All right, well if you have a Bible, please turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11 as we continue our sermon series through Hebrews chapter 11 called by faith and if you're using one of the Bibles that we have underneath the chair in front of you It's on page 12 84 We will take a look at verses 17 through 22 Hebrews 11 17 through 22 Here now God's holy true and life giving word
By faith Abraham when he was tested offered up Isaac and He who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son of whom it was said through Isaac shall your offspring be named He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead from which figuratively speaking he did receive him back By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau by faith Jacob when dying blessed each of the sons of Joseph Bowing in worship over the head of his staff by faith Joseph at the end of his life made mention of the Exodus of the Israelites and gave Directions concerning his bones This is the word of the Lord We pray with me By the we want to Just acknowledge the Phenomenal gift your word is to us We pray now that you would help us not only to understand but to stand under Your word and that we would see more and more of the glory of Christ That you would be transforming us even now Helping us to believe and helping us to trust We just pray that you would use this time Lord in the life of our church now to strengthen us and equip us and excite us and embolden us to Continue to take the gospel to our neighbors and to the nations For it is in Jesus name that we pray amen Wonder if I Asked you What was one of the hardest or maybe the hardest decision you've ever made wonder how fast you'd be able to come up with that answer I think Surely a few of us would be able to immediately know the absolute hardest decision we ever made I think some of us would probably have to think about it for a little bit But eventually we'd probably get there especially when the hardest thing we've ever had to do is walk away from something or give up something That we loved I have permission to tell you a story about Hannah my wife when she was About 19 and a freshman in college. She had one of those Incredibly difficult Decisions she had been dating a young man a really great guy For about four years had actually gone to college where he was going to college. He was a year ahead of her She went to continue that relationship. So this was a serious thing and he loved her and she loved him But there came a point where she began to know That God was laying it on her heart that she needed to let him go that she needed to break up with him Because there wasn't a future for them. He was not a Christian. He did not share her faith And she knew deep down that what God wanted her to do was to break up with him And this guy was a great guy So she was really faced with a very difficult situation but Through trusting God and through a lot of prayer and through the encouragement of some of her friends She did what she felt God was leading her to do and she made probably one of the most difficult decisions She's ever made and she broke up with him and then a year later We met and she's single so it worked out really good for me, but But I mean don't don't miss that That pain and that that difficult nature of Giving up something For God because he does that he's we've been talking about faith for The last few weeks and one of the things we've been talking about how faith is not Just for salvation. We need faith. We can't be saved except by grace through faith But at the same time God wants us to live our entire life by faith and we've been looking at all these different ways God Gives us these opportunities to live by faith over the last few weeks and we've got a few more weeks And the reality is one of the things that God does is he tests our faith Often by asking us or calling us to give up something that we dearly love and so as we continue to look at Abraham and his faith this morning That's going to be our focus that it is because he loves us because God loves us He occasionally tests our faith in Christ by calling us to give up or to sacrifice something that we love So we're going to look at that today by talking about Abraham's test of faith and then Abraham's triumph of faith So if you're making outlines, those are the two things we'll talk about Abraham's test of faith and Abraham's triumph of faith So look with me at verse 17 and 18 Let's talk about Abraham's test of faith look at those verses the author writes by faith Abraham when he was tested offered up Isaac and He who had received the promises was in the act of Offering up his only son whom of whom it was said through Isaac shall your offspring be named now Just like a little context so we understand where this is in redemptive history and even in Abraham's life We talked a little bit last week about how Abraham was called by God to leave his whole old life behind and embark on a journey trusting God and and believing God and receiving all these promises from God God promised Abraham a whole bunch of wonderful stuff including descendants and land He also promised him that he and his wife Sarah who'd been barren for decades would have a child and Sure enough God delivered on that promise after about 25 years of making them wait and in Genesis 21 we see where The barren Sarah who had never been able to have a child she conceives and she has a child in the name of Isaac and and God tells Abraham that it's through Isaac that the rest of his promises would be delivered to him and so obviously Isaac plays a very important role in Abraham's life as well as in redemptive history and Then in Genesis 22 God puts Abraham's faith to a phenomenal test And he tells him that what he wants him to do is take his son whom he loves it specifically explicitly marks out his love for his son Isaac Abraham's love and he's God tells him I want you to take your son who you love and I want you to sacrifice him as a burnt offering And so surely, you know, I mean just if you're a parent or even if you're not In that moment, I mean this is totally crisis of faith. How can I possibly do this, right? But what we see in Genesis 22 if you want to read that another time is that Abraham Goes ahead and he takes his son Isaac that he loves dearly and he takes him to the place where God tells him to go and he marches him up The mountain he has all the things he has necessary for a sacrifice and he puts his son Isaac even on the altar He takes the knife and actually raises the knife and he's about to plunge the knife down into the heart of his son who he loves so much But at the last moment Verse 11 of Genesis 22 says but the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said Abraham Abraham and Abraham said here I am and got and the angel said or God said do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him for now I know that you fear God seeing you have not withheld your son your only son from me and then of course If you read the rest of the story you see that Abraham turns around and he sees a ram with his horns stuck in a bush and he's able to get Isaac off of the altar he puts the ram up there sacrifices the ram Instead and Abraham and his boy Isaac go home But I mean think about that. It's a really powerful scene because really God what God is doing in that moment Is he saying to Abraham how much do you trust me and you know is your faith real and are we can you do this? Can you trust me enough to do this? There's a test It was a test and while one of the things we got to make clear is God has never tested anybody else in this way He will never test you or anyone in this way Abraham fulfilled a very unique role in Redemptive history so God's not going to ever tell any of us to harm our children But he is going to Call us to trust him enough to give up things to make sacrifices in our life to give up things Because we trust him and in fact Richard Phillips says this he says we can expect God to test our devotion to him in great or small ways We will be challenged to sacrifice or subordinate our careers to his will or perhaps it will be a relationship That is dear to us, but cannot abide with our higher devotion to Jesus Christ. It may be money It may be a certain self-image or a lifestyle It can practically be anything Now The scriptures do make this true that God does test his people's faith But I think what we want to focus on this morning is he does it because he loves us It's a very loving and kind and gracious thing for God to do to actually test our faith and I want to talk about For reasons why I think we can draw from scripture as far as why does God do this? Why does he put us in these really challenging really hard situations where he's testing our faith and one of those things is When he tests our faith it proves that our faith is genuine It protects us from idolatry It pictures the gospel and Also it promotes faith and future generations now if you take a notice we'll come back to the slide I'm gonna keep going but you'll have more time to write these down But we're talking about it proves something it protects us. It pictures something and it promotes something So let's keep going here and let me talk about the first thing and that is to prove that our faith is genuine So one of the reasons that God tests our faith is to prove to us that it is real I mean when God calls us to do something and especially to give up something that we really love and we actually do it We go through with it. It proves to us. It shows us That our faith is genuine. We really do trust God. I mean think about it in Genesis 22 verse 12 God says now I know that you fear God because he wouldn't withhold his son from him now That's a what's called divine accommodation God isn't actually not knowing something He's speaking to Abraham in a way that Abraham would understand and that you and I would understand the emphasis being on God knows that our faith is real and we should know that our faith is real when we are tested and when we trust God through something difficult like that It's supposed to be proof. It's supposed to validate that yes our faith really is in Christ One of the other ways that God tests our faith is through trials and first Peter one Peter says First Peter one six and seven he says in this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary you've been grieved by various trials Why he says you've been grieved by various trials so that the tested Genuinness of your faith more precious than gold that parishes though it is tested by fire Maybe found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ in other words what he's saying is when we do Experience God testing our faith on the other side of that test We actually are more sure That we really believe and that we really are saved We're more sure that we are in the estate of grace that God has forgiven us of our sins that he's promised us all these things That's why he that's one of the reasons he tested he wants us to be sure that our faith is real If you've ever if you've ever seen a submarine being built It's a pretty interesting site because they're big right and They're built out of the water and then they have their first trip into the water and the naval officers call that It's sea trial because they're going to find out whether this thing is going to take on water or not and they put in the water And it descends deeper and deeper and the pressure gets harder and harder and if there are any weak welds or anything that would allow water to Start pouring into the submarine. They know right where those things are and they take it back up and they fix it so that When it goes out long term they know that it's going to accomplish that which it's sent for and it's going to get those Men or men and women to where they need to be and they know that it's going to do what it's supposed to do because it's been tested And it's the same thing with our faith God wants us to be sure that our faith is real He wants us to have that peace and that freedom the assurance that yes I do believe and so he'll test our faith and lead us through those tests The assurance of salvation is a very very sweet thing listen to the Westminster confession Chapter 18 section one says although hypocrites and other under-generate men May vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God and a state of salvation Which hope of theirs shall perish listen to this Yet such as truly believe or those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus and love him in sincerity endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him may in this life be certainly assured That they are in the state of grace and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God which hope Shall never make them ashamed So you know the Bible we talk about this every week that the Bible makes abundantly clear that you cannot be saved by doing certain things We can only be saved by grace through faith which means that faith is absolutely essential for salvation Which also means that to know that our faith is real is a very very sweet thing
and so Even if you're going through a trial right now know that he's testing your faith to to prove to you That your faith is real he wants you to be sure That you have received Jesus that your faith is real and all the promises and the scriptures are really true and they're really for you It's a gracious thing But it also protects us from my Dollar Tree When when God tests our faith and not only proves whether or not our faith is genuine But it does also protect us from my Dollar Tree I Dollar Tree Here's Richard Phillips again. He says God tests our faith in terms of our willingness to sacrifice for him And in this manner he also protects us from the idolatry to which our hearts are so inherently prone Even good things he has given us God demands that we place back into his hand Always holding everything as a trust on behalf of the giver and possessor of all things so In other words, what he's saying is that when God tells us to give something up for him when he wants us to sacrifice something For him or for the kingdom and we're put in a position to actually see what we really worship What are we really trusting in what are we really worshipping in their worshiping in our life Because if there is something that we would withhold from God If there's something anything in our life That if God said let it go and we would say no That actually reveals that we're actually worshipping that thing That our worship and our trust is really centered on whatever that thing may be I mean think about Genesis 2212 again God says for now I know that you fear God so the emphasis this time is on the fact that you fear God Why because he would not because Abraham didn't withhold his son his only son from God Again God is saying that in a way. It's a divine accommodation That's not when he figured out that Abraham really trusted him That's for our sake that it's written that way But nonetheless that it was interesting is the Hebrew word for fear now I know that you fear God you fear God. It's actually same Hebrew word can be translated as worship So God is confirming to Abraham After this test he's confirming your A worshiper of the real true God I mean having genuine faith obviously we want to know our faith is genuine But we also want to know that it's in the one true God That we truly worship the creator and sustainer of all things in the only Savior
So if there's something that we would withhold the reality is it's either very dangerous or it's absolutely disastrous
See the very dangerous or it's absolutely disastrous It's dangerous in the way that if we are recognizing even now that there's something that we're withholding There's something we know God wants us to turn away from Or to Give up even if it's a good thing if there is something then at the very least what's begun to happen is We've gone to trust that thing more than we trust God At the worst What maybe at play here is that we're realizing that our heart actually is not inclined towards God I We don't really even trust God what we really trust is ourself and whatever this thing is that we won't let go of Which would be disastrous because of course the only way we can be saved is by grace through faith and so it got again This is this is a loving and gracious thing that God does to test our faith because it protects us from my Dollar tree from worshiping something other than God and if if we do recognize that there's something that God wants from us And we go ahead by faith and we trust him and we let it go then we rejoice because it proves to us that our faith is real If there is something that even now you know you refuse to let go of then the call is to repent turn away from that Stop trusting in something other than God God loves you so much wants you to trust in him That's why He tests us to prove our faith is genuine and then also To protect us from my Dollar Tree. He also does it to picture the gospel This is what's so beautiful and powerful about this scene in Genesis 22 Where God tests Abraham it is and it's a wonderful picture of the gospel and think about this This has got to be the greatest at least in the Old Testament This is the greatest normal human being active faith we could possibly imagine right And so don't miss this that the the greatest picture of Somebody's faith is also the greatest picture of the gospel in all the Old Testament You think about the similarities right Abraham is told by God to take his one son whom he loves and Take him up a hill and sacrifice him and it's exactly that points directly to The gospel the gospel is a good news that God Marched his son his one and only beloved son Jesus up a hill to sacrifice him the only difference is Isaac was spared But as Paul says in Romans 8 he did not spare God did not spare his own son He poured his wrath out on his son so that Jesus could pay for all of our sin and give us his righteousness He did not spare his own son and then there's other lots of other similarities too Isaac carried the wood To the sacrifice Jesus carried his cross to him being sacrificed the day the journey was three days for Abraham and Isaac Jesus spent three days in the grave before he triumphantly rose from the grave to prove that what he had done was accepted by God You see Abraham's faith this this unbelievable moment of faith is a picture of the gospel and Basically whenever there is sacrifice whenever we sacrifice we are Acting out a picture of the gospel and as hard as it is to give these things up You got to understand God is giving us a picture of the gospel that will help deepen our understanding of The fact that he gave up His beloved son and how excruciating that must have been because when you give up Or sacrifice something that you love for the sake of someone else It pictures that good news it pictures the gospel even if the sacrifice is little even in small sacrifices We can see the gospel my dad listens to our podcast. So I want to be real gentle here But my dad is not what you would call a good golfer Okay He's just you know, he got some work to do And and you know what it's probably one of my most favorite things about him and I'll tell you why my dad Has spent a lot of time and money taking lessons and trying to get better at golf And a number of years ago not too long ago I had a conversation with him Where we were talking about how he puts a lot of energy and effort into being good at golf But he's you know not good at golf and we in the dialogue He said something where that I've never forgotten said you know, man I think probably part of my struggles. I really didn't get going till later in life And I said well, why not and said well I worked so much when you and the girls were kids I just didn't want to take one more minute away from you And so I just gave up what I loved golfed in order to be with you who I loved
That's a small thing, but I'll tell you what every time he Slices one into the next county. I've I'm thinking of Jesus I'm thinking of the fact that he Even if it was a little sacrifice. Yeah, given up golf not the biggest sacrifice in the world But even in that you see That when someone gives up something they love for someone they love It's a picture of the gospel God gave up someone he loves his one and only son For someone he loves you and me And there's a direct relationship think about this the harder it is for you to give up whatever it is to sacrifice Whatever it is the more excruciating it is for you to say okay, God I'm gonna trust you. I'm gonna walk away from this thing the harder that is The deeper you your connection with what it must have felt like for God to give up his one and only son and the more valuable that sacrifice is and the more Beautiful the glory of Christ shines
So it is a sweet gift for God to test our faith and in the process give us a picture of the gospel So we'll come back to the fourth thing in a moment I want to I want to really focus on how Abraham did this we want to talk about the Abraham's triumph of faith So we talked about the test I want to talk about Abraham's triumph of faith because this is where we get very practical Because I know I feel that there's probably at least a few of us that really are wrestling with a test right now We know God wants us to do something and we're really struggling with it. So how Then if you're not struggling now you will because God does this
How well? Let's take a look at verse 19 It says he considered this is Abraham considered that God was able even to raise Isaac from the dead from which figuratively speaking He did receive him back and here's the plain and simple truth what Abraham was doing in that moment He was laser focused on God's promises and God's power. This is how he did that He's not some superhuman faith-free. He's just a normal person And in that moment when God calls him to this unbelievable test He's focused on the promises of God and the power of God the promises of God and the power of God look at that word considered He considered that God was able that word considered is the Greek word lucky to my kind of sounds like logarithm because it has to do with adding things up That's what Abraham did he added up in his mind what he knew about God It literally that word literally means to take inventory And so when when he's tested He is he's adding up everything he knows about God and one of the things he knows about God He's made these promises God has made these promises to Abraham and Isaac is a critical player Like alive Isaac is a critical player in those promises being delivered And so if he knows there's something going on here something that I don't understand I got to be able to trust God because he's asking me for something He's said is critical for me to receive the rest of his promises And the other thing he was doing is Thinking about God's power that we see that explicitly here in what it says in verse 19 But if you think about he's probably thinking about all again. He's adding it all up And one of the things he knows about this God is this God promised that his wife who hadn't had been able to have children for all these decades That she would have a child and then she did so so he's probably thinking of God was powerful enough to to enable my baron wife to conceive and have a baby Hebrews 11 verse 3 we talked about a few weeks ago just kind of touched on it But the author insinuates that everybody who believes in God knows somehow that God created all things out of nothing So he's not only probably thinking about this miracle of Sarah being able to conceive but then also that this we're talking about talking about God That he he created all things out of nothing which means his power is absolutely limitless And therefore he makes a logical deduction He's thinking These promises require that Isaac is alive and God is all powerful He must be planning to raise him from the dead after I do this Which is exactly what it says in verse 19 Abraham added it up that God was able Even to raise Isaac from the dead And so what do you think and what's what's beautiful also as a side note is when it says That he received him back figuratively speaking he did receive him back It's recognizing that's that's that's one of the ways the author is really pointing to the cross Because that word figuratively speaking is literally a parable now We're not saying that what happened with Abraham and Isaac was a parable that really happened But the fact that he did receive Isaac back points to the resurrection God the Father did receive Christ back So just a further note on how that really pictures the gospel But when you think about that then you add it all up and so when we're being tested when God is calling on us to trust him And walk away from something or give something up even if it's a good thing especially if it's a sin thing
That we would get laser focus not on our ability to do anything or all of our ability to to well up inside of us This you know this adrenaline faith and go no he wants us laser focus at rest Staring the promises of God and the power of God in the face The more we think about all the promises of God I mean think about this in scripture We could go all day the promise If we believe him if we believe in Christ the promise of forgiveness and righteousness and eternal life Which is all received by grace through faith the promise that all things work for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose all things That's a promise In Romans 8 or also That God doesn't withhold anything we truly need Paul says in Ephesians 1 verse 3 that God has given us every spiritual blessing everything we truly need we have in Christ or Matthew 6 where Jesus says we just keep our eyes focused on the kingdom God will add to us everything else that we need That's a promise or The God knows what's really going to give our hearts pleasure a lot of times when we're struggling to give something up Give it over to God is because it's giving us some sort of pleasure. No, no, no God is God He invented pleasure and so I'm 16 11 it says that at your right hand or pleasures forever more
And so you think about these promises from God that's begins to help us Let go to peel back our fingers on whatever it is. We're clinging to so tightly But then you also think about his power that we too would would say now who am I dealing with here? I'm dealing with a God who can do anything all things are possible for God He created all things out of nothing
And all through the scriptures we see his unbelievable power Power over nature power over sickness power even to raise The dead and that's how we approach these tests. I'm dealing with someone who's made incredible promises And I'm dealing with somebody who has all the power. I could ever want That he can if I trust him through this thing. He can he can make my life however he wants. He's got the power
maybe Maybe God is Working on one of our hearts or some of our hearts um Because we are Hanging on to something we we're having trouble letting something go giving it over to him sacrificing it to God And maybe the reason he's testing our faith is because he wants us to see that we're trying to get From that thing what we can only get from him We're trying to get from this thing with limited power which you can only get From somebody with Infinite power A couple years ago we were we had a young adults event at Blanchard Park. We were playing ballie ball And it got dark so Some y'all who started saying well, let's just turn on our car headlights and keep playing it was me um And so of course everybody that turns on their headlights at the end of the game is starting their cars and smiling and driving away and mind's like Oh I was like man classic math So I said hey guys, I need a jump and uh, I don't know if this josh or jester been one of the Miller guys came over and had a I think it was a Mazda nice little car had like a four Cylinder engine something like that and my van has a 3.5 liter v6 all vans do it so we go but here's the deal It's you got a bigger engine and a little engine and so we hooked that thing up and I mean it just kept going and going We kept waiting and waiting charging and charging and I kept trying it as a I mean it was like mocking me right it was making fun of me It's like and it just would not start and we just kept waiting and waiting and waiting and then I don't know what other than the grace of god It dawned on me and I'm like, you know what? That's a little engine and a big engine I wonder if we actually need a more powerful engine to get this thing going So What happened was passed from Michael happened to be there who has basically the same van that we have and he pulls over Actually Miriam, I think pulled over the van and we plugged it into that and it's like starts right up Me is amazing. It's awesome. Start it right up Now that whole time I've been Laboring to get enough power to get something from a vehicle that did not have enough power to give me what I wanted And as soon as we hooked up to the something that had enough power suddenly we're cruising home You see what I'm saying that it may be that god is trying to peel your fingers off something that you are spending all this time And all this energy trying to get from it what you can't get from it because it's limited It's something created. It's not the creator Maybe He's calling you from that thing calling you by faith to let that thing go
Because he wants you to take those jumper cables off of that limited engine and put it on his unlimited power engine And go In Ephesians 1 19 and 28 Paul says he talks about the listen to this listen to this the immeasurable Greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from The dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places god wants us hooked into the power That's powerful enough to raise Christ from the dead That's the kind of power that he wants us to know we have access to in him Between staring at those promises and staring at that power that's how you move forward Are you are you hanging on to something are you are you having a real hard time letting something go You look those promises and that power in the face In the face of Christ on the cross and then you move forward now I wish we had a lot more time because I want oh man I really would love to go through these next three verses Now but I want to say one thing One thing and then we're done We've already seen that the god god tests our faith which we don't like it when he's doing it But he does it because he loves us it proves our faith is genuine it protects us from my adultery It's a picture of the gospel the way we do it is by focusing on his promises and his power And then the last thing is it promotes faith in future generations think about this verses 21 or I'm sorry verse 23-22 Right after the author of Hebrews writes about this greatest faith moment in the history of the Old Testament
He talks about Isaac that's Abraham's son. He talks about Jacob. That's Abraham's grandson. He talks about Joseph That's Abraham's great grandson You see the connection His unbelievable powerful picture of faith Was surely instrumental in instilling faith into His prosperity his further generations So what a gift right What a wonderful gift for god to test us Improve that we really believe and protect us from my adultery The picture the gospel and even to use our faith to promote faith In our children's lives and our grandchildren's lives how Gracious is god to do that
Now you might be thinking well. I think I've failed some tests. I think I've failed some tests. What what what do I do same thing You look To Christ and you see that you weren't actually not saved by passing tests We're saved by Christ the finished work of Christ And so we trust that he has forgiven us of our sins. He has declared his righteous eternal life is a guaranteed gift for you and me And then whatever it is that we're hanging on to get your eyes laser focused on the promises and the power and the let it go and then you feel the rush of assurance What a sweet and gracious and loving and kind and patient and beautiful and wonderful God we serve Let's pray Father, I'll be the first to admit that it is so challenging is so hard Especially to give up things that we love But would you just help us to see your incredible love when you test our faith and would you give us strength for those tests? And would you use those tests in our lives and in the lives of people around us would with the with the watching and dying world see us Trust you and turn to you and be saved We pray this for your glory and our good in Jesus name amen