Hebrews 11 (NIV)
17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
Intro: Testing in a big part of our lives! School Exams, Medical / Laboratory testing, Yet our our scripture passage puts before us today, is the MOST IMPORTANT TEST REGARDING THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF OUR LIVES. The Testing of Our Faith.
Proposition: An example of the testing of faith, in the life of the “father of faith” Abraham, will reveal to us:
1. why our faith is tested:
2. when our faith is tested;
3. how our faith is tested;
4. where our faith is tested;
5. who is ultimately tested
I. WHY is our faith tested?
A) Proof:
1. To prove- Whether your faith is genuine or not, whether it can save you or not!
James 2: 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 21a Was not Abraham our father justified
2. Justified-dik-ah-yoo – to be rendered just or innocent; acquitted, ie. saved!
James 2:21b by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?
B) Point?
1. A saving, justifying faith is tried, tested, purified and proven as to whether it is genuine or not!
James 2:22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? - complete
b) Perfect –-completed (telioo) brought to an intended end, aim, goal, purpose. In context – the saving of the soul.
James 2:23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.
c) This passage, is one of the most important in all Scripture, because it marks Abraham's day of salvation.
d) In other words it marks the moment that his possessing of saving faith was proven or made manifest or known!
James 2:24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
John Calvin- It is faith alone that justifies, but the faith that justifies is not alone.
James 2:25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
e) So TESTING proves the genuineness of our faith
f) And Peter affirms and puts another light on it:
1 Peter 1: 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, (nothing you posses is greater than your faith) which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.- NIV
g) IDEA - So that honor -And glory -Might not only be shown by the Provider, but also upon those who are the possessors of genuine faith!
h) ANOTHER REASON Why also is faith tested?
C) Purify it!
Job 23:10 But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. -NKJV
D) Perfect it!
James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
1. Perseverance -?p?µ???? (hypomonen) -Endurance, a cheerful endurance, a steadfastness, a constancy AND consistency.
2. Romans takes that thought a little deeper:
Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope.-NKJV
NASB - PROVEN CHARACTER
3. Character -d???µ?? (dokimen)
a) A tried, proven, approved character, that comes from tests!
E) Practicality of it!
a) Here is what I mean:
1. Would you allow a doctor to operate on you that didn’t pass their medical exams?
2. How about a dentist?
3. Would you board a plane with a pilot that failed his pilot’s test?
4. Get into a cab or uber with someone whose failed their drivers test?
5. How about an attorney, would you hire one that failed their bar exams?
6. GOD CANNOT ENTRUST THE KEY’S OF HIS KINGDOM, THE STEWARDSHIP OF HIS CHURCH, THE REACHING OF THE SOULS OF MEN, TO THOSE WHO HAVE NOT BEEN TESTED!
James 1:12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
II. WHEN is our faith tested?
Hebrews 11:17a By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.
A) Always!
Genesis 22:1a Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham,
1. What things?
2. ALL THE OTHER TESTS ABRAHAM WENT THRU!
a) His leaving:
Genesis 12:1 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. (A land yet to be revealed!)
b) His lying:
Genesis 12: 10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. 12 Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”
i. He failed that one, and had to take it over again and failed it again!
Genesis 20:1 Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, 2 and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her.
c) Not lying to; but lying with Hagar (He had no Word from God, just an impatient wife!)
Genesis 16:1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.-NIV
B) Point?
1. WE ARE ALWAYS, BEING TESTED, ALWAYS THROUGHOUT THE COURSE OF OUR LIVES!!
1 Peter 3: 12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery trails that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
C) Proof – in Abraham’s life?
1. WHEN is he tested?
a) Test 1 = at the age of 75 – Genesis 12
Genesis 12:4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran
b) Test 2 = at the age of 100:
Genesis 21: 5 Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
i. WE NEVER STOP GETTING TESTED – TILL GOD TAKES US HOME!
III. HOW was he tested?
A) Nature of it?
1. It came in FIRST OF ALL…IN THE FORM OF A Command!
Genesis 22:1b that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
a) Abraham - Attention -hut!
i. Fall in!
2. Cutting command!
Genesis 22:2a Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac,
a) Your ONLY son!
b) Didn’t he have a son named ISHMAEL first?
c) Yes but it was by his maid, his concubine, and not by his wife!
d) Isaac was the son that God had promised!
e) And by cutting I mean this, HERE YOU FIND THE WORD – LOVE - USED IN THE BIBLE!
Genesis 22:2a Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love,
Love – ????? -'ahab
1. human love and affection for another, love for family, friends, wife etc.
2. love for an object such as some thing of the world!
3. Confusing?
Genesis 22:2c 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.”
a) Theologically confusing? - Offering up children to the fire is a detestable practice of the heathens?
2Ch 28:1 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord, as his father David had done. 2 For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made molded images for the Baals.3 He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his children in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
b) And so not only was it confusing it was…
4. Contradictory!
a) Theologically!
b) Practically!
Hebrews 11:18b God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”
GOOD NEWS TRANSLATION - God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I promised."
Genesis 17: 21 But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, (your son) whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.”
5. Conflicting!
a) Kill the son thru which the descendants will come?
b) How then will the descendants come?
c) POINT IS - THIS WAS THE TRAIL OF ALL TRAILS! THE TEST OF ALL TEST!
IV. WHERE was he tested?
A) Place?
Genesis 22:2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.
1. Moriah?
2. Not necessarily - that was a place outside of him, I’m talking about the fact that God was testing him in a place that was inside of him!
a) Where?
2. Two places!!
a) His mind: (Abraham had too)
Hebrews 11:19a Abraham reasoned…
i. HE HAD TO REASON OUT WITHIN HIMSELF THIS UNREASONABLE COMMAND!
Hebrews 11:19a He considered
b) Considered -??????µa?-logizomai - to reckon, count, compute, calculate, count over.
c) His CONCLUSION was:
Hebrews 11:19b that God could even raise the dead,
d) Challenging!
i. This has never happened before in biblical history – there was no record of it!
ii. God had never raised, anyone from the dead!
iii. So to conceptualize it –was undoubtedly challenging!
iv. PERHAPS A PARALLEL WOULD BE A VIRGIN BIRTH! IT WAS ILLOGICAL IT MADE NO SENSE!
v. POINT IS IS THAT - THIS IS WHERE THE REAL PLACE OF WHERE THE REAL TESTING TOOK PLACE, IN YOUR INNER MAN – BUT THE TEST PLUNGED EVEN MUCH, MUCH DEEPER THAN THAT!
b) THE TEST TOOK PLACE IN THE INNERMOST RECESSES OF HIS HEART!!
i. REGARDING HIS AFFECTIONS, HIS LOYALTIES, HIS LOVES!!
Genesis 22:2 Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love
and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
C) PURPOSE? (WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF IT ALL YOU MAY ASK?).
1. Let me give you some scripture passage that help to explain it:
Psalm 86: 11 Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
Ezekiel 11:16a “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries…(WHY? Idolatry!) ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’
18 “They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. (WHAT IS AN IDOL? -ANYTHING THAT COMES BEFORE GOD IN YOUR LIFE -ANYTHING!) I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them;
Matthew 22:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
2. Why Jesus?
Matthew 10:37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
Worthy -????? (axios) – Deserving OF, suitable for Me.
3. In fact:
Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.
D) Point?
Proverbs 17:3 "The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests hearts."
1. POINT – I WANT YOU TO COMPLETELY love me – I will have no rivals, I will not accept 2nd place!
a) Is it any wonder that David prayed:
Psalm 139 (NIV)
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
2. WHAT do I mean by his testing the heart?
a) Heart – Hebrew – ??? – lav
i. as seat of affections, appetites
ii. emotions and passions
b) Heart- Greek- ?a?d?a- kär-de'-ä
i. the seat of the sensibilities, affections, emotions, desires, appetites, passions
1. Loyalties, loves
Exodus 20:5bfor I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God,
Exodus 34:14b whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
3. I suppose that is why Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
2Co 11:2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.
VI. WHO ARE the supreme examples (plural) of those who passed that test?
A) I submit to you that there were two people in our narrative who were the examples:
1. Abraham (Obviously)
2, Isaac as well!!
C) Please notice: Some incredible things regarding his obedience…
1. The timeliness of his obedience
Genesis 22: 3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey.
a) Early the next morning?
b) If God gave you a command like that you would have been dragging your feet!
2. The trust in His obedience
Genesis 22:3b He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
Genesis 22:5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
a) How could he say that? Again…
Hebrews 11:19a Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead,
Genesis 22:6a So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son;
3. The types in this obedience
a) There is an amazing picture being painted here that we need to see!
i. Isaac carried his own wood upon which he would be burned upon!
John 19:17 (Jesus) Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).
Genesis 22:6b and he (Abraham) took the fire in his hand, and a knife,
Isaiah 53:10 It was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
Genesis 22:6c and the two of them went together. (silently)
Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth….
Genesis 22:7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together
ESV- And Abraham said, [God will provide himself] [ the lamb] for a burnt offering, my son: so they went both of them together.
b) Did you get that?
[God will provide himself] [ the lamb] [God will provide himself] [ the lamb] [God will provide himself] [ the lamb] for a burnt offering.”
John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Genesis 22:9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.
Mark 15:1 Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
Genesis 22:10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
Isaiah 53: 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
Isaiah 53:6 “we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all”
Isaiah 53:10 “it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief”
D) Point?
4. The truths depicted in His obedience
a) Picture of Calvary!
b) Picture of Christianity!!!
b) LISTEN – UNLESS GOD HAS TESTED YOU ON THIS, UNLESS GOD HAS ASKED YOU TO LAY YOUR ISAAC ON THE ALTAR (AND TRUST ME HE HAS) AND UNLESS YOU HAVE DONE IT -YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT CALVARY, NOTHING ABOUT CHRISTIAINTY OUR WHAT THE HEART OF DISCIPLESHIP IS ALL ABOUT!
c) AND I WOULD GO AS FAR AS TO SAY THAT -GOD WOULD DEEM YOU AN IMPOSTER- A “DEPART FROM ME YOU WORKER OF INEQUITY – I NEVER KNEW YOU DISCIPLE!”
Matthew 7: 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (He who offers up his Isaac) 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 (They claim intimacy, they claim affinity, they claim friendship – but…) Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ( we had no intimacy, we had no kinship, we had no friendship, because you withheld your Isaac from me!)
d) A SAVING FAITH OFFERS UP IT’S ISAAC, FOR IF IT DOES NOT, THEN IT IS NOT A SAVING FAITH!
James 2: 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” (It was right then and right there that he proved he had a faith that was salvific) 9 And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
i. There is a happy ending to this story – proof to this point I just have made:
Genesis 22: 11 But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” 12 And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, (What proved it?) since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
Genesis 22: 13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
ii. Look at the affirmation:
Genesis 22:15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, ( IT WAS A AFFIRMATION) 16 and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,- because you have obeyed My voice.”
CONCLUSION:
1. COULD GOD CONFIRM AND AFFIRM YOUR FAITH?
2. WHO/WHAT IS THE ISAAC IN YOUR LIFE?
a) Spouse
b) Son
c) Significant other (sinful word you use to validate your illegitimate relationship?)
d) Daughter
e) brother
f) sister
g) YOURSELF?
Matthew 16: 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
