The Life of Faith III
Hebrews 11: 8-10, 17-19
I. Faith Answers the Door
The implication in the original language is this; he answered the call while it was still ringing in his ears
He gives up all in faith upon the invisible God
He loses all to gain all
A. Regardless of Human Circumstances
Leaving the home of his youth
Leaving a familiar God for one unknown
B. Regardless of Human relationships
Leaving family and friends
C. Regardless of Human Limitations
Leaving without a compass, or a guide, or even a roadmap
“He went out, not knowing whither he went.” He leaves his father’s house and his father’s gods.
He breaks with the past, even before the future has been revealed to him.
The thoughts and feelings that had grown up with him from childhood are once
for all put away.
Unlike Noah he has no sheltering ark to receive him.
A homeless wanderer, he pitches his tent today at the well, not knowing where his
invisible guide may bid him stretch the cords on the morrow.
His departure from Ur of the Chaldees was a family migration.
But the writer of this Epistle, like Philo, describes it as the man’s own personal obedience to a Divine call.
Submitting to God’s will, possessed with the inspiration and courage of faith, obeying daily new intimations, he bends his steps this way
II. Faith Invests in the Promise
Abraham purchases a cave for burial in Machpelah
He puts to bed the call of Ur
You have to believe the going back to Ur had crossed his mind
The promise is not yet reality but he lives like it is
It seemed as if God was delaying the promise but he lived being sure of the promise of God
It was a dream deferred
Abraham knew that the dream deferred was not a dream denied but it was Gods way of preparing him for more than he promised
There was no promise of a new city but yet he looked for a city whose foundations would be designed and built by God himself
He by faith looked beyond the earthy and earthly to a spiritual plain
He realized that the object of faith is not tangible or material or even anything physical
There is but one that hath the eternal foundations. It is the holy city
The life of faith influences those connected to us by relationship
Faith Passes the Test
17 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,
18 of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named."
19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
In Abraham we get to see how faith faces failure
He failed with Hagar
He failed in Egypt
But he succeeds at Mt. Moriah
The trial of Abraham was not so much in the conflict of his natural affection with his obedience to God, as in the apparent inconsistency of the revelations of the will of God which were made to him.
Thus the greatness of Abraham’s Faith was shown by the fact that he was ready to sacrifice his only son, though it had been before declared that the fulfillment of the promise
He knew that Gods word could not fail
His obedience by faith led to greater faith
His life of faith led to confidence in the faithfulness of God
Thomas Obadiah Chisholm was born in a humble log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky, on July 29, 1866. Without the benefit of high school or advanced training, he began his career as a school teacher at the age of sixteen in the same country school house where he had received his elementary training. When he was twenty-one, he became the associate editor of his home town weekly newspaper, The Franklin Favorite. Six years later he accepted Christ as personal Savior during a revival meeting conducted in Franklin by Dr. H. C. Morrison
In a letter dated 1941, Mr. Chisholm writes, “My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now. Although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness.”
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.
Refrain
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
