Faith, Means, Trusting God’s Leading
Feb. 14th 2021
You know why Abraham took Isaac to sacrifice his son at the age of 12? Because if he would have waited one more year when he would have been a teenager at 13, he wouldn’t have been a sacrifice? Bad joke I know…
This morning we are going to look at the faith of Abraham. Abraham demonstrated his faith by his unquestioning obedience to God, when God commanded him to sacrifice his son, Isaac…….. Faith and obedience go together like faith and Grace and are so important in our walk with God.
Abraham was a man who demonstrated great faith in God because he obeyed God without question, even when it appeared that he had some particularly good reasons to question God. God promised that his son would carry out God’s promise to Abraham to be the father of all nations, and now God is telling him to sacrifice his son.
Well folks, this is what I want us to see this morning. I want us to see how outside of Jesus, Abraham is the best example of obedience in the Bible. And how we can learn to live in obedience even when it is hard to.
So, let’s take a look at Hebrew 11:17-19 together and see what we can learn from Abraham offering up his son Isaac to God. First-
I-Faith recognizes that God sometimes tests us...
The first thing we learn about faith from Abraham, as well as from Isaac his son, is faith recognizes that God sometimes tests us. Look at the beginning of Hebrews 11:17 which says: “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.” “So how could a loving God approve of a child sacrifice?” Well, God never would approve of child sacrifice, and He never has. A part of why God had the Canaanites wiped out is because they sacrificed kids to their false gods. But that is what God told Abraham to do.… Genesis 22:1-2, “Sometime later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.” 2 “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
God was testing Abraham to see if Abraham loved Him more than anything else? You see folks, sometimes God tests us so that we may know what is in our hearts. The reason why God tests us is to prove our love for Him and our faith in Him.
1 Peter 1:7 says: “These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold, though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”
So, I ask myself, what might God ask me to give up as a sacrifice? Sometimes it just might be a lot.
The Pilgrim's Progress is a children's book written by John Bunyan about the sinful nature of man and God’s gift of salvation… Bunyan lived back at the end of the 1600s. King Charles II ended the 20 years in which the separated churches had enjoyed the freedom of worship. And John was put in an English dungeon for his faith for 12 years all because he would not stop preaching Jesus. He had a wife, kids as well as a little daughter who was blind. For 12 years he was not able to provide for them. He wrote in his journal: “I saw in this condition I was a man who was pulling down his house upon the head of his wife and children; yet, thought I, I must do it, I must do it.” And all he had to do, was stop preaching Jesus and he would be released. You see The Church of England ruled with a strong arm against anyone who when against its teachings…
Hebrew 11:17 says, “It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him.” As followers of Jesus, God must be first in our lives. And we must understand that God sometimes tests us to see if He is first in our lives, or are putting others or things ahead of Him.
You see, real faith recognizes that God sometimes tests us. NEXT-
II- Having faith means obeying God even when we don’t understand why…
Abraham could not understand why God would ask him to sacrifice Isaac, and yet he was still ready to obey God’s command. Verses 17-18: “It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, 18 even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.”
Abraham was willing to sacrifice his boy even though Abraham had received the promises of God concerning the future generations through Isaac who would inherit the land of Canaan and become a mighty nation. And right up to the moment when Abraham held the knife above his son, ready to plunge it into his heart, his one and only son who lay there bound and helpless on the altar. Knowing that his son Ismael was not the promised son, and after waiting 12 years for Isaac, God was asking Abraham to offer him up as a sacrifice? God had told Abraham Isaac was the key to the fulfillment of God’s promises concerning the land and the nation of Israel.
There is a conflict here is there. “Faith is fighting with faith, and the commandment is fighting with the promise.”
I believe that our conflicts of obedience usually have to do with the conflict between God’s commands and our desires. Think about it. Why are we so willing to claim God’s promise of eternal life, but we often hesitate to obey God’s commands? They both come from God!
Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
So, the question is, who are “we” to question God? God knows what is best for me far better than I do. Abraham believed that. Verse 18 God told Abraham, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham may not have understood God’s plan, but he still obeyed Him…
Folks, real faith obeys God even when we don’t understand it all. You see-
III- Having Faith means that I am going to trusts God to work out all the details…
It is like when Alpine offered to us to leave and we chose to leave Alpine Community Church as a church body. We voted to take a step of faith and start all over again trusting God to work out all the details. And He is and has. People are stepping up to serve like never before. I have never been so encouraged. Even during this pandemic people have continued to worship and serve. God has kept us going, and I believe that God even has greater things coming for us.
And so God’s Word teaches us that God sometimes He tests us. And real faith obeys God even when we do not understand. And faith trusts God to work out all the details. Abraham did not know how God was going to work this all out. But he was determined to obey God no matter what, and he trusted God to work out all the details.
Abraham trying to make sense of this command from God, “reasoned” that God could raise Isaac from the dead. Isaac must have children, but Isaac was 12, and if Isaac died before having any children, then God’s promise would be nullified. So, he believed that God must have the power to raise the dead. Now, that is remarkable faith. No one had ever been raised from the dead yet at this point in history. And yet Abraham reasoned his way to a belief in the resurrection of his son simply based on the promise and the command of God concerning Isaac…
Look at what Romans 4:17 says this about Abraham: “That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.”
Folks, there are a lot of parallels here with God and His Son and Abraham and his son. Abraham offered up his son in obedience to God’s command. And God offered His Son as a sacrifice. Jesus and Isaac were both obedient sons even to death. Isaac carried the wood for the burnt offering to his place of sacrifice… In the same way, Jesus carried the wood to his place of crucifixion. Abraham and Isaac had a three-day journey to Mount Moriah before Isaac was figuratively raised from the dead… Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose again on the third day. But there is one major difference. And the major difference between Jesus and Isaac is this. God stopped Abraham’s hand from sacrificing Isaac… God provided a lamb as a substitute for Isaac so that he would not have to die.
But God did not provide a substitute for Jesus. Jesus was the substitute so that “we” would not have to die.
When Isaac asked his father, “Where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” Abraham answered, “God will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” (Genesis 22:7-8) And God provided a ram for Isaac that day. John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:28). God provided for us. So the good news of the gospel is, God loved us enough that He was willing to sacrifice His only Son for us. PTL… If God would have let Abraham sacrifice his son, then we would not have had our needed sacrifice to rid us of the power and consequences of sin.
At the beginning of today’s message, I asked you a question. How obedient are you, are we, to God’s commands? Abraham teaches us that faith and obedience go together. So, the question is for us: are we as children of God willing to do what His Word says? Faith recognizes that God sometimes tests us. Faith obeys God even when we do not understand. Faith trusts God to work out all the details.
This story from God’s Word challenges us to commit ourselves to a life of unquestioning obedience to God’s commands. That is part of what it means to live by faith.
