Through Faith Sarah, Herself
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Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
Introduction.
Many times the thing you doubt the most is the thing you know the best. It’s you.
Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any; but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have enough of my own.
Goethe.
“Our doubts are traitors,
and make us lose the good we oft might win,
by fearing to attempt.”
― William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
We doubt most what we’ve never seen before, that is why it requires faith.
Humanly speaking, Sarah had good reason to doubt, herself and Abram.
1. She could not identify herself in the original promise.
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
2. She had seen Abram’s mistakes.
And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.
And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:
Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.
Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.
3. She saw strife in the church.
And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.
And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.
And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.
4. She saw her own Failure to produce the Promised Son.
Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.
And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.
And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the Lord judge between me and thee.
But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.
5. She experienced the Silence of Jehovah.
And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son’s name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.
And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.
For 13 years the Prophet Abraham never heard from God, yet he still believed. Sarah was with him all this time. Perhaps she thought it was her fault.
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
Finally even Abraham believed Sarah couldn’t do it.
And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.
Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!
And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
I can imaging Abraham running back and telling Sarah “Sarah, honey there’s still hope. Jehovah told me that we will have a son. That you will be the mother.” She heard it but it must have been hard to believe.
All of this led up to the Son of Man ministry.
Who was the the appearance of God on the plain of Mamre for? Not for Abraham, but for Sarah. Abraham already believed.
And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,
And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:
Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:
And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.
And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.
And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it.
And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.
And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent.
And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him.
Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.
Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?
And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?
Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh.
Bro. Branham gives some details.
22 And here He is now and Sarah. I…Let’s just break in on her for a minute. There she set, back there, say, “I wonder how many fanatics my husband can entertain?” And there he’s setting out there, you know, and Abraham just interested. Maybe the old fly-bush, you know, fan it, the flies away, and saying the…
Well, I see the Angel takes his chair, maybe, and leans back toward—His back toward the tent. And Sarah listening through the tent, you know, kindly eardropping, you know, and listening through the tent…And she was kind of in an awful mood that morning.
You don’t see things when you come to church in that kind of a mood. You just no need of trying it; you just might as well have stayed home; you won’t get nothing out of it. When you come to church, come prayed up, come in the atmosphere, come expecting.
23 Abraham knew that the time of the promise was coming close. It had to be; he was a hundred years old. He was expecting it any time. He watched every minute. When He run in, told Sarah, “This, I believe, is our day of visitation.” And she kinda looked at him with them big eyes and thought, “Well, Abraham, you’ve said that a long time.” But you know, there will come a time when it’ll be so, if God said so.
Then when the Angel took His chair and leaned back, He said, “Abraham, seeing that you have got favor with God, that you are an heir of the world, and you’re going to be father of many nations, and you’ve believed that since you was seventy-five years old (twenty-five years), and otherwise you’ve waited for this promised child by Sarah, and now, I’m not going to keep this from you, what I’m going to do. I’m going to visit you, according to the time of life.”
And you know, Sarah in there, eardropping, kindly halfway in an upset mood from her condition that morning, she’s thought in her heart, “Now, isn’t that a silly thing. Think, in our day, me an old woman—as old as I am…Here I am ninety years old.
There sets my husband Abraham, a hundred years old. Well, I—it’s not been with me as women for fifty years, and Abraham…Well, we’ve been married since we were about seventeen, and him about twenty-seven…Well, how…How could that be? How could it be?” See? She had herself all out of condition to receive it when God brought it. Oh, my, don’t never get that in your heart. Be open. Be ready. She missed it. She failed to see it.
I—maybe if we don’t watch, friends, the church is going to fail to see it. Let’s not look for church hairdos and new dresses. Let’s look for the Holy Spirit to come in the supernatural and raise some things.
The church don’t need a face-lift; it needs a birth, the Holy Ghost to come into the church, bring back people, and that believes the supernatural, and holds on and waiting for the coming of the Lord, as if it might be any hour, living in them conditions.
24 Here she was in that shape. Saying, “Now, how could that happen in our modern time? How could it happen to me in my condition?” But it happened just the same.
Abraham, out there, waiting with anticipation…You see, it wasn’t made known to her; it was made known to them that was looking for it. That’s the way it comes yet, to those who are looking. So he was watching, Abraham was. He said, “Yes, my Lord. Yes, that’s right. The promise was, and I’ve believed it all along.”
He said, “Now, Abraham, just about the time of life, it will be each month, well, I’m going to visit you. And you’re going to have that baby.”
And Sarah, you know to herself, went, “Hah!” laughed kind of to herself. Now watch. Abraham gets a sign now. See, Sarah was too flusterated, too un-…concerned about the new hairdo she seen, or something else.
Sometimes we’re too much flusterated about the other fellow that’s got the biggest denomination, or, “His congregation dresses better than mine.” or, “They’ve got a bigger church down on the corner than we got.”
What difference does that make? I want God. I don’t care if I have to worship Him on the street corner in a coal shed. Wherever it might be, I want God. Let me have my heart in condition if I wear overalls, so I can watch God and see His move and recognize Him, not pass it by.
25 He said, “Abraham, where is your wife Sarah?” A Stranger, never seen Him before…“Where is your wife Sarah?” And how did He know that he had a wife, and how did He know that her name was Sarah? Said, “She’s in the tent behind you.”
And when Sarah laughed, He said, “Why did she laugh?” He caught the sign. He knew what it was. Sarah didn’t get it. She even come forth and tried to deny it. God would’ve destroyed her upon that, if she hadn’t been a part of Abraham.
And lot of times, our unbelief would destroy us, if it wasn’t for the Blood of Jesus Christ. God can’t destroy us now, because the Blood of Jesus Christ keeps the—God off of us.
We are part of Christ, just as Sarah was part of Abraham, for we are the Bride of Christ. And we people who’s borned of the Spirit of God, ought to wake up, get out of our stews, and watch for the supernatural sign of the coming of the Lord Jesus, His signs that He promised. 60-0328 - Is There Anything Too Hard For The Lord?
Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
We find Sarah just a little while later in a new body, bringing forth the promise. How did she do it? She was part of Abraham.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
That’s the reason when Sarah laughed at the Angel, said she couldn’t be like that, God would have slew that woman right there, but He couldn’t hurt her, because she’s part of Abraham; He would hurt Abraham if He took Sarah.
That’s the reason our sins today, we’d be every one condemned, but God can’t take us because, He does, He hurts Christ, we are part of Him, we are the Bride, don’t you see? So there it is. So, grace holds us in our mistakes until we can see better. So thankful for that.
62-0726 - A Testimony Upon The Sea
Conclusion.
I’m so thankful for the grace of God. There will be a Bride at the end time who will not doubt the promise. They will embrace it with the faith of Abraham. they will receive it and be changed.
Why don’t you let go of every bad mood and put yourself in an atmosphere of faith where all things are possible?
148 Let me tell you, you’ve got to have life to go there. Without life you cannot rise. You take a seed and put it in the ground and let a little bug got into that seed and kill the germ in that seed, it’ll never rise. That’s exactly right. But if you can keep that bug out of it, it’s got a heart; it’s got something in it; it’ll rise just as sure as the atmosphere gets right around it.
149 And that it is tonight. If you’ve the least desire in your heart to receive God, to receive the Holy Spirit, let, get in the right atmosphere, the right mood before God, and life will come into you just as sure. And you’ll start rising to translation.
Oh, I know what we receive here is just a shadow of the shadows of the shadows. But when you die, the shadow becomes a shadow, the shadow to the shadow, to the strinkle, to the moisture, to the branch, to the lake, to the…Oh, my, it go right on into an Eternal Presence. Then you’re there forever. 60-0606 - To Whom Would We Go?