Sarah's life exemplifies the "School of Faith" by demonstrating how God strengthens individuals to overcome perceived impossibilities. The sermon highlights Sarah's barrenness and advanced age, contrasting it with God's promise of a son, Isaac, whose name signifies laughter. This narrative underscores the core lesson that with faith, nothing is too hard for the Lord, encouraging believers to trust God for His empowering work in their lives. The message concludes by urging listeners to allow Christ to live through them, magnifying Him in all circumstances and becoming channels for others to experience God's grace.
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Hebrews chapter eleven please. And our reading this morning from verse eleven. Hebrews eleven verse eleven. Through faith also Sarah 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 Therefore sprang there, even of one, and him as good as dead, as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. Truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country that is a heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.
Now, during the past days we have been meeting four of the old boys of the School of Faith. I have not given you many notes. I'm just going to take the characters and portray them to you and seek to learn the lesson from the characters. These are the old boys of your school, the School of Faith, into which you have been brought in these modern days. The first boy, as you remember, was Abel, and we called him the boy who was right. The second boy was Enoch, and we called him the boy who pleased God. The third boy was Noah, and we called him the boy who prepared.
The fourth boy, the outstanding scholar, to graduate, we called the boy who obeyed, Abraham. Now I feel that we preachers very, very often, leave the ladies out far too much. And I feel that perhaps it's right this morning and tomorrow to talk about some of the old girls of the school of faith. I don't know how many of you have been curious enough to search through this chapter to find out how many girls there are in the chapter. I think it would surprise you if you really looked. But I purpose this morning and tomorrow to talk about four of the old girls, the grand old girls of the school of faith.
And of course the first one is going to be Sarah in verse eleven. I want you to meet the girls. Now it's an amazing fact that a baby Whether a boy or a girl is a bundle of possibilities. I don't care who you take, any great figure like General Eisenhower or Queen Elizabeth, you got to face the fact that they came into the world a little spawking baby. And out of that little bundle of possibilities there has grown and developed the great military president or the Queen of a Commonwealth.
Now, behind nearly every man, you can find a woman. It may be a mother's influence on that life. It could be a sister's amazing influence and often devotion. More often, perhaps, it's the wife, the wife who, behind the scenes so often in a public man's life, influences and directs. You see, the man may be the head, but nearly always the woman's the neck that turns the head. And I think we've got to face the fact that as we meet the girls, we shall find that they have a tremendous influence on the lives of their men's folk.
Now, there's a tremendous difference between a man and a woman. You know that, don't you? I think I'm right in saying that when you hear a man talk, he says, I think... And when you hear a woman talk, she says, I feel. It doesn't mean that women don't think and it doesn't mean that men don't feel. But I believe that men are so constructed that largely they think things out. But very often a woman's intuition is an amazing thing and it's often right. And never forget that God built a woman. and brought a woman that he had built and prepared and gave her to the man that he had created in his image.
And they were one. And for this cause a man shall leave his mother and father and cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. Now, six thousand, no, five thousand years ago, civilization was beginning to spread out in the world and there's no doubt about it that those old civilizations in China in the Euphrates Valley in Egypt they reached their peaks and today there's many things that our modern world cannot do anything like those old civilizations now for instance take one thing when they broke into and got into the tomb of King Tut Tutankhamen I believe they called him They found he was wrapped in linen.
And when they got these linen things unwrapped and they examined the linen, they found that the handmade linen from flax in Egypt thousands of years ago was five counts finer than the finest linen that can be produced in the north of Ireland today. And when you look at the handwork, the wonderful handwork of those old civilized people and compare it today with our modern mass production, our mass production looks really ridiculous. No, we mustn't boast too much in our twentieth century, and it's cleverness somehow those old folks a thousand years ago knew how to do things.
And here's the fact. In the Chinese characters, the old Chinese characters They have actually got the story of the creation of man, of his fall, of his hiding under the tree, later on of the flood, written in the characters of an old civilization thousands of years old. Any Chinese missionary who knows the Mandarin, who knows the characters, will tell you, for instance, that if they want to describe a married couple, not a man, not a woman, but those who have come together and are one they take a pencil now you can do it on your piece of paper if you like and they make a circle like that a complete round circle and then they divide it how would you divide a circle or you say put a line right through it in the middle oh no no no no they take the pencil and they make an S in the circle and you put an S in the middle of a circle and you divide the circle into two And the two parts fit together so beautifully.
The two shall be one. And the character in the Mandarin for a married couple is the circle with an S inside, like this that completely and absolutely divides it, and yet makes it one. Now I'm going to call Sarah, you can put down her name, the girl who was strengthened. There it is, verse eleven. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength. The girl who was strengthened. Now, if you want to go back to Genesis chapter eleven and verse thirty, you will find a statement made that Sarah was barren.
I think our young people should be brave to face these facts that come out in history. Here is in Genesis chapter eleven, verse thirty, the statement that this gracious girl who shared the life of Abraham had no children. Her heart's desire may have been for children. She longed for a family, but the years went by, and the simple statement is there in verse thirty. But Sarah was barren and had no child. Now, the reason for it, we're not told.
If such a thing happens today, I suppose a doctor is consulted and experts get busy and they try to find whether it's the male or the female thought and they try corrections and all sorts of things. But there is Sarah with a heart longing for children, but no child comes to that married couple. Now, as we talked of Abraham and saw him leaving Ur of the Chaldees and then leaving Heran and coming down into Canaan and going down into Egypt and coming back to Canaan, and we followed his career, never forget this, by his side was this gracious woman, his wife.
Think what it meant to her to leave the lush conditions of Ur of the Chaldees. To leave possibly a palace, to go out to live in a tent. You like a couple of weeks, you know, down in tents here at Yosemite, but you might be glad to get back to the home bed. Oh, yes, when those lovely, healthy camping days are over, it's lovely to get home, but think of months after months and year after year in tents. No fridge. No other inconveniences when darkness came down at night, and this precious girl faced this pilgrimage. Pilgrims, strangers, away from the old settings, moving on, living in tents and building an altar, as her husband, the friend of God, walked with God, he had a companion.
Now do you know that Abraham's wife, Sarah, was his half-sister? If you would like to check on that in Genesis chapter twenty verse twelve, it's good to get these things straight. You'll find that Abraham wasn't a liar when he said she's my sister. She was. His half sister. But what he didn't reveal on several occasions was that she was his wife. Now look at verse twelve chapter twenty. And yet indeed she is my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother.
And she became my wife. And so Sarah, the half-sister of Abraham, was his wife and shared his life. Now her name means Princess. Personally, I don't like the name Sarah. Forgive me if you've got that name. I think there are many nicer, sweeter sort of little names, but it's a beautiful meaning. The word Sarah means Princess. And there's every evidence in Scripture that she was a charming woman, a beautiful woman. And right to her old age, men looked at her and they were struck by her beauty. They even desired her companionship, to share life with her.
Now there's one thing that strikes me in Genesis sixteen, verse two, would you like to look at it? I find in verse two of chapter sixteen these words, And Sarah said unto Abraham, 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 Abraham harken to the voice of Sarah. In other words, that little phrase impresses this point. Here was a husband who listened to his wife.
And the part of his life was largely directed by the advice of his wife. Now, I don't know what you think of this. I'm going to tell you that my impression, as I look back over the long years, is that women folk have a tremendous influence over their men folk. And if you tell a man you are doing that because your wife wants you to, or advises you to, or thinks you ought to, he'll immediately say, not a bit of it. But all the time it's true. And for good or for bad, women folk very often raise the standards that men live to.
And Abraham hearkened to the voice of Sarah. In this case, it was not good advice. Well, verse five, and Sarah said unto Abraham, this is Genesis sixteen, My wrong is upon me. I have given my maid into thy bosom. And when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. The Lord judged between me and thee. Now here is something that's very important. Here is a wife, a woman, who can talk with her man. Yes, even in intimate things, they can talk over their life, their married life, their behavior, their children later on.
And I tell you, it means a great deal when a husband and wife can talk together, can counsel together, and there's no gulf between them. They're the sharer of all the intimate things of life. and how much greater when they can kneel together and pray together and read the word of God together and share the deeper things of a holy walk with God. I think most marriages that break up on this point. I think that gulfs that come between husband and wife nearly always come on this point. But instead of sharing, on an equal basis, talking things over, together coming into the presence of the Lord and sharing it all with him, and solutions are found, and the Lord's will is found, those gouts grow and grow and grow till marriage is erect.
Now in chapter seventeen and verse one of Genesis we read when Abraham was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said unto him, I am the Almighty God, El Shaddai, the all-sufficient God, walk before me and be thou perfect. And he promises him that he is going to give him that promised Son. Now look at verse fifteen. And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarah thy wife, Thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name, and I will bless her and give her a son. And she shall be the mother of nations, kings and people shall be of her.
Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, the laugh of doubt. It's impossible. Here is an old man laughing. He says it couldn't happen. It just couldn't happen. Now will you turn over to chapter eighteen in Genesis and verse nine. And they said unto Abram, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, 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.
Verse twelve. Therefore Sarah laughed with him herself, saying, After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also? The Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child which am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Abraham and his wife are laughing, the laugh of doubt. It's impossible. And the one who's dealing with them, their great friend, who's drawing near in these intimate matters, says, Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is anything too hard for the Lord?
Now keep that in mind, Christian. Will you keep it in mind? Nineteen sixty-four, in the school of God, is anything... too hard for the Lord. Keep it in mind, because we've got to apply these tools, make them up to date in the school of faith today. I know, oh, I know you're going from Yosemite, I am, and we're going back to the old battlegrounds and valleys and the old situations, and we are going to say, oh, it's impossible, impossible. God can do it through that man and that woman, but somehow he could never do it through me. I haven't got it in me. I could never be the instrument.
It's not me. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is it too hard for the Lord to take that lovely girl there? Is it too hard for the Lord to take that lovely boy there? Is it too hard for the Lord to take that mature man there? Is it too hard for the Lord to take that dear sister there and make them fruit-bearing Christians back home in school and college and neighborhood where God has put you? It's too hard, says Sarah. I could never bring to the birth a child. You said that? I could never win a soul and see the Spirit of God bringing someone to a new birth because I was the instrument in the Lord's hand.
Oh, I'm a businessman. I leave it to the evangelists to win souls. I've got business to attend to. Is anything to have for the Lord? Is it impossible that your business could be a pulpit where you could display Christ and win businessmen for the Lord? Is anything too hard for the Lord? I've got a home and there's a neighborhood around me. But I can't touch my neighbors. They're all ungodly. Just a moment. Have you ever had a coffee hour for them? Have you ever gathered those children of your neighbors in to teach them choruses and Bible stories and flannel graph? Is anything too hard for the Lord? And here we are in all our barrenness, and the years are passing by, and we've got almost into the place where we don't expect or want God to give us children.
Instead of the cry of Rachel, give me children, or I die. Life is silly and foolish. Unless I have children, many Christians never bring children to the birth. Never see God's spirit doing that gracious work through them as channels. Yet you can go to any school and see a lovely spirit-filled schoolgirl displaying the love of Christ and winning her school friends for Christ. You can go to hospitals and see nurses winning nurses for Christ. You can see Christian businessmen touching their circle of business, winning businessmen for Christ. You can see women today devoting their home, their coffee pot.
There are everything to the Lord, and the Lord is giving them souls. Why not you? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Now read in Genesis chapter twenty-one, and this is thrilling. Genesis twenty-one verse one. And the Lord visited Sarah. I love that little phrase, don't you? It seems that the Lord came and knocked at the door, he said. come to have a visit with you. He visited Sarah. He bypassed Abraham altogether. And the Lord visited Sarah, as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah, as he had spoken.
And the wonderful promised child came to the birth. Verse three, and Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bears unto him. Isaac, and the word Isaac means laughter. And here is this old couple who were laughing in doubt in the tents, laughing and sniggering up their sleeves and saying, It's quite impossible. Now their laugh of doubt has turned to a laugh of faith, and they are laughing hilariously. And they call the boy, laughter. Oh, that God would turn our laugh of doubt into a laugh of faith.
Oh, that there might be boys and children born who will bear the name of laughter because, by faith, Sarah received strength. Now the end of Sarah's life is this. She died in chapter twenty-three, Genesis verse one. You read of her death at the age of a hundred and twenty-seven years of age. When she died, her miracle boy, Isaac, was thirty-six years old. She never saw Rebecca, the one that Eliezer went into the distant land to woo and win and bring to Isaac.
And Sarah parted out of the picture. But now the old girl that we've looked at in the school of faith brings the challenge to your heart and to mine. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Now, will you take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians three? And I want to, in nineteen sixty four, make this lesson from the school of faith practical to my heart and yours. Ephesians three, verse fourteen.
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family circle in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you. Now this is getting right personal, up to date. It's talking about you. Yes, that young man back there who didn't even bring his Bible to the Bible talk this morning. He can't see it, but it's to you. And that girl who feels in the secret of her heart, I can never be a useful Christian. It's to you that he would grant you what? According to the riches of his glory to be strengthened.
By faith Sarah received strength. The empowering and enabling to do the impossible. All things are possible with God, and the laugh of faith says, God is a God of the impossible, and God can and will do it, and I expect Him to. And faith steps out on the seeming void and finds the rock beneath. Faith says, yes, faith is the evidence of things not seen. The things I hoped for, but I thought couldn't be true in my life, are made true by faith.
Now, what is the strengthening? Read it carefully. That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might in the inner man, that you might become an evangelist like Billy Greer. No. To be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that you might become a missionary like Mary Satter. No. And so you could put a thousand things in there that you want to be. But God rubs them all out. And he says, no, that's not my plan. I'm only going to entrust you with this strengthening with might by the Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
that Christ may be atone in your lives, and live His life through you, so that you reproduce and touch others. And the grace and beauty and love and joy and peace and power of the Lord through you will begin to touch other lives, and you will see children born. Oh, brothers and sisters, this is the tremendous calling of a Christian. God's not going to entrust to you the strengthening with might by His Spirit in the inner man for any other reason than this, that Christ may be atone in your heart, sitting on the throne, sovereign Lord, to think His thoughts through your mind, the mind of Christ, to look through your eyes, the outlook of Christ.
to speak through your lips the message of Christ, to love through your heart the love of Christ constraining you, to will through your will, not my will but thine be done, to work through your hands, to walk through your feet. Christ liveth well in me, and the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who back on the lonely cross loved me and gave himself for me. This is the calling of the Christian. And into the school of faith God brought the old girl, now long graduated out of that school, Sarah, Princess. A lovely name.
Just as Jacob was made a prince with God and had power with God, so this girl was a princess and stood in her standing in the presence of God for divine strengthening, for the great calling of becoming the mother of the miracle child, through which the stream of blessing would go out to touch the millions of souls, not only in the Gentile world, but the Israel world. as sand upon the seashore as the stars of the heaven in number. I wonder if I close, for we've only been able to touch this one girl. This morning time has gone.
If you will take to heart this lesson, if anything too hard for the Lord, the precious days under the big trees will be over soon, and you'll be back home. I'll be plugging through the old hills and valleys of Jamaica and into the villages and the fishing villages and such like with the old job of preaching the gospel and instructing the Lord's people. You'll be back in your corner where you serve him. But is it too hard to think that the Lord could strengthen you for a life of displaying Christ? and as He wills it a life of fruit-bearing for the glory of the Lord and reproduction, perhaps, in seeing many souls won for Him.
This is a possibility that you can miss. This is something that you can allow selfishly the world to fissure away, and you can go through the school of faith without really touching it and entering into it. just as God examined Abraham and brought him through test after test after test. So this gracious woman was by his side, sharing these tests, talking things over with her husband about these tests. And she came through and graduated from that school with flying colors. Is anything too hard for the Lord? You say no. Is it impossible then that He could strengthen you, that Christ might be magnified in your body and life, seven days a week in all the settings of life.
And because Christ is seen in your life, folks will be attracted to Him, and you'll see them one for Christ, and you'll be passing on the life of Christ to others. Shall we pray?