Faith and Action

Genesis 18

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

One the facts that make it difficult for us to realize how dependent we are on God is that we look
so solid. I mean the body feels kind of solid, squashy — depending on how much you eat — but
pretty solid. It is true that the scientists are helping us a little to realize that that
[indicating a hand] really isn’t so solid. Or that this [indicating a chair] isn’t so solid. And
that E=mc2 suggests that this really is not solid at all but it is made up of all kinds of little
electrical charges; protons and neutrons and even smaller particles then that that are orbiting
around each other at tremendous speed. Do you remember that the suggestion is that even if you vary
the speed of that you can actually make this go through walls and do all kinds of things that Jesus
resurrection body did?

But certainly we are all beginning to get hold of the idea that this isn’t as solid as we thought it
was. And so it is becoming increasingly believable for people like ourselves in the 20th Century to
realize that we are very dependent on whatever power holds all these protons and neutrons together
and keeps them spinning the way they do. Indeed we do begin to realize with a thing like cancer,
that something can go wrong in the system and those protons and neutrons start spinning the wrong
way or start multiplying the cells. So we can see it is possible that some little thing can go wrong
with that complex system and the whole thing begins to spin in the wrong way. So it is more and more
credible to us when we are told that it is God that keeps you and me together. It is God that holds
you together; that if God withdrew his little finger you would explode into a million pieces. That
if God withdrew his little finger you would disappear or you would become one of those black holes
of immense density of matter that would be absolutely incapable of any kind of personal response.

So I think it is more and more credible to people like ourselves who know some of these things that,
in fact, we are utterly dependent on our Father. And loved ones whether we know it or not, whether
we believe it or not, we are utterly dependent on this being that holds everything together. The
more we hear from the doctors the more we realize we don’t know. They talk about the beat of the
heart being basic and yet nothing can explain why that wave starts in a certain part of the heart.
They don’t really know why it starts. They can describe it with all kinds of electrical impulses,
but they can’t tell where that electrical impulse comes from. And the more we get into what we do
know of medicine the more we realize we are all utterly dependant on whatever that power is that
keeps our heart beating, and that, really, if God decided this moment; you would go out like a
light, you would just go out like that. And that every night that passes the miracle is that you and
I awake in the morning. That’s the miracle — that someone has kept this process going through the
night. It becomes more and more miraculous the more we see the trouble we have to go to in order to
keep these things going — how much trouble it takes us to imbed pacemakers in someone’s chest — so
that the heart can receive that impulse that keeps it going.

The more we realize the kind of machinery that is required to keep kidney’s functioning, and the
more we realize how impossible it is for us to keep more then maybe 10 or 20 people in a city going
on dialysis, the more we realize that we are very dependent on a great Creator that keeps the
processes of our bodies and our minds going continually. So loved one’s we are very dependant on
him, that’s just reality. That’s simple reality. We aren’t even talking yet about the amazing powers
that enable us, with these little cameras that we have, to see the things all around us — to focus

on them so fast and to have little images of those things come into the backs of our eyes and into
our brains and then it’s able to interpret and translate those into some kind of meaningful language
that we can use to direct our hands, our feet and our ears to respond to it. We’re not talking about
all that miraculous connection that ties up our senses; our hearing and seeing and feeling and
touching and tasting with this external world. And then we’re not even touching the whole amazing
world of perception that is beyond ourselves whereby you or I walk into a room where there is
somebody else and without even being able to see them or hear them, we sense a whole attitude that
is coming from them to us; a whole psychological attitude that is different from the attitude that
somebody else is sending to us; that whole world of vibrations and all the psychological feelings
and psychological life.

All of that is maintained by our Father upon whom we are, actually, utterly dependent. Love one’s
faith is simply recognizing that and living in that reality; that’s what faith is. Faith is just
realizing all of that and resting back and saying, “Thank you Father, thank you. Thank you Lord that
everything that I have and everything that I am comes from you moment by moment. Thank you Lord.”
And in the moment anything goes wrong with this system say, “Father I know there is only one who can
fix this; Lord I thank you that you are already working on it. I thank you Father that I don’t need
to have an extra beat of my heart, not an extra moment of worry, Father, thank you.” So as the
eyesight goes, or the hearing goes, or the sickness comes up in the body or the little cold or flu
is felt, or the terrible cancer is diagnosed; there is a resting back and saying, “Father thank you
Lord that you have noticed all the other things in me as I have gone through this life, and you’ve
certainly known this dreadfully wrong thing that has taken place, and Father you have provided for
everything else in the world and I know you’ve provided for this.” That’s what faith is. Faith is
just relaxing day by day continually in that certainty. That of course is what brings peace to our
hearts and that’s what also opens to us the whole continuing world of life that God is anxious to
pour upon us. That’s why that whole world of life that rectifies things moment by moment as we go
along can only come in upon us as we exercise that faith which is very rational and reasonable.

Now loved ones you can sense that then the Father is here carrying all of us; he’s carrying us,
that’s what he’s doing. He’s carrying your heart and my heart. He’s carrying your blood circulation.
He’s carrying the operation of your brain. He’s carrying the car that carry’s you through the day.
He’s holding all the matter and the protons and the neutrons together that form the engine block.
He’s holding it all together, so he has it all in his hands. What pleases him and delights him is
when you just recognize that is reality, and you acknowledge and there’s a great peace between him
and you. He feels, “Yeah these are my dear children; I’m carrying them and they know it. Oh how good
it is, how good it feels; they know that I’m here and I know that they’re here and we’re together,
and this is what family is about.” The Father gets great pleasure and great peace from that, and
that opens the way for the transfer of his life to you and me, and of your love to him; so you
breathe in his life and you breathe out your love and your faith to him.

Now think of the situation if he’s carrying all of us — even two of us or three of us, let alone a
dozen of us or twenty of us or three billion of us, and we’re all saying, “Well what are we going to
do here; we have this life, we have these hearts, we have this earth here. Now what are we going to
do with it? Well I know what I would like to do; I’d like to do this, and this, and this. And I wish
it would work better; I’m sorry we have such a poor operation here but let’s get to work and let’s
do something about it. I don’t know what on earth is behind this whole thing, but I’m glad we have
control of it now; let’s get in and use it for our own purposes.” Loved one’s, it’s a barrier, a
wall of concrete, between us and our dear Father. Its darts and swords and bullets and pains and
agonies of all kind that come into his heart that shatter that mystic love-sensitive relationship of

the Father with his children. That’s what unbelief is, and that’s what lack of faith is.

So when the Father sees you worrying, or he sees you anxious because the money isn’t working out or
the job isn’t working out or because you’re sick or because there’s something wrong in your home or
there’s something wrong in the relationship and he sees you worrying and anxious about it, it has
the same effect on him as those people who are saying “Well I’m glad we have this thing in our own
control.” It’s exactly the same [attitude] as the Hitler’s. It’s exactly the same as the murderers;
it brings pain to him. That lack of faith is the deepest sin in his eyes, because it breaks utterly
the continuing flow of life between him and you.

Now that’s what faith is, you see. And what we’re talking about these Sunday evenings is the joy
and the delight of living in that faith moment by moment every day and that’s the faith that was
established in what was known as the covenant of faith, between God and Abraham. God said to
Abraham, “Now you’re 75” that’s what he was first, then, “You’re 86”, then, “Now you’re 99 and even
though the world say’s you cannot have a son, and you’re wife is only 10 years younger then you and
she can’t bear a child, I’m going to give you a son.” And Abraham did a very reasonable thing, for a
man like the rest of us here who knew that God holds everything in his hands, he believed God. God
regarded that as right and he was pleased with Abraham, and that’s what he is with you and me. There
isn’t really need for a whole lot of contortions; there isn’t need for a whole lot of “What can I do
to please God, or what should I do right to make him like me?” There isn’t need for all of that;
there’s just need for trusting him. You’ve just to believe God. You’ve just to begin to look up to
him and say, “Father I believe you and I trust you. And as my life passes, I trust you every step of
the way for each situation that pleases God.”

That’s the faith that justifies; that’s the faith that makes you righteous in his eyes. That’s the
faith that makes you right with him. Why? Because that’s reality; you are utterly dependent upon
him. You are — every moment you are. So you just recognizing that and living in that peace makes
you right with him. It opens the gates to heaven, sets up a “Jacobs Ladder” between you and heaven,
and you begin to have commerce with the powers of God in heaven. That’s what we’re talking about
these Sunday evenings. That’s all that faith is. It’s nothing mysterious. It’s nothing very
religious. It’s just living in that peace day by day, and you can know that, of course. The Holy
Spirit will witness to you when you’re not living in that faith. The Holy Spirit witnesses to you —
especially to you in worry — do you see that; especially in worry. We have gone so far astray from
God that we think worry is a little thing. We’re so stupid aren’t we? We’re so silly, we say, “Sex
— that’s a big sin, but worry, well that’s just a little psychological weakness.” Well I’m not
playing down the immorality that’s involved in sexual license, but really that’s not the worst sin
at all; the worst sin is lack of faith, its lack of trust in God, worrying, being anxious; that
hurts God just as much and it seems almost more, then simply doing wrong things — though you do
wrong things because you don’t trust him. Those of us involved in sexual license are involved in it
because we don’t trust him to give us what we need in our emotional and physical lives so we are
going after it ourselves. That hurts him too. But they both, the worry and sexual license, have the
same common denominator; they lack trust in the Father. They lack deep peace and faith in him. So
loved one’s that’s why faith is so vital and that’s why God established that covenant of faith with
Abraham and said, “You’re going to be the father of all those that believe me, because that’s the
way I want my people to live.”

That’s what God did: he established a covenant of faith with Abraham and we read about that in
Genesis 15. Then in Genesis 17 God gave to Abraham a sign that that had been established. He gave
him that sign in Genesis 17:9, “And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant”

the covenant of faith that I have made with you, “you and your descendants after you throughout
their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep,” this is the sign of the covenant
“between me and you and your descendants after you; every male among you shall be circumcised. You
shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between
me and you.” Now even that was only a sign of what God had already done in Jesus, and that is
described in Colossians 2:11. “In him also” that is, in Jesus, “you were circumcised with a
circumcision made without hands.” So even that circumcision, back in Abraham’s time, was only a
sign of a spiritual circumcision that had already taken place in the “lamb slain from before the
foundation of the world.” “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands,
by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; and you were buried with him in
baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him
from the dead. And you, who were dead in trespasses and the
uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our
trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set
aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example
of them, triumphing over them in him.”

God has already done all that — that’s what that says. God circumcised you with a circumcision not
made with hands; he circumcised that body of flesh of yours. What is the body of flesh? The little
independent, worrying, anxious body; the mind; the emotions that are constantly working as if there
is no God and there is no dear Father. That body of flesh was circumcised — was cut away from you
in Jesus — and was buried with him by baptism into death. That all has been done, it has been
done; you can believe that this moment and you can be free of it. So some of us say, “I’m trying to
put away this body of flesh, I am. This body of flesh that gets angry and impatient and gets
irritable and gets lustful, I’m trying to put it away. I’m doing everything possible to put it
away.” Well that’s pretty dumb– it’s already been put away. What are you working yourself to death
about? That’s what the Father feels, you see. He says, “But wait my child, that’s what I did in my
son. You can never put away that body of flesh — it’s too much part of you. You know that — you’ve
tried to put away the lust, you’ve tried to put away the pride, you’ve tried to put away the envy,
and you’ve tried to stop worrying. You know you’ve tried to do that but it’s so much part of you.
Do you see only me, with my knife, could cut around that. Only I could do it, and I did it; I
circumcised that body of flesh in my son Jesus. I put you into him and I cut that all away and you
are free of that; its Satan that is trying to persuade you that that body of flesh is still all
around you and you believe him. No –believe me.” And you’re saying, “Oh but when I see the signs
of it!” “Still believe in me” he says, “Believe me, believe it to death. Don’t try to suffocate it
to death or beat it to death or train it to death or church go it to death, believe it to death.
Believe me I’ve already done this.” That’s the situation we are all in, actually. We are all in
that position where we have all been circumcised in Jesus and all God is asking us is to have faith
that that is so. We can do that this very night loved ones. You can have faith that that is done.

I don’t know how many of you are anxious to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and how many of you are
so anxious to be clear of that old [Dr.] Hyde that is inside you that makes the Dr. Jekyll seem such
a hypocrite. Well it has already been done. You have already been circumcised in Jesus and God is
saying, “Believe this.” And if you say to me, “I do believe it, but it does seem that I still have
some of these things in my life.” That’s God showing you some of the things that you’re not yet
ready to let go of and he’s saying, “Let go of it. Let go of it my child. Let me show you what it
will be like if you’re clear of it. Let go of it and believe me that I have already done away with
it and that I have a more beautiful thing for you in its place.” God is urging us to step into
that. So loved one’s that’s what faith is; faith is believing that.

Now that’s what Abraham actually was beginning to enter into. So what we see in Chapter 18 tonight
is where he has really begun to become a friend of God. That’s what he was called you remember. It’s
a great privilege to be called the friend of God, and that’s what Jesus called us; he said “I’ve
called you, not servants, but I’ve called you friends, because a servant doesn’t know what his Lord
is doing. I’ve called you friends because you’re a part of me.” And this was how Abraham behaved; as
the friend of God, in Genesis 18:1, “And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at
the door of his tent in the heat of the day.” The thing a lot of us tend to say is, “God actually
appeared to him? Well you know that is a lot easier to believe in then what we have: we don’t have
Jesus visible before our eyes and that’s what makes my prayer time a lot harder.” But actually the
Lord couldn’t appear to him because of what we read in John 1:18, “No one has ever seen God.” So
actually God couldn’t appear to him because the Bible says no one has ever seen God but you see the
next part of the verse, “the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.”
Jesus is the one that expresses God to us. You remember back in verse 2 it says, “He was in the
beginning with God.” So when it says in Genesis 18 “The Lord appeared by the oaks of Mamre,” it’s
not God, but it’s Jesus “as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day.” Some of us will
say, “At least it was Jesus, but at least he saw him with his physical eyes.” Well of course that
would be sight and not faith if that’s what happened, but that’s not what happened as you see in
verse 2. “He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men stood in front of him.” That’s
all he saw– three men. We’re told in the Bible, because God is giving us the view from heaven,
we’re being told, “Now the Lord appeared to Abraham” but then we go down to earth and see Abraham
looking up, and all he see’s is three men. So Abraham was actually in the same situation as you and
I are; all he saw was three men. He didn’t see Jesus in front of his eyes recognizable as Jesus.

In other words he was in the same position as those two men, you remember, on the road to Emmaus in
Luke 24:13. Its one of those post-resurrection experiences that took place, “That very day two of
them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each
other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together,
Jesus himself drew near and went with them.” Verse 16, “But their eyes were kept from recognizing
him.” So whatever resurrection appearance he had, they weren’t able to recognize him as Jesus, and
Abraham was in the same position; he saw three men, one of whom was Jesus and two who were angels of
God. So he was in the same position — he just saw three men; he was in the same position as these
men on the road to Emmaus.

Then you see in Luke 21:31 what happened to them, “And their eyes were opened and they recognized
him; and he vanished out of their sight.” So, suddenly something happened so that they saw; they
were able to recognize that this man whom they couldn’t recognize physically as Jesus was in fact,
Jesus. In other words the eyes of their faith were opened and they saw him. Now when did that
happen? Back in Luke 24:27, “And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them
in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
word of God. [Romans 10:17].

The way to know the presence of God in our own quiet times is to spend time in this dear word, to
allow the words of this book to become the real world for us. As you do that, as you soak yourself,
loved ones, in this dear book, this world becomes more real then this passing facade that is around
about us. You’re faith begins to grow as you spend time in this book and spend time, not just
reading it, we have a lot of Bible study courses that are good, but so many of them are just reading
it as if it’s a book or studying it as if it’s a book or studying it to get answers on some
doctrine. Well no; soak yourself in it as the love letters of your Father to you. Search it to know

his heart, to understand the way he thinks. Einstein said “Why do I do my studies and my theory’s
and form my hypothesis? Because I want to know how God thinks. I want to know how he thought when he
put this world together.” Now that’s why you study this book; to find out how God thinks. As you
spend time doing that you begin to understand and see how he thinks and your faith rises, then God
begins to be real to you in your quiet times. So many of us have real trouble because we live not
just in this world, we have to live in this world; most of us are either business people, or we work
in someway; we’re arguing about payables and receivables or we’re arguing with somebody else. We’re
in the midst of this world — most of us are — in the middle of that rough tumble market place. But
loved ones you don’t need to live there in your heart. Your mind can be occupied with those things,
your emotions even, but in your heart you can live in the world of this book. And so in your heart
you can live in a world of faith and it’s in that world of faith that you begin to recognize the
presence of God when he comes into your consciousness. That’s how Abraham did it, you see.

Genesis Chapter 18:1, “And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of
his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men stood in
front of him.” Then this is what we need to do when we have faith: “When he saw them, he ran from
the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to earth and said, ‘My lord, if I have found favor in
your sight, do not pass by your servant’” he acted in faith, “‘Let a little water be brought, and
wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I fetch a morsel of bread, that you may
refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on — since you have come to your servant.’” Could
have said, “I think one of them looks different, but it’s nothing, they’re just three men — hi
guys.” He could have said that; but he acted on what he believed in his faith was true. He acted in
accordance with that. See, there are times in prayer, a time in quietness, when you sense God has
said something to you and you need to act on that. But too often we say, “It was probably my own
thoughts. It’s probably just the turning of my own mind. It’s just my memory of something I read.”
And so we have entertained an angel, but we pass by so quickly, and we missed the moment.

Faith is action; it’s acting in accordance with that. There’s no real miracle in that, you know, but
there’s an appropriateness to it, isn’t there. The act itself won’t do anything, but when you meet
somebody like the King of Kings, it’s very natural to bow down; it’s very natural to kneel. So not
only is that the important thing in prayer, but particularly when a moment of quietness comes and
you sense God is saying, “I’m here my child, I’m real, drop everything and get to work.” Act in
accordance with that. I don’t know how much of this “in and out” you do in prayer time: “Well Lord
— just got a few minutes here, just want to bring you up to date. Then you bring him up to date
and, “Okay Lord have to go.” I think it’s just bluff and the Father knows it. Father knows you
wouldn’t treat the Queen of England this way, let alone the King of the Universe. So there is a way
in which faith expresses itself in action, loved ones; the way Abraham treated this person whom he
believed to be Jesus himself, and so with us.

I don’t know how you do it in your bedroom, but God was good to me when I was a teenager; he showed
me it was much more reasonable to think Jesus was in my very bedroom and it was very reasonable to
stand in his presence and to speak to him, or it was very reasonable to bow at certain times on my
knees to him. But it was very reasonable to treat him as a real person in my bedroom. There is an
appropriateness of action that expresses faith and there is an inappropriateness of action that
actually kills faith and murders it. So this is what we see here with the friend of God in verse 4;
“ ‘Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I
fetch a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on — since
you have come to your servant.’” And there is some recognition of the gratitude to God for giving
him this moment of revelation.

I don’t know if you remember what Thomas a Kempis said. He said “Sometimes God grants us the grace
of devotion” and that’s beautiful isn’t it? “Sometimes God grants us the grace of devotion.” So
often we react against that and we say, “He better; he ought to be glad that we are ready to devote
ourselves to him, that ought to be something that we feel all the time.” But the men who have come
close to God realize that it’s God’s graciousness that gives us the grace of devotion at times. Now
when the grace of devotion comes to you say that to God: “Lord thank you for coming by my house.
Thank you for coming. Thank you for giving me this grace of devotion. Lord I leave everything aside
and I express this to you.” So when you sense that God has come by your house, then give time to him
and act in accordance with your faith.

I think many times we have lost the presence of God and lost a great deal of word from him because
we have not acted in accordance with our faith. I don’t know how you think about it, but I think we,
in our expedient way say “What does it matter? I mean I can get that back any time.” Well you can’t
get it back anytime. When the Lord comes upon the scene you need to respect him and recognize him.
You may say “Now wait a minute Pastor, you know that God is omnipotent, God is omniscient, God is
everywhere.” Now we know that God is everywhere all the time, but loved ones, we still are in a time
space world, and God is still gracious in that he comes to us at certain times in a more real way
then at others, at least it seems more real because we can perceive it. At those times he expects us
to recognize it and respect what he’s done. He knows the difference; we don’t know. Maybe in heaven
we learn, I don’t know how it works, but probably in heaven we learn how God is able to, even though
he is here in all our hearts at this moment, and yet at certain times he is able to make himself
more known to us. But certainly we can see that’s a favor from him, and that’s something he wants us
to recognize and have faith in, not take a kind of pragmatic attitude to it. “Oh well, I must have
had a better dinner tonight or my perception is a little better tonight, or it must be that song we
sang at church; I can sense Jesus’ presence a little more.” No, this is a holy moment when the
Savior comes upon the scene. Recognize him. Respect him. Leave aside everything and pay attention to
him.

I don’t know how you do with interruptions when somebody knocks on the door or somebody calls, or
your T.V. program is on, but if there was a knock on the door and it was the President you would not
dream of saying “Excuse me Mr. President; I’m busy with something else right now.” You would realize
that you have an important guest and you would pay attention to him. Now that seems to come into
this. Obviously Abraham had the attitude “Let bread be brought. Let me get the best things, kill a
nice lamb from the herd, and let me get everything, because my Lord has come to visit me today.”
There is something beautiful about that isn’t there? So if we would treat our Lord like that, those
moments in your prayer time would become precious.

Gerard Manley Hopkins has a poem that says “And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with
toil; And bears man’s smudge and share’s man’s smell:” It seems that we have so often smeared all
the beauty with our own rush and bustle and our desire to get on to the next thing. Faith requires
action that is appropriate to it, and God notices that. Now you say, “Wait a minute Pastor; God is
bright enough that he isn’t put off by our actions.” God knows that faith is action — it’s not just
a mental experience or an emotional experience.

So loved one’s if you look at verse 5, “while I fetch a morsel of bread, that you may refresh
yourselves” because he wanted Jesus to enjoy himself and of course that’s good, because when you
begin to be anxious that, “Lord Jesus I want you to know the things that I’ve done today and Lord I
want you to enjoy this” it’s great when you begin to be anxious for Jesus to refresh himself. Have

you ever thought that the Lord Jesus is refreshed when a member of his body communes with him?
That’s refreshing for Jesus and that gives him delight and pleasure. Verse 5 again, “and after that
you may pass on — since you have come to your servant. So they said, ‘Do as you have said.’ And
Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, ‘Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal,
knead it, and make cakes.’ And Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave
it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds, and milk, and the calf which he
had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.” So he
did everything that was appropriate to his faith that this was his Lord, the Savior of his life, the
Lamb who was symbolized by the lamb he had killed; the lamb that had died for him and that had
included him in his death.

Then verse 9, “They said to him, ‘Where is Sarah your wife?’” That’s the purpose that Jesus came by;
Jesus came by to build up Sarah’s faith. You remember this was because the promise that God had
given to Abraham had required Abraham’s wife very much in it. You remember in Genesis 15:5, “And he
brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you’re able to number
them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’” Then in Genesis 17 Abraham was told by
God that God would in fact give him a son and would give him it through Sarah in Genesis 17:19, “No,
but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac.” So Sarah was going to
bear the son, and in order to bear the son she had to have faith herself. That’s the way God works;
you have to have faith for the thing. God had already done it in Sarah — he had already included
Sarah’s old body in Jesus and he had destroyed that old body and resurrected it and made it new and
able to bear children. But it could only bear a child when Sarah herself had faith for that. Now
that’s the way Jesus works; it is unto you according to your faith.

So all of these things have already happened in your life, but unless you have faith for them God
cannot do them. Jesus said that in Mark 11:22, you have to have faith; “And Jesus answered them,
“Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast to the
sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be
done for him’” because it’s already been done in me, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in
prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” But you have to have faith for it
because God is bringing, out of eternity, the things that he has done there, and he is bringing them
into time. You don’t need H.G. Wells’ “Time Machine” to do that; you need faith. Faith is what
breaks the barrier of time and eternity and enables God to bring the things into your life.

The reason Sarah was able to have this child even though she was 89 years of age was because of her
faith. Hebrews 11:11 “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the
age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.” So Sarah received power to conceive by
faith. Now God had to bring her to that place because she wasn’t at that place at all and this is
why Jesus came; to build up Sarah’s faith. Verse 9, “They said to him, ‘Where is Sarah your wife?’
And he said, ‘She is in the tent.’ The Lord said, ‘I will surly return to you in the spring, and
Sarah your wife shall have a son.’ And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now
Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of
women. So Sarah laughed to herself saying, ‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I
have pleasure?’ The Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a
child, now that I am old?’ Is anything to hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to
you, in the spring, and Sarah shall have a son.’ But Sarah denied, saying, ‘I did not laugh’;
because she was afraid. He said, ‘No, but you did laugh.’” In other words, “I heard you but I will
still keep my promise.”

You can see why Abraham is called the friend of God; because God was so nice to him, so dear, so
familiar, and so intimate, as he is with us. He is trying to work that faith in you. He is trying
to build up your faith; and that’s why he works with you — yes he does. He’s kind, and gracious,
and patient. And he does know this; that he’s limited by your faith; only if your faith is exercised
can he do anything through you in this world; only if you believe him to do it. You have situations
coming up this week in your life that are not good — difficult situations that need to be changed.
God has already changed them in Jesus, but he can’t bring that change into time unless you believe
that it has been already done. And he is with you as he is with Sarah; he knows what went on behind
the tent door, and he knows whether there’s a chuckle or worry or anxiety in your heart. He knows if
there’s real faith and peaceful confidence, or if you’re just hoping for the best. And where he
see’s faith, he is able to bring the miracle that he has wrought in eternity in Jesus into time, and
make it manifest. So that might help you in dealing with other people; what you need to do is build
up their faith, but it might help also in regard to your own situation.

God is always trying to build up your faith. He’s trying to take away your faith in yourself and
your faith in the world, and he’s trying to build up your faith in his ability to do things. And of
course he usually has to deal with us as he did with Abraham and Sarah; he had to wait until they
were about 99 — until there was no hope; there was no life in them that could bring about anything.
You can see how far he has to go; there’s still hope that at 75 we might have a baby! Well maybe at
86 we might have a baby — it’s only when we get to 99 we think, “No way will we have a baby.” It’s
the same with this: God is gracious to us and often has to do hard things; often has to bring
obvious death into the situation in every other way. He often has to strip us of any hope of doing
anything about the situation ourselves, and only then, out of that fire and ashes, rises something
beautiful, some hope in God, some real confidence that he has done something about it.

Loved ones, that’s it; our Father, mighty though he is, cannot bring the miracles that he has
wrought for you into your life unless you have absolute confidence that he has already done these
things. The moment that you have absolute confidence that he has already done these things, the
moment you believe that the lamb has been slain from before the foundation of the world, and with
that lamb all the obstacles in your life — you, yourself, as well — the moment you begin to live
in that peaceful faith — that moment God begins to manifest it in your life and you begin to walk
that charmed way.

So I would say begin; stop this admixture of life. Stop this partial faith in yourself and partial
faith in God; partial faith in the luck of the circumstances and in other people and partial faith
in God, when the circumstances don’t work out right. Stop that mixture — let all of that die, and
put away all of your hope and trust in the world, and in yourself and in others. See that God has
walked this life before you and has planned it all and has a charmed way for you to walk that he has
made ready. It’s all ready loved ones; all you have to do is walk down this road, and the Father is
asking you to do it. He see’s you climbing over all these fences and he says, “Wait a minute; come
back here and walk here; I’ve cleared this way for you.” And you say, “I have to clear all the
fences myself you know. I have to do it — that’s what life’s about.” And the Father is saying,
“Come on, I have a way for you here that I cleared in my son Jesus.” And we keep on; reluctant to
believe. “Not to him that worketh not; but to him that believeth in him that justified the ungodly,
his faith has turned it for righteousness.” We keep on being reluctant to believe that and we keep
on wanting to work and work and bring it about, while God is always trying to get us back, “There’s
work to be done here on this road, plenty of work. But it’s different work; it’s not work involved
in trying to overcome the effects of the fallen world that God has already destroyed.” So I pray
that you’ll have a good week, and that you’ll actually change your actions to express your faith.

Let us pray.

Dear Father: We thank you for such a path. We thank you there is such a way to walk. Thank you Lord
that there is a way free from fret and anxiety; a way that is free from worry, a way that is free
from sharp, abrupt reactions against people that try to control them and a way that is free from
criticism to try to put people right. A way that is free from manipulating circumstances. A way that
is free from that arrogance that we so often feel we’re driven into to get things done. Lord there
is a way of gladness. There is a highway of holiness; a way that you have prepared for us to walk
upon that the wayfaring man will not miss; the wayfaring man who believes in the lamb that was slain
from before the foundation of the world, and who believes that you have made the darkness already
light before him and you have made the crooked things straight. Father thank you that that’s the way
you have for us to walk this week.

Lord, we look forward especially to the times when we are sitting under the oaks at Mamre, and the
Lord comes by. Lord, we will make room for you; we will put away the unimportant issues and the
unimportant things and we will make ourselves available to the King of Kings, to receive and hear
what you have to tell us. So Father we thank you for this charmed life that you have for us in
Jesus. We give ourselves to you now, for a good week of liberty, where you will manifest in time all
the victories that you have already won for us in eternity. Thank you Lord.

Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with
us now and evermore. Amen.