In the eleventh chapter of the New Testament book of Hebrews there is one of the most famous lists in history. It is a list of Bible heroes. Big names like Noah and Moses, Samson and David. And there were lesser known figures like Enoch and Rahab, Barak and Jephthah. What was it that held all of these Biblical characters together? What was it about these individuals that put them upon this particular list? It was their faith. Each of these men and women were heroes of faith. Thus the chapter is referred to as the faith chapter.
Probably one of the premier people on this list though, one who takes up six of the forty verses, is a man by the name of Abraham. As we think of examples of great faith, through all of Scripture there is none sticks out in my mind above the example of Abraham. His life was characterized by faith.
Think about it, when we first find Abraham he is called by God to get up and leave everything he has ever known. God tells him to leave his family. He tells him to leave his friends, the comforts of his home, and the acquaintance of his culture. Now, there have been many who have been called by God to do the same thing. Every missionary that is serving on a foreign field somewhere tonight has been called to leave family, friends, comfort, and familiarity behind to fulfill God’s will for their life. And I think we all can appreciate the amount of faith that it takes to do that. But what sets Abraham apart from all those who too have answered the call? Why, when so many others have done the same thing, is Abraham regarded so highly for his willingness to step out on faith? I believe it’s because He was willing to step out without having any idea of where he was going.
Now, again, many people have done that same sort of thing. When I answered God’s call to ministry in my life I didn’t know where I’d end up. I still don’t know where I’ll preach my last sermon. I know where I’d like to, but I don’t know the road ahead. Many people have answered God’s call without really knowing where they’d end up. I think the difference is that I didn’t literally pack my bags and hit the road still not knowing where I was going. Abraham did. He got up and left family, friends, home, and culture without having the slightest idea of where he was supposed to go. He had to have faith that God was going to lead him. He had to blindly follow. And he did. He did it all at the ripe old age of 75 years young. That’s amazing. That’s incredible.
That took a great amount of faith. But that wasn’t the only trial of his faith. The Bible tells us that he believed God concerning His promise to give him many descendents. He lived in tents as a foreigner in a land occupied by many others believing that this land would one day be given to him and his descendents by God.
But then, what I believe to be Abraham’s greatest trial of faith came. He had believed God would give him an heir even to old age. He was 100 years old and his wife, Sarah was 90 when the promised child was finally born. He had had faith that God would give him a son, and God had done so. But then God did something appalling. He asked Abraham to do something unspeakable. He asked him to take that promised son, Isaac, and sacrifice him on an altar to God. How could God ask him to do such a thing? How could He take away something that Abraham had waited so long for? How could He ask him to kill his own son?
But you know what? Hebrews 11:17-18 says, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, In Isaac your seed shall be called.” Abraham was willing to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice to God, even when this was the child that God had promised to use in raising up a great nation. That took some serious faith. That took mind-blowing faith. That’s faith that I don’t think many of us have. That’s faith that stands out in the list.
This evening, as we continue our walk through Genesis, I want to talk with you about Abraham’s faith. In all of these circumstances of Abraham’s life I believe we can see a trend. As we’ve already noticed there is a great trend of faith. But I believe that if you look closer you see what it really is that proves Abraham’s faith. What is this evidence of faith? I believe it’s obedience.
A.W. Tozer said, “The Bible recognizes no faith that does not lead to obedience, nor does it recognize any obedience that does not spring from faith. The two are opposite sides of the same coin.” Think about it, would we be hearing about Abraham’s great faith in God had he not actually packed his bags and left his family like God told him to? Would we see Abraham’s name on this great list in Hebrews 11 if he hadn’t obeyed God’s command for his side of the covenant by circumcising every male? Would we consider Abraham to be such a fantastic example of faith had he not walked Isaac up that mountain and laid him on that altar? No. Why? Because faith is more than just saying you believe. Faith is acting upon your belief. Faith is evidenced by obedience. The two go hand in hand.
This evening, I think we can look at Abraham’s story and see three things about his obedience that really spoke to his faith. These are three things upon which I think you and I can also measure our own faith. Let me talk with you about Abraham’s obedient faith.
I. By Faith, Abraham Obeyed Immediately
First of all, Abraham’s faith caused him to obey immediately. Let’s look at each of the three cases that I’ve already mentioned. First of all, when God called Abraham to leave his family he did so immediately. We can see this in Genesis 12. It says, “Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him.”
John Wesley said, Abraham “was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. His obedience was speedy and without delay.” Everything in the wording of this scripture directs us to believe that Abraham acted immediately upon God’s call to leave. No where does it hint that he waited around for the weather to get better. No where does it hint that he waited for the crops to come in. No where does it hint that he waited until they could get a big family reunion party completed before he left. Everything points to a rapid departure.
Let’s look at the second trial of his faith that we mentioned. Genesis 17 says, “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, ‘I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.’
And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, ‘As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you will be a father of many nations. Neither will your name any more be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made you. And I will make you exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come out of you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto you, and to your seed after you. And I will give unto you, and to your seed after you, the land where you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.’
And God said unto Abraham, ‘You will keep my covenant therefore, you, and your seed after you in their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your seed after you; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant between me and you.”
Verse 23, “So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him.” The very day that God made this covenant with Abraham, the very day that He gave His promise, the very day that He showed Abraham what the sign of that covenant would be, Abraham did exactly what God had told him to do. Nowhere do we see a hint that he waited till he could convince everyone that this was the thing to do. Nowhere do we find any hint that he waited till he could build up his own courage to go through the painful process of circumcision. The Bible plainly tells us that the very same day that Abraham and God had their conversation, Abraham did what God told him to do.
Later, in chapter 22, we find the story of Abraham’s offering of Isaac. It says, “Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then He said, ‘Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.’ So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.”
God talked with Abraham one day, or one night as Wesley believes, and tells him that he must go to a certain mountain and offer his son as a sacrifice there. And the Bible tells us that the very next morning Abraham gathered everything he needed for the trip and headed out with his son. Now, if anyone had any right to hesitate in their obedience it was Abraham. Here he was, a man over 100 years old, finally the father of his promised heir, and now God told him to kill that son? I believe if I was him I probably would have done my best to obey God, but I would have delayed that obedience as long as I could. I would have spent as much time as I could have with my son before I headed for the inevitable.
But nowhere does it say that Abraham delayed. Nowhere does Scripture imply that he put it off so that he could spend some precious last days or weeks with his son. Nowhere does it hint that he waited any length of time. On the contrary the Bible tells us that he obeyed immediately.
There was a father who had the hardest time getting his son to clean his room. The son would always agree to tidy up, but then wouldn’t follow through. After high school the young man joined the Marine Corps. When he came home for leave after basic training, his father asked him what he had learned in the service. “Dad,” he said. “I learned what ‘now’ means.”
Thomas a Kempis said, “Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is; delayed obedience is disobedience.” But how many times have we felt God leading us to do something, and maybe we’ve agreed that we would do it, but we have put it off and put it off? How many times have we been guilty of hesitating in our obedience? How often is our obedience delayed? When we delay in our obedience, we are actually disobeying. God desires and God requires instant obedience. He, as our Father, desires that we, as His children, will not delay in following His leadership. And if we truly are people of faith, that faith should cause us to obey immediately.
II. By Faith, Abraham Obeyed Unquestioningly
The second principle that I think we can see in the life of Abraham is that faith causes us to obey unquestioningly. Again, let’s look at these three cases. When God called Abraham to leave his family and friends and home behind, not once do we ever see him saying, “Why?” Never once does he start questioning God’s reasons for taking Abraham up out of his comfort zone and sending him out on some blind voyage. Never once does he give some sort of excuse for why he doesn’t think it’s such a good idea. No, he simply gets up and leaves. He packs all of his stuff, takes his wife, his nephew, and all their belongings, and he heads out.
In the instance of God and Abraham’s covenant, we don’t see Abraham questioning God there either. Circumcision would have definitely been a painful task, especially in those days, and especially for a 99 year old man. That would have been a major inconvenience and probably a fairly traumatic event for Abraham. But not once do we see him complaining to God. He does offer another suggestion when it came to God wanting to give him another son. He suggested that God just use Ishmael. And we’ll talk about that a little more the next time we look at Genesis together. But not once do we see him filling God in on all the pains and trauma He was putting him through. Not once do we see him trying to see if there was another way for that covenant to be sealed. He just simply, without a word, without a question, does what God told him to do.
What about when God told him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice? You’d better believe that most of us would probably argued and argued with God. “You want me to kill my own son? You want me to actually tie my son up, lay him down on a stone altar, slay him like he was a goat, and then burn his flesh? What kind of God are you?” Maybe we wouldn’t be so defiant in our answer, but it would be extremely difficult not to question God on this one. “God, this is the son who you promised me. This is the boy that I waited 100 years for. This is the one who you said would carry on my bloodline. This was the child that was to be my heir and one of the fathers of a new, mighty nation. Are you sure that you want me to kill him? If so, why did you allow me to have him in the first place?”
On and on Abraham could have gone, and we probably would have gone. But not once does he ever question God. Not once does he utter a word trying to change God’s mind. Not once does he ever make any excuses why this isn’t the way things should be done. In fact, he did everything in his power to keep himself from having any excuses. He even gathered all the wood before he set out on that fateful journey. He never questioned God. He just simply rose speechless to the call of God. He was unquestioningly obedient.
You and I are so different, aren’t we? We always have to have a good reason why we’re supposed to do what we do. I still remember time after time that my mom told me to do something, and I always demanded to know why I had to do that. Many times I didn’t get the answer I wanted. Many times I got, “Because I said so.” But I always questioned. And if the answer wasn’t good enough I always tried to point out that it wasn’t. I always had to demand a good reason for a command.
And we all have done it. Sometimes we still do it. It doesn’t matter if God comes out in Scripture and very plainly says, “Take up your cross and follow me.” We always have to have a good reason why we should do that. “I mean, after all, if I’m going to sacrifice, I need to be doing it for a good reason, right?” Or maybe we question God’s call to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. We make all sorts of excuses why we shouldn’t have to leave our comfort zones. On and on we go, demanding answers for every little command and call that God makes to us. But can you imagine what would happen if Christians just sucked it up and obeyed without question?
A few centuries before Christ a man referred to as Alexander the Great conquered almost all of the known world using military strength, cleverness, and a bit of diplomacy. The story is told that Alexander and a small company of soldiers approached a strongly fortified walled city. Alexander, standing outside the walls, raised his voice and demanded to see the king. When the king arrived, Alexander insisted that the king surrender the city and its inhabitants to Alexander and his little band of fighting men.
The king laughed, “Why should I surrender to you? You can’t do us any harm!” But Alexander offered to give the king a demonstration. He ordered his men to line up single file and start marching. He marched them straight toward a sheer cliff.
The townspeople gathered on the wall and watched in shocked silence as, one by one, Alexander’s soldiers marched without hesitation right off the cliff to their deaths! After ten soldiers died, Alexander ordered the rest of the men to return to his side. The townspeople and the king immediately surrendered to Alexander the Great. They realized that if a few men were actually willing to commit suicide at the command of this dynamic leader, then nothing could stop his eventual victory.
Can you imagine all the good we could do for God if we would just do as He tells us to, instead of making excuses and demanding reasons and offering “better” ideas? God’s kingdom would be growing at an enormous rate.
But you know, this kind of obedience can’t just be attained. It’s not something you just decide you’re not going to ask any more questions. Those men probably wouldn’t have walked off of that cliff to their deaths just because they had decided they’d better not ask any questions. They believed in Alexander. They believed in his cause and in who he was and what he stood for. They had faith in him. You see, the kind of unquestioning obedience that Abraham had, and that you and I should have, only comes from a complete faith in God and in His promises. And that is my next point.
III. By Faith, Abraham Obeyed Confidently
Faith causes us to obey confidently. When Hudson Taylor went to China, he made the voyage on a sailing vessel. As it neared the channel between the southern Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra, the missionary heard an urgent knock on his stateroom door. He opened it, and there stood the captain of the ship. “Mr. Taylor,” he said, “we have no wind. We are drifting toward an island where the people are heathen, and I fear they are cannibals.”
“What can I do?” asked Taylor. “I understand that you believe in God. I want you to pray for wind.” “All right, Captain, I will, but you must set the sail.” “Why that’s ridiculous! There’s not even the slightest breeze. Besides, the sailors will think I’m crazy.” But finally, because of Taylor’s insistence, he agreed. Forty-five minutes later he returned and found the missionary still on his knees. “You can stop praying now,” said the captain. “We’ve got more wind than we know what to do with!”
That captain had to learn that faith causes obedience because true faith is confident in its object. Abraham’s faith caused him to be able to obey God immediately and unquestioningly, knowing that God’s word could be trusted. In the first case, God had promised that if Abraham left his family and home behind that he would make a great nation out of him. He had promised that if he obeyed He would bless him and make him famous. He had promised that every nation would be blessed through Abraham if he only obeyed him.
So, being a man of faith, he was able to step away from everything he ever knew, confident that God was going to stay true to His promises. He didn’t doubt God. If he had doubted God, he probably wouldn’t have left immediately; he probably would have asked some questions and demanded some answers. But he believed God. He had confidence in Him.
In the case of the covenant that God made with him: God had promised that the land of Canaan would be his descendant’s land one day. He had promised that through him there would be many descendants. And Abraham believed Him. Why else would he submit himself to the pain of circumcision at such an old age if he didn’t believe that the covenant was sure? He believed God. He knew God would come through.
What about in the case of the sacrifice of Isaac? I like what the writer of Hebrews says… “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called,’ concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead.” Abraham walked Isaac to that mountain of sacrifice immediately and unquestioningly because he was confident in God’s promises. God had promised that it would be through Isaac that this new nation would rise up. God had promised that Isaac would be his heir. And Abraham believed so completely in that promise that he was willing to actually lay his son on an altar and kill him, knowing that God would keep His word, even if it meant raising Isaac from the dead.
When a traveler in the early days of the west, came to the Mississippi, he discovered there was no bridge. Fortunately it was winter and the great river was sheeted over with ice. But the traveler was afraid to trust himself to it, not knowing how thick it was. Finally with infinite caution, he crept on his hands and knees and managed to get halfway over. And then he heard singing from behind. Cautiously he turned, and there, out of the dusk, came another traveler, driving a four-horse load of coal over the ice, singing as he went!
J. G. Machen said, “The more we know of God, the more unreservedly we will trust him; the greater our progress in theology, the simpler and more childlike will be our faith.” Listen, this evening, you can obey God the same way Abraham did because He always keeps His word. And the longer you walk with God the more you see that to be true, and the greater your confidence will grow. That carriage driver had confidence on that frozen river because he had been there before. He knew that ice was solid. Abraham was confident in God because He’d never backed up on His word before.
During one of the World Wars, a father, holding his small son by the hand, ran from a building that had been struck by a bomb. In the front yard was a shell hole. Seeking shelter as quickly as possible, the father jumped into the hole and held up his arms for his son to follow. Terrified, yet hearing his father’s voice telling him to jump, the boy replied, “I can’t see you!” The father, looking up against the sky tinted red by the burning buildings, called to the silhouette of his son, “But I can see you. Jump!” And the boy did. He was able to obey his father confidently because he had learned to trust him.
Let me ask you, how many times has God let you down before? How often has He destroyed your confidence in Him? How many times has He backed up on His word? He never has. So you can obey Him, even when you don’t completely understand His call, because you’ve been there before and you know He stays true to His promises. You can obey Him confidently.
Looking back now, we understand that Abraham’s confidence and faith that led to obedience was well founded. Everything that God promised came to pass. Abraham did become famous. Abraham did father a great nation. That nation did come through Isaac. That nation was blessed. And through Abraham’s descendent, Jesus, all nations were blessed. Abraham had reason, good reason, to be confident, and to obey confidently. You too, though you may not see the future (which, by the way, Abraham didn’t either), you can obey confidently as well, knowing that God will always keep His promises.
This evening, there is a lot we can learn from Abraham. And we’re going to look at some of those other lessons as we continue this series. But one of the greatest lessons we can learn from Abraham is how to be people of faith. And we learn through the life of Abraham that true faith always produces obedience. Without obedience we cannot say that we have faith. With obedience our faith comes alive. And true faith will cause that obedience to be immediate, unquestioning, and confident.
