 1996. Series: Daring to Draw Near. Scripture: Genesis 18:9-33. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel and Life. The Bible teaches us that while God is infinite, he is also intimate. In other words, it's possible for us to draw near to him. But what does it actually look like to draw near to God? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller is teaching about what it means to experience God in a way that is personal and intimate. The passage on which the teaching is based is printed in your bulletin. Now, as usual, because we're looking at these Old Testament, mainly these Old Testament narratives, every week here in the evening service we're looking at, people who had had close encounters with God. I notice there's a couple of Christmas films coming out about angels, two of them. And one, John Travolta is an angel, and the other one, Denzel Washington is an angel.

I can understand Denzel, but it's intriguing, of course, is that in these kinds of movies, God is very remote. God is off the scenes. God is not there. He relates to intermediaries. Then you have another kind of movie. Oh God, remember with George Burns? Went there five or six of them or something like that?

And in that case, of course, God is a kindly old wise cracking, cynical man, old man. And we see in the Bible that nobody outside the Bible can keep together a God of infinity and a God of intimacy together. You see either God is is infinity and he's not a God of intimacy. You see he's far away and we can only know him remotely through intermediaries or else you have a God of intimacy but he's not a God of infinity. He's just an old wisecracking, wise compassionate, kindly old man, Santa Claus in a sense.

But in the scripture we see again and again that the intimacy of the infinite, intimacy with infinity is really what's going on. And many times we have seen these various persons in the Bible having a confrontation with God, a personal confrontation. And last week and this week we're looking at the two times that Abraham, the great patriarch of the Old Testament, met God visually. That means that he had such a relationship with God that such an encounter that God actually appeared to him physically. Now, we looked at one of them last week.

We're going to look at another one this week. And unfortunately, these narratives are very long. We can't print them all in the bulletin, and I usually can't cover them. And what I'm going to do tonight is I'm actually going to take, though I had originally thought about, and I'll refer to it, talking about the second half of this encounter.

I want to talk to you more about the first half of it. And therefore, if you take a look, I'm going to read you the first eight verses of Genesis 18, and I'm going to pick it up what you have printed in your bulletin as verses 9 to 15, and we're going to end there. So I'm going to read Genesis 18, and I'll read all the way from verse 1 to 15. You don't just wait until I get to verse 9 because 9 to 15 is the heart of it. Now the Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of memory while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. He said,

if I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, then you may all wash your feet and rest under his tree. Let me get you something to eat so that you can be refreshed and then go on your way, now that you have come to your servant. Very well the answer do as you say. So Abraham hurried into this tent to Sarah.

Quikki said, get three seas of fine flour and kneaded and make some bread, and then he ran to the herd and selected a choice tender calf and gave it to a servant who hurried to prepare it. He then brought some curds and milk in the calf that had been prepared, and the calf that had been prepared, and he set these all before them. And while they ate, he stood near them under a tree. Verse 9, Where is your wife Sarah?" they asked him. They are in a tent, he said. Then the Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son. Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was

past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, am I worn out and my master is old and now will I have this pleasure?" And then the Lord said, A. Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and say, well, I really have a child now that I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? I'll return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.

Sarah was afraid, so she lied and she said, I did not laugh, but he said, yes, you did laugh. And this is God's word. I don't know. I have strong feelings about this passage and it's hard to articulate them. Let's give it a shot. What you have here is something so utterly different than what happened in Genesis 15, which we looked at last week. Two times got a period to Abraham, and this time is so totally different than last time. Well, we'll make that comparison later on. Here's what we have. First of all, we see that Abraham meets these three men. It says he was standing,

he was sitting under the trees of mammary, he was sitting in the entrance to his tent in the heat of a day. That's why we turned it up in here for you to kind of get you in the mood. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby and when he saw them he hurried up. Now many people think Abraham immediately knew who these visitors were. Now the story I don't think indicates that it does at all. And people who think that he immediately knew who these three people were don't know a whole lot about the culture and history of that time. It says here, right away when you and I, when most of us today read this, we say, oh, he

must have known who it was, because first of all, it says he hurried from the entrance of his tent. He rushed. And secondly, he says, he met them and he bowed low. And then thirdly, it says, if I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, do not pass from your servant. Let a little water be brought. Then you will all wash your feet and rest under this tree.

And then he went ahead and he put together a great meal and he stood there serving them. And right away people say, well, he must have known who these people were. No, I don't think so. Actually, the book of Hebrews chapter 13 verse two, and we'll get to that later, says, he was unaware of who they were.

But you see, the reason that we right away think, oh, he must have known who they were. I mean, why would you run around and bow low and roll out the red carpet like this? And the reason is Abraham was just simply being a good Bedouin, because in those days, and at that time, and I understand from some of the books I read, that even today, in parts of the world where people still live like this, wandering, no mad, as beddowens, hospitality is like almost the number one virtue. It's very important. And if you are a good neighbor, if you are a good person, when a stranger comes, you take

them in and you welcome them and you bring them in. Hospitality was very important. And therefore, the way in which Abraham reacts is not unusual. It doesn't mean that he thinks these are divine personages. But then secondly, and this is the thing that you can't quite see as well because I didn't have it all printed out. But it's not until verse 10 that we see who these people are because all the way along, whenever he's speaking to them, it says they said, yes, we'll stay. They said, they said. In fact, the last they said is in verse 9. Where is your wife, Sarah? They asked him, well, she's in the tent, he said. And then

one of them speaks, and the storyteller, the author says, the Lord. And the reason he says the Lord at that point is because for Abraham, it would have dawned on him. Abraham was in his 90s. Sarah was in her 90s, and years and years and years and years ago. He had received in a dream, he'd received in a vision several times, he received from God a promise

that God was going to give them a son. And from that son, he says, he was going to give you a son and from that son, we'll come a great nation and from that great nation, we'll come a savior. And therefore, see God had said to Abraham, I'm going to save the world through your family. Get ready, be prepared. You're going to raise that son and you're going to save the world through your family. Get ready. Prebe prepared. You're going to raise that son and you're going to pass your faith

along that son. He's going to pass his faith along and as a result, salvation will be brought into the world. And they were in their 90s now. And as far as Abraham was concerned, he was still supposed to live as if this was going to happen. He was going to hold onto that promise. And Sarah probably knew about it, but I doubt there was anybody else who knew about it. Why? Because Abraham like you and I, I mean Abraham is a human being like you and I, why would you tell anybody such a stupid thing?

They would laugh at you. Who would want to know that you believe such an incredible thing? My wife and I, yeah, we're in our 90s, we're expecting. Well, no, not yet, but I know it's gonna happen. He wouldn't have told anybody, no one at all. And this stranger looks up and says, I'm coming back next year, so Abraham says, fine. And Sarah will have a son.

And you can imagine Abraham's knees beginning to turn into water. And he suddenly realizes the only person anywhere who could know about this is the one who told me about it. Suddenly Sarah hears it. And the reason we now know that God has come is not to tell Abraham about this promise and establish him in it. See, he had told Abraham about it and last week we saw that in Genesis 15, God came down in a very different form. He came down as a pillar of fire and smoke.

He came down as an unapproachable thing, absolutely unapproachable. And he spoke to Abraham in dread darkness and it was a... Here, in the heat of the day, in the brightest time of the day, in the laziest time of the day, c.s. to time, you know. Here, in the most approachable possible way, three guys who obviously were not particularly unusual looking in any way. One time God came down in visible form and he spoke to Abraham in order to establish him in the face of this promise and now this time what does he do? Before he gives the promise he says where Sarah in the tent, then the Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year and Sarah your wife will have a son. What's he doing? He wants Sarra's attention. He has not come so much

to talk to Abraham. He's going to talk to Sarra. And he is going to establish her in this promise. He's going to establish her in the faith. Now the question is, why and how? And we'll mention these really quickly, and then we'll draw out our lessons. First of all, why? Why does God come? Why does God have to come? Well, there's a pretty interesting verse that until I started studying it, I never understood.

In verse 12, well, let me read you this. It says, the Lord said, I will surely return and Sarah will have a child. Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent. And Abraham and Sarah were already old, well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing, and therefore Sarah laughed to herself. She laughed in her thoughts. She didn't laugh out loud.

And says, I am worn out, and I am master master's old and will I now have this pleasure. Now what's so interesting is over the years and maybe you would think this too as you first read this. Maybe you would think, what does this pleasure mean? And right away I used to think and you probably would think too, that she is saying, I'm very old, I'm past the age of childbearing, and am I supposed to have this pleasure of a son? That's not what she thinks, That's not what she's saying. Because the word for pleasure is sexual pleasure. And right away, what she thinks about is the fact

is Abraham and I aren't even having sex. You know, one of the reasons I think why we don't read these things carefully is we don't believe they're real people. We have a tendency to think of Abraham and Sarah. These people are these sort of hero types. And when they walked along, they were about two or three feet above the ground. They never got dirty. They were very different people than us.

Nobles, the legendary people, epics. These kinds of things. But no, Sarah, right away says, we're not even having sex. Now, here's the point. And I want you to know I'm serious about this. I know the way I'm going to say it's going to sound outrageous and I hope you can laugh a little bit, but control yourselves. Keep it down if you can.

God is coming to Sarah and He's saying, I want you to have sex by faith. The only person, one commentator, had the guts to read this as it is. There's a man in Bill Lane that my wife and I studied under it in seminary. He wrote a commentary on the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews talks about this. He translates this passage. He says, this is what it's she's saying. She is saying, this man is asking me to have sex with Abraham, forget it. We're old, we're worn out. And the problem is not so much that you say, well, for goodness' sakes, they're in their 90s, of course they weren't having sex anymore. But if you read the whole narrative, if you read Genesis 16 in particular, you'll see there was a whole lot more going on between

Abraham and Sarah than this, they were old. They probably hadn't had sex in a long time. They were all related from each other. And one of the reasons why, which we will return to again in one second, Abraham would have been, because he was a man of his time, deeply disappointed in Sarah, who couldn't have children. Because in that day and at that time,

a woman's child bearing ability was everything. That's what she contributed. That's what she brought. Your children were your worth. Your children was your reputation. Your children was your honor. Your children was your pension plan. Your children was your security.

If you don't have children, nobody's gonna take care of you. Your children was everything. And If you don't have children, nobody's going to take care of you. Your children was everything. And a woman that couldn't bear children was this closer to being a disgrace. And she was usually thought to be not living right that the gods or God hadn't blessed her. And she was looked on as an object of pity and her husband would have been deeply,

deeply disappointed in her. And this had come into their lives, and this had come into their lives, and this had alienated them. And now you see, God could just snap his fingers. And he could say, well, and by the way, he obviously can do this. He could say, I can give you a child without sex.

He's done that. He didn't do it. He comes back and as Bill Lane, the commentator says, he is pushing them because he doesn't just want to give them the miracle of a child, he wants to give them the miracle of a new marriage. One of the things you have to realize is when you sit there and say, Lord, I want something. Would you give me success? Would you give me this job? Would you give me this?

Would you give me that? God never gives you things without changing you. He never gives you a gift without making you able to receive it. He never gives you something in the abstract. He changes you along with it. And I think it's an amazing act of grace that he has come back to establish a salad in faith in this promise. Give her hope so that they can begin to have

sex again. And obviously they did. Obviously they did because she did have a child. But unless she had faith in the promise, they would not be able to have this kind of reunion. They wouldn't have been able to have this marriage repaired. And so God has come back in order to repair their marriage and to prepare the way for a child. One year from now, you see? One year from now. In other words, you have to get together again, and then you will conceive. That's why he's here. But how does he do it? And this is something that I guess we need to keep in mind. I've been recently reading as some of you know, I've been reading the life of Jonathan Edwards, the great congregational minister and theologian

in colonial America. And one of the great problems that Edwards had with his father, we think. It's a little hard to read between the lines because he didn't write too much directly about this. His father believed it was only one way to come to God. His father believed in the traditional, what, it was a technical term, the traditional

conversion morphology that the Puritans believed in, and the Puritans in both in American England believed that you, if you were going to come to God, you had to do it in stages, you had to go through a stage in which you came under tremendous darkness. You came under tremendous conviction of sin. John Bunyan is the classic. John Bunyan, we know from his autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Centers, which is a very interesting book to read. That for 18 months, he came under such conviction of sin

that he felt that as he walked along, sometimes the ground would open up and the hell would just swallow him up. He made me some hurt time, heard me talk about this. He would go by a horse. And he would say, oh, that I were a horse, because horses, at least are being everything that God meant horses to be. This horse is glorifying God in a way that I am not. This horse is being exactly what God has meant to be a horse, but I am not being what

God has meant me to be a man. I'm not being what I should be, and he would go around and always convicted like this, and because he came under deep conviction and deep darkness, eventually got to short him of grace through the cross, through Jesus, assured him of grace, and he had a great conversion experience. And many people said, this is the way it's got to be. Jonathan Edwards father said this is the way it's got to be, but Jonathan Edwards came to God more like Sarah did

And the one thing you learn from CS Lewis's nanny acronicles is you never get into nanny the same way One person gets in through the wardrobe. Sorry next person walks into the wardrobe and just gets splinters in the mouth You know you can't get through that way And in the same way here is Abraham and God comes down to a sure Abraham of his promise that he's going to have a son. And he comes down in thick darkness, and he comes down with a burning fire pot. And he comes down in dread, you know, very much like Bunyan, very much like what Jonathan Edwards' father thought, Timothy Edwards. But Edwards had a totally different experience. Edwards says one day he was walking out and he had basically been a nominal Christian

and he was meditating on a verse of the scripture in verse, Timothy. Now, one of the King eternal and mortal and visible, the only wise God, the honor and glory for ever and ever on men. And he suddenly, he said suddenly, the sovereignty of God became wonderful to him. And he realized the greatness and the wonder of grace.

He just realized it. He just came to him and overwhelmed him. Now for whatever reason, and I know some of you say, I wish I was Sarah. This is also not gender-type. I hope nobody thinks I'm saying God comes to men in a different way than he comes to women. No, he comes to individuals differently. He comes down to Sarah and he comes in the most gentle way. Don't envy somebody else's trip in.

And also don't project on the other hand your trip on somebody else. Be very careful. I'll tell you Christians love to do that. Christians say this is happening to me and then they're trying to lead somebody else. Be very careful. I'll tell you, Christians love to do that. Christians say, this is happening to me, and then they're trying to leave somebody else to faith. In good, well, out of great desires, sincere desires, and you know what you're going to start to do? You're going to start listening, and you're listening

for the same language that you spoke, and you're listening for the same experiences, and the same feelings, and all that. And sometimes, listen, there is a core. There is a core. You have listen, there is a core. There is a core. You have to believe your sinner. You have to believe your Savior's saved surely by grace.

But beyond that, all other bets are off. Everything else is negotiable. And God comes down to Sarah. And look at what he does. He gives her a promise and she laughs. And then so gently, he says, why did Sarah laugh? And then he says something and I wish I wish some translation would put it out. In fact, just tonight I read a translation, I read a commentary, you know, a well-meaning

guy, and he says, well, you know, the word that's here translated difficult is anything too difficult for the Lord. The word originally meant wonderful, but it must mean difficult. No, it doesn't have to mean difficult. I don't know why nobody translates this just the way it is. The Lord says, Sarah, the reason you're laughing is because this is too wonderful. Is anything too wonderful for me?

You won't see my wonderfulness. Now what's interesting, what's wrong with your laugh? I want you to know there's two kinds of laugh. There's two kinds of laughter, and they come from two utterly different roots. There have never been stronger calls for justice than those we have heard in recent years. What does the Bible have to say about it? And how does God's Word help bring about justice? In Tim Keller's book, Generous Justice,

you'll discover that the Bible gives us a rich and complex understanding of what justice is and what it means to live it out. The book provides a biblical framework for justice, one that calls every Christian to a life of Generous Justice, fueled by grace. Generous justice is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the hope of the Gospel with people all over the world.

So request your copy today at GospelandLife.com slash give. That's GospelandLife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. There's a laughter of hope and is a laughter of hopelessness. There's a laughter of hope and there's a laughter of hopelessness. There's a cynical laughter, bitter laughter. Very often they're very funny. Haven't you seen cutting jokes? I don't ever forget a joke by one of my teachers in seminary and he was dying of cancer.

And he was really in a great deal of despair and he came in and he was dead three and a half months after this day. And he came in and he was dead three and a half months after this day and he came in and he was a humorous person but at that day somebody says how's it going and he says well I can't lose he says they're going to cut off my lip but don't worry because if that doesn't work they're going to cut off my jaw but don't worry if that doesn't work they're going to cut off my head and that'll be in the whole my problems and he laughed Nobody else did the whole class just sat there. There's a kind of laughter, a hopeless laughter.

And that was what Sarah was saying. Sarah was saying, my life has passed me by, I am nothing, I am nobody. I am a barren woman. You don't know what you're talking about, and she laughed. And God says, I'm gonna turn that laugh into a different kind of laugh.

Don't you see Sarah Grace? Now, one of the things you have to see here is this is an invitation to wonder. And something I guess I haven't talked much about lately, but I'm going to talk about it here for about 90 seconds. The way you know the difference between a Christian and a religious person. A person who really knows God and a person just as a nominal kind of religious morality is wonder. Is anything too wonderful? Wonder. Here's how you know. If you ask a person who is just basically religious and moral and nice and good and all that,

and if you say, are you a Christian, I'll say, well, first of all, I'll say, well, sure. They might be a little bit irritated with you, and you say, why are you a Christian? And you say, well, because I decided to be, or I did this, or I was raised that way. Well, of course, no wonder at all. No amazement. But you ask a Christian, are you a Christian? And they'll say, and this is yes. And you know what?

What a joke. Me. A Christian. How could that be? You don't know me. If you knew me, you'd be laughing. Anybody. Anybody.

Who knows the Lord through Christ. Anybody who knows, I'm not just saved because I decided, but because someone decided upon me. I'm not saved because I have lived a certain life, because somebody lived a life for me. I am not saved because I sought the Lord, but I'm saved because the Lord sought me. In which case anybody who's a real Christian knows

that you should be the last person in the face of the earth that is. Do you know that? If you don't know that there's no wonder. And if you do know that there will be a wonder. It'll be, it'll be wondering. There'll be amazement, see? You sing about it. Okay. Died he for me, who caused his pain, for me, who him to death pursued amazing love. How can it be that now my God should die for me? See, there it is. Wonder.

Is anything too wonderful for me? And here is what actually happened. Sarah did, Barisun. Now you know, one of the things that's pretty interesting is when she bears a son, this is what she says. It's over in Genesis 21. She says, now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. And Sarah became pregnant and bore son to Abraham in his old age.

At the very time God had promised. And Sarah said, listen to this, God has brought me laughter. And everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. And she said, who would have said Abraham that Sarah would nurse children, yet I have borne him a son in his old age? And he named, they named him Isaac. What, you know what Isaac means? Do you know what Isaac means in Hebrew? Means laughter. Because God had turned the laughter of hopelessness in the laughter of hope. You know what? I want you to know that if you have a

laughter of hopelessness, the bitter laugh, you're closer to the laughter of wonder than a person who's just taking him up or herself so seriously because you think, well, I'm a pretty good person. It's the person, frankly, like John Bunyan, envying the horse. The person like Sara, saying, I am worthless, who's closest to the laughter of grace. But listen, lastly, oh by the way, I'm sorry, I forget one other thing. Look at the wonderful counselor, look at the gentleness. I don't know why he's so rough with some of us. I don't know why he comes down for Abraham.

And he passes between the pieces and he speaks in a booming voice. You know, like a Cecil B. DeMille movie, you know? And he comes down to Sarah in the brightness of the day and says, it makes a promise. And then she laughs and he says, I want you to know that you, your problem with me is not that I have been this or that to you, but that what I promise you is too good to be true. that to you, but that what I promise you is too good to be true. This is the gospel. If you think the problem with Christianity is I don't want it because it's too hard, that's not it. The problem with Christianity for anybody who disbelieves it is it's too wonderful for you. It's too wonderful. You are like, as C.S. Lewis says, you are like a little child at your mud puddle and you're building

mud pies, you know, and you're putting your little mud in your truck and you're moving it around. And somebody comes and says, how would you like to go to the beach? How would you like a holiday at the sea and you say, what's that? It doesn't sound like I like that very much. You know, it's too wonderful for a child who's never seen the sea. And you see, if you have trouble with a gospel, it's not because it's too hard. Look at it.

If you look at it, you'll see the real problem is, it's too good to be true. You're afraid of the wonder of it, but you need it. You need it. As one minister put it, little children, you tell them a story, any story, beauty in the beast, sleeping beauty, you tell them any story at all, and their eyes get big.

One of the reasons little children have so much fun in life is because their hearts are filled with wonder. They believe what Hamlet said, that there's more things in heaven and earth that are dreamt of in your philosophy. Therefore, they go around in gratitude and they go around everything's in adventure and they go around in joy, because their hearts are filled with wonder. Now you grow up, and you around in gratitude, and they go around everything's in adventure, and they go around in joy, because their hearts are full of wonder. Now you grow up, and you go to college, and they tell you, you know what, all love is a chemical in the brain. And if we knew how to do it, we could completely suck the love out you've got for your mother or father and set it down some other synapse group,

and you love for something else. I mean, in other words, not only is modern secular thought completely destroyed you of wonder, but even if you're Sarah, you grow old. And when you're little, you're hard to fill with wonder, but the older you get, the harder it is to fill your heart with wonder. And so finally, you get to the age that only God can do it. Because you see if God is true and the gospel is true, then beasts can become beauties. Then Cinderella is true, that the humble will be exalted, and the proud will be humbled.

Cinderella is true. Beauty and the beast is true. Sleeping beauty is true. They're all true. Wonder. Wonder we back. It's through the gospel. And he's so gentle. Because he says, you you laughed and she says, no, he didn't.

And what does God say? I'm God, what do you think you do? No. What do you do with Jonah? Remember Jonah? Jonah is angry enough to die. And what does God say? Jonah, I'm God.

No, what does Jonah, what does he say? He says, do you have a right to be angry? Look at the gentleness of God. Look at him sitting there, a counselor, he's a counselor. It's amazing. Look at the gentleness of God. Firm, you did laugh. I want you to see that you laughed.

I want you to see that you disbelieved. I want you to see your disbelief. I want you to see that you disbelieved. I want you to see your disbelief. I want you to see your lack of wonder. He confronts her. And what do we know? All we know is this that she must have believed because they had a son because the marriage was repaired. But here's the last thing I've got to tell you.

Even though I'm only going to touch on it because we're going to take a look at Hagar later on. And that is this. Hagar, two or three chapters before, Sarah comes to Abraham. Again, we're not totally sure that she's super aware of the promise of God, but Sarah comes to Abraham and she says, I'm Baron. I know I'm barren. I know you can hardly stand to look at me. Well, here's my maid servant. She's fertile. She's beautiful. I'm old. I'm used up.

In fact, you know the word she uses here? It's a self-loathing word. She says, I am worn out. You know, it's the word for clothing that's been worn through. She has a self-loathing, self-hating. And so she says, I know I'm ugly. I'm not all I'm awful. And shehing, self-hating. And so she says, I know I'm ugly, I'm not all I'm awful. And she says, here's Hagghar, she's my fertile, you know, beautiful, you know, lovely, handmade

and go in and have sex with her and have a child. And so Abraham does. And Paul, many years later in Galatians 4 says, Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. Now the son of the slave woman was born in the ordinary way, but the son of the free woman that Sarah was born as a result of a promise, as it is written.

And then he quotes Isaiah 54, be glad, O Baron woman, who bears no children, break forth and cry aloud, you who have had no labor pains, because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband. Now listen, conclusion, but very important. You want to see the grace of the gospel that causes wonder, here it is.

In those days, as I said, a woman that had no children and a woman had no husband was a nobody. We know that the women sometimes who had no children had no husband would just walk on out and sit themselves down in the forest and wait for the beasts to come get them, or wait for the heat to destroy them, or wait for the snow to destroy them, and whatever, so that they wouldn't be a drag on everybody else, because there was no one to take care of them. In those days, a woman without children was no one, and yet the radical grace of God is this,

Sarah does not represent what you think. You say, oh, in other words, if I'm like Sarah, if I just trust God will give me what I want. No, that's not what you think. You say, oh, in other words, if I'm like Sarah, if I just trust God will give me what I want. No, that's not what Paul says. Paul says, if you want to see the difference between the gospel of grace and works, a religion of works, look at Heycar and look at Sarah, and that is this. For a woman, her righteousness is her children. But if you are in the gospel, if you understand that Jesus Christ is your righteousness, then you will become fruitful.

Fruitful in what way? You know the place in Mark chapter three where Jesus comes to people come and say, you know your children, I mean pardon me, do you know that your mother and your brothers and your sisters are waiting for you outside? And he looks around and he says something unbelievably radical at that day in time, unbelievably radical. He says, who are my mothers, my brothers, my sisters, my father, who are they? And he looks at the people around him in whose lives he's bearing fruit and he says these,

this is my family, this is my mother, this is my brothers, these are my sisters. This is radical. And a day and a time in which your family was everything and with your children, if you didn't have children, you were nothing. What are they saying? If the gospel is true, then people without ability, people without moral strength, people without

a good record, can be more fruitful than the people with. The haigar is represent fertile women, which means women with ability. And Abraham and Sarah trusted in human ability instead of the grace of God. And when they finally put their trust in the grace of God, why the barren woman bore more fruit than anybody else. And when Paul says, be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children. When Isaiah says that, because he's quoting Isaiah, be glad, O barren woman, this is radical stuff

in the ancient days. Break forth and cry aloud, you who have had no labor pains because more of the children of the deaths of a woman than of her who has a husband. This is not, well, we can't stop this. At the very least, what it's saying is, you women who never will have children, even in this day and even in this time, people might look at you funny and you might look at yourself funny. But you can have more children than the fertile woman through the grace of God.

Jesus says, who are your children? It's the people you have an impact on for the Lord. Who are your children? But this is not just for women. This is for all of us. It doesn't matter where you're from, it doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter what your background is. It doesn't matter what the world thinks. Your capital is the grace of God, not your

children, not your bank account. This is the wonder of the gospel. It's an invitation to wonder. It's an invitation to fruitfulness, real fruitfulness. God says in this story, not that if you're having problems in your job, just trust me, and I'll give you a lot of money, if you're having troubles bearing children, just trust me and you'll have a lot of children. That's not what it's saying. What it's saying is, more children will the barren woman have than the fruitful woman.

Come to me with your barrenness, come to me with your problems. Come to me and I will make you fruitful. I promise, and that's what he's saying. The gospel according to Sarah, Sarah and the laugh, let's pray. Thank you, Father, for showing us the possibilities. Thank you for showing us that if we come to you

and if we trust in you and if we give ourselves to you, you will make us fruitful. Lord, Sarah got the fruit in a way that she probably needed to get it. But we thank you that it's possible for us to know what Jesus meant. If my brothers on earth reject me, I will have more brothers than that. If my children on earth never happen, I will have more children than that. If I come to you and believe in your promise and believe in your grace, I will have more children than that. If I come to you and believe in your promise

and believe in your grace, I will reward. There is no telling what you can do through me. Now Father, make us all like Sarah, not cynical, not hopeless, but believing. And we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller. If you were encouraged by this podcast,

we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel and Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people access resources like this podcast. Just visit gospelandlife.com slash partner to learn more. This month's sermons were recorded in 1996 and 2009. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Bredemer Presbyterian Church. you