Walking By Faith

 

 

"⁸ By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed  by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹ By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; ¹⁰ for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ¹¹ By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. ¹² Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

¹³ All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. ¹⁴ For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. ¹⁵ And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; ¹⁸ it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” ¹⁹ He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type."

Hebrews 11:8-19

 

 

Good Morning my beloved,

 

Welcome to worship this Lord's day! We're so glad to have our brothers and sisters from around the world here with us today. Please know, that we continue to lift all of you up in our prayers.

We praise God that He continues to bless and grow our ministry, allowing us to reach even more people! We would therefore, like to encourage all of you to share it with all of your family and friends. May God alone receive the glory.   

 

Today, most of the time we travel roads that we are familiar with, we likely take the same route to work, to school and to see our family. Even when the weather conditions are not so good, we can still travel those roads because we are familiar with them. However,I have found that if I am going to a place that isn’t familiar, the weather and other factors, often affect my decision to go or not.

Imagine waking every day traveling on unfamiliar territory, that you know nothing about and every day has its on troubles. Not only that but have family that are asking why did we have to leave and where are we going.

So is the story of Abraham, he was in the desert and had been there for some time. He was hungry but he was especially thirsty. He stumbled upon this old house where no one lived. The house had only part of a roof and the doors were hanging sideways. He walked in and sat down to rest. He saw this old hand pump in one corner of the house. He went over and starting pumping as hard as he could. All he got was squeaking sounds and dust. He walked back over and sat down. He then saw a jaw and a note attached to it. 

The note read you have to use the water in the jar to prime the pump. He then had a decision to make. Should he drink the water in the jar that possibly had been in there for some time or should he take a chance and do as the note asked. He decided he would do as the note read but only part of the water. He poured in some of the water and began to pump. All he got was the familiar squeaking but one drop of water. He quickly poured in the rest of the water from the jar. He began pumping again and soon there was all the water he could want. He filled the jar back up and added to the note, it really works but you have to give it all away. 

At one time he had it all however, his faith called for him to give it all away. As we continue our walk through the faith chapter found in the book of Hebrews chapter 11, today we will look at the man Abraham. Abraham is a wonderful example of walking by faith, and a faith that satisfies.

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, 

Father, we thank You for Your Word for us today. Lord, we pray that You will help us to understand the principals we are about to learn, we pray that You’ll confirm them to our hearts. Lord, we are so blessed to be able to read and study the richness of Your Word. May we have that true saving faith, that believes in You for the impossible, that faith that patiently endures, that expects to see the wonder of the miracles and Your promises. Lord, grant us the perseverance, that never loses sight of Your power, of what is laid up for us, what awaits us in the glory to come. May we have trust in You, that we will do anything You ask of us, and that we would gladly give it, because we believe.

We pray in Christ’s name 

Amen

 

Today's Message: Walking By Faith

 

It should not be surprising to us, that in this great chapter of faith, Hebrews 11, Abraham receives more verses than any other person. There is more said about the faith of Abraham than any other of the Old Testament characters. After all, Abraham's life illustrates verse 1, " Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." We know that the Word of God is timeless, and faith has always been the only way to please God.

 

The writer of the book of Hebrews, in this particular section, is attempting to prove that the doctrine of salvation by faith is an ancient doctrine. The writer is trying to say here to these Jewish readers, faith is nothing new. That the Old Testament never did teach salvation by works; it always taught salvation by faith, that they had been given an apostate form of Judaism which had developed into a works system but that was never the intention of God. The writer wants to get the point across, that the New Covenant and the ministry of the apostles, and the preaching of the gospel, isn’t in competition with the things that the Jewish people had heard.

 

So far in our study, we have already looked at Abel, the life of faith. We have already looked at Enoch, the walk of faith and we have already looked at Noah, the work of faith. And, in all of these, we have learned, that their salvation, was a result not of works but one of faith. They believed the Word of God, they obeyed the Word of God, trusting in God to fulfill what He had promised. Today, we will be study the faith of Abraham, the faith that satisfies.

Open with me your Bibles, to the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews verse 8-19. We now come to the next major character in the book of Genesis and it is, of course, none other than Abraham. And that’s where the writer arrives in chapter 11 in verse 8, "By faith, Abraham." 

 

I would like to invite you to follow along with me as I read our text, to set it in our minds. Hebrews 11:8-19.

"By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed  by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.  By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.  But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type."

 

We are now past the flood, the Lord's divine judgement, destroying the entire human race, with the exception of Noah and his family. We are two thousand or so years past creation, and a new era of human history begins. We come to a man named Abraham. Up until this point, God maintained a sort of general relationship to the whole human race coming out of the flood, a general relationship to everybody. That was until a very significant event occurred and that was the building of the Tower of Babel. I am fairly certain, that most of you are familiar with the Building of the Tower of Babel.

 

Now, when men built the Tower of Babel, it was really a manifestation of human pride and idolatry, that general relationship that they had with God, which had been available to them, was shattered permanently. Mankind was scattered all over the face of the earth, and the languages were all altered, so they couldn’t communicate with each other. That, was the price for revolting against God. God was openly available to them, they revolted against God and so God scattered them. And God abandoned them and this was the first illustration of Romans chapter 1. God gave them over, and this was the origin of heathendom, the Tower of Babel. 

 

So, the people of the world now have no connection to God. They have languages in which there are no revelations of God. There are no written revelations. There are no traditional revelations that are passed down. Man is really alienated from God. Mankind has been given over to his idolatry. When he knew God, he glorified him not as God. And Romans 1 kicked in and it has cycled all through all of human history ever since. God abandoned them to all forms of immorality, and to a reprobate mind.

However, God, in His mercy, has a plan. God is going to reveal Himself. Not in a general sense, God is now going to reveal Himself in a very specific sense through one man and the people who come from the loins of that one man, and that one man is Abraham. Abraham becomes the father of the people of Israel and Israel becomes the nation that is the repository of divine revelation. God's plan, is to send His Word, to the people of Israel, is a specific way. They will hear His Word, possess His Word, they will inscribe His Word in a written form and they will proclaim His Word to the nations of the world. They are going to evangelize, to proclaim that salvation is available, that sinners can be reconciled to God through faith. So, in a very real sense, Abraham, then becomes a central figure in salvation history. 

Stephen knew it, if you will recall, back in Acts 7, he said "Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you." Stephen was stoned for the message that he preached and his confession of Christ. So, Stephen, in preaching the message of salvation, begins where you must always begin, he begins with Abraham.

And, the Apostle Paul wanting to defend justification by faith, writes in Romans chapter 4 verses 1-3, "What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

Both Stephen and Paul, understood the primary place that Abraham played in the history of salvation by faith. However, in the whole Judaistic works system, they had decided that Abraham had a relationship with God, that Abraham was chosen and that Abraham was blessed because Abraham was better than the rest of the pagans. Abraham was chosen because he was the best, he was the most moral. So, God chose Abraham.

But that's not what the Bible teaches. And to destroy this, the Holy Spirit, here and elsewhere, as we saw through Stephen and through Paul, goes back to Abraham to reset the record, to establish the fact that Abraham is a man who came to God and lived with God by faith. The New Testament clearly says this over and over again. He was justified by faith and by faith alone. That, of course, was very dramatic change from what the Jews had believed.

Paul, in chapter 3 in his letter to the Galatians, quoted Genesis 15:6, "Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer."  

And, at the end of chapter 3, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise."

That’s what set Abraham apart. Throughout Abraham's life, he believed God, he lived by faith. He accepted the Word of God and acted on it. And, as I'm sure you've probably noticed, the account of Abraham goes from verse 8 through to verse 19. There is a lot to cover, so we'll go through it as best we can, today. Here in chapter 11, when we come to Abraham, the whole thing really comes together. We begin to get the full picture. We've seen Abel, Abel offered a right sacrifice. We've seen Enoch, his faith was not limited to a sacrifice, but rather that he was a man who walked with God. We've seen Noah, in a further illustration of faith, he was obedient. He obeyed in hope of something that was to come in the future. I believe that this is consistent with the prototype for all of us who are children of faith. 

So, let's now begin with verse 8 of our text, verse 8. "By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going." For those of you who may not know this, this is what's called a pilgrimage of faith. The pilgrimage of faith. I'd like to draw your attention to verse 8, it says "By faith Abraham, when he was called obeyed." He was called is a present participle. In other words, while being called, Abraham was obeying. 

This is indicative of the immediacy of his response, because he went out not knowing where he was going. He was told that he would be receiving an inheritance, without knowing where it was. That's faith. In the original text, not knowing was the word "ephistémi," which means to set upon, to fix one’s thoughts on. It coveys the idea, that not knowing, without giving attention to, it was so consuming that it has no thought of anything other than obedience. God said go and Abraham said where God and God said I will tell you when we get there.

Now, just a little background on Abraham, he was an unregenerate pagan. He was where he was with the people, he was talking the language, he had been the product of the scattering of the people who were thrown all over the place from the Tower of Babel. He is not a secret believer in the true God. There isn't any evidence of that. He is just a pagan like a lot of other pagans. Abraham isn’t any better than anyone else, and Scripture never says he was any better than anybody else.

In Isaiah 51,the prophet says "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,Who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were hewn And to the quarry from which you were dug. “Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain; When he was but one I called him, Then I blessed him and multiplied him."

The point that Isaiah’s making here is, if you want to understand salvation, then look back and realize that you were dug out of a rock by the sovereign power of God. You were quarried out of the rock of paganism, heathendom. 

So, then in Joshua 24, we learn " Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him through all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac." 

Abraham was a pagan, he was a sinner, he belonged to a pagan family, and to a pagan culture. He lived in a pagan city by the name of Ur in Chaldea. And he lived there until he was 70 years old. Which, by the way, that is about 140 miles from where Babylon would later be built. Then, God appeared to him. And this again is so analogous to the mighty work of salvation when God appears to the sinner and quarries him, as it were, out of stone. 

The God of glory condescends to come to a pagan in the midst of  hundreds of thousands of pagans living in what used to be the Garden of Eden before the flood. A man sunk in sin, living in the pit of iniquity, a man immersed in idolatry and God singles out Abraham and gives him a command to test whether he will believe in Him.  Nothing is said about his morality, because its irrelevant. Abraham believed God enough to obey and begin on a journey to the land that God promises to give him, even though he doesn’t know where it is or what it’s like. And so, he left his birth land. He left his home, his his family ties. He left loved ones behind. He abandoned comfortable, familiar things to embrace a life of total uncertainty. 

Doesn't Jesus says the same thing in Luke 24, when He says "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple." This is where the life of faith, the Christian’s pilgrimage begins, you must separate from the world, the visible, the comfortable, the familiar and take hold of the unknown, the unfamiliar, the not yet seen. That's what faith is, we haven’t received our inheritance. We’ve been told what it is and we’ve believed, acting in faith.

And, we see John saying basically the same thing in I John chapter 2, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." When we come to Christ, we die to this world, it no longer has a hold on us. 

Then, in verses 9 and 10, we see the patience of faith. The patience of faith. "By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God." So Abraham is in the land of promise but he’s an alien. He never really takes possession of anything. He's with Isaac and Jacob who followed him, to whom the same covenant promise was made.  Now, if you'd like, you can read more about that in Genesis chapter 23,which I would encourage you to do.

Now, those who came after him shared that same kind of life, Isaac and Jacob, the heirs of promise. It wasn’t very long till all their family was hauled off, remember, into Egypt. And the people of Abraham’s loins were there for 400 years. So he is separated from his old life. He’s in a land that he really doesn’t yet possess. He is a stranger in the foreign land. He is living in a tent. He is a nomad. I believe this is analogous to how we live as believers, I mean one day, when the Lord returns, and establishes His millennial kingdom, the earth will be renovated, the curse reversed and there will be glory that fills the earth and Christ will reign. Until then, we’re just tent dwellers, strangers in a foreign land. We haven't taken possession of our inheritance. Just like the old hymn says, "This world is not my home."

So Abraham, wandered through Israel, Canaan as a tent dweller, but never abandoned his faith in a future promise. God’s promise was never seen by him. He goes to Haran, as he sits there for at least five years until he was 75 years old, and he doesn’t see the promise. Then, he goes to the land of Canaan and is never anything other than a stranger there. Just waiting, this is the patience of faith. This is the challenge for us as well. It’s analogous for us to remaining faithful and keep our faith strong and joyful , full of anticipation in the long period between the glorious moment of our salvation and the ultimate moment of our glorification. Abraham is a man whose faith is steady and relentless when there’s nothing to do but wait. Abraham never grew impatient. His faith never failed, Isaac's faith didn’t fail. And, the faith of Jacob didn’t fail. That’s the faith that endures.

In verses 11-12, we see the power of faith, "By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore."

You remember the initial conversation between God and Abraham, regarding the covenant.  In the twelfth chapter of Genesis, the Lord says to Abram, at the beginning, "Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” So there is this promise that there is going to be a blessing not only of a land to be possessed, but a people to be born out of his loins. This is the promise of God." 

Here, we see the wonderful power of faith. Faith sees the invisible, faith sees the impossible, that’s the power of faith. It trusts in God to do what cannot humanly be done. And when that kind of faith present, God acts on behalf of that faith. As a footnote, there’s nothing in the Scripture that says anything about Sarah’s faith. The faith is not Sarah’s, the faith is Abraham’s because he believed. He is a man of faith. But, for obvious reasons, you’ve got to have a wife to bear the child. Sarah, then can’t be the subject of the sentence because she’s the recipient of the seed. So verse 12, is part of the promise recorded in Genesis 15:5, Genesis 22:17, Genesis 32:12. That it is the power of faith that accomplishes the impossible. God makes promises that cannot be fulfilled on a human level and fulfills them to those who believe in Him.

In verses 13-16, we see the perseverance of faith. "All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.  For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them."

This goes back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Covenant promise to Abraham was repeated to Isaac in Genesis 26, it was repeated to Jacob in Genesis 28, that they would receive a land and a heavenly city, they would have an earthly inheritance and a heavenly one. However, they all died in faith without receiving the promises. The promise was sure because God could be trusted. And they persevered in this faith, looking to that heavenly city. Now you could even call it the positivity of faith. Although it was unnatural, unreasonable, and unbelievable; yet they believed God.

Verse 16 ends with what I believe is a stunning statement, "God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them." I don't know about you, but I’m pretty sure that I give God plenty of good reason to be ashamed to be called "My God." I imagine Satan going into heaven, before the throne of God, just as he did Job, and brings up my name, accusing me of this and that, says to God, "Why would You want to be associated with such an unworthy person?" And God says, "I’m not ashamed to be called his God and I’ve prepared a city for him and in that city, I’ve prepared a room for him in My house and I’m going to bring him here and I’m going to glorify him and I’m going to make him like My Son and I’m going to put him on My throne and I’m going to bless him forever and ever."

I imagine this will be the case with all of us who are believers. You know, in this life, there may be times, that we may be inclined to be ashamed to call God our God, but God is never ashamed to call us His children. I simply cannot imagine a greater honor to call God "My God." And, to know that He isn't ashamed to call me His child, just amazes me. 

Verses 17 -18, "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, "In Isaac your  descendants shall be called."   

This is perhaps the greatest credential of Abraham’s faith, not just obedience but obedience with sacrifice. He who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son, it was he whom it was said, "In Isaac your descendants shall be called." Now God comes to him, and says "I want you to go up to the mount and I want you to put your son on the altar. I want you to sacrifice your son on the altar to Me." I'm sure that you remember the story in Genesis 22.

"Abraham said, ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together. They came to the place in which God had told them, Abraham built the altar there, arranged the wood, bound is son Isaac, laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son."

Why would Abraham do that? Look at verse 19, because "He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type." Because he had been as good as dead, and God had given life to him and life through him to this son. That’s monumental faith. He loved Isaac. All his dreams were in Isaac. All the promises were in Isaac. He knew that God’s law forbid a man to kill his son, he knew that God hated human sacrifice and it was always an animal  But, because his trust was so great that he knew if God had to, He would raise Isaac from the dead. Though Isaac didn't die, it was a picture of Christ, who put His life on the cross and came back from the dead. That's the fullness of faith! 

In Closing..

This teaches me that obedience to God is to be done even if it makes no human sense. It doesn’t matter if we do not know why God wants us to do something; the fact that He does, is enough. I can tell you this, God is working and obedience is for us to receive a blessing and to be a blessing to others. Faith  is manifest in obedience that requires the ultimate sacrifice. May we all be found as faithful as Abraham!

May it be so ..

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

 

 

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