Father Abraham (Faith - Part III)

Let's turn once again to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11.

This will be part three in our series on the subject of faith.

So I had answered in the first message, what is faith?

We saw the definition that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of

things not seen.

So we saw faith, true saving faith has substance.

We say, you know, faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone.

It will be accompanied by works.

So faith will have evidence.

We saw that in lesson number one.

Last week, I spoke on why faith is necessary.

Basically the creature or the creator wants worship from the creature.

God, the father, like any parent, he wants his children to love him and

obey him and pray to him, talk to him.

This is why Hebrews 11, six says without faith, it is impossible to please God.

So if somebody ignores God, lives in rebellion to God, all the good works in the world are not gonna make up

for that.

And then I ended last week with how in this age, faith really comes down

to believing what God's word says.

This is what Paul says in Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing

by the word of God.

So we've talked a lot about faith and now we're going to look at this Sunday, starting in verse eight, we're gonna look

at the man that the Bible refers to as the father of all who are

faithful.

So Abraham is the father of the faithful.

So let's read Hebrews 11, eight through 12.

Hebrews 11, eight through 12, says by faith, Abraham obeyed

when he was called to go out to the place that he would receive as an inheritance.

And he went out not knowing where he was going.

By faith, he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents

with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.

For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker

is God.

By faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed

and she bore a child when she was past the age because she judged him faithful

who had promised.

Therefore from one man, Abraham and him as good as dead were born

as many as the stars of the sky and multitude innumerable as the

sand which is by the seashore.

So Abraham is not only known as the father of all those who have faith.

Abraham is, you're probably aware of this, Abraham is known as the father of the Jewish

people.

The story began of Israel's history, the children of Israel.

It all can be traced back to him.

And ultimately, this is why Hebrews chapter 11 exists.

We haven't really talked about the context of Hebrews 11.

Why was the author of Hebrews, who many believe it was the apostle Paul, which we don't really know, but

many believe that the reason why Hebrews 11 is here,

just talking about the faith of Noah, the faith of Abraham, the faith of Moses, the faith of David.

What the author of Hebrews is trying to do, he's writing to who, first of all?

It's in the name, Hebrews.

So he's writing to Jewish believers, many of whom were on the fence.

Some people, they weren't believers yet, they were on the fence about Jesus.

Should we believe, should we not?

Many of the Jews in Judea at that time did believe in Jesus, but

after so many years, probably written around 68 AD, many of the Jewish

converts to Christianity were now starting to, we could say, backslide.

They were starting to fall away from faith in Christ, and they were going back into

Judaism.

And Paul knew, and this had been prophesied by Jesus, that the temple would soon be

destroyed.

So if you go back into that system, the system in just two years or less was about to be

demolished, and of course, the sacrificial system has never come back within Judaism.

So long story short, the author of Hebrews is trying to encourage people to stick with

the faith, stick with Jesus, because so many people were falling away into unbelief

and even rejecting Jesus.

You probably are aware of the verse, going back to Hebrews 10, verse 25.

You remember what he says, do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

He's saying, don't stop gathering with the church.

Why was he saying that?

Because many people had stopped gathering.

It's sort of like in the day and age we live in today.

People talk about the great falling away.

I hear about this every week.

Someone online is talking about it, if not in person, and how a generation or two ago,

Christian churches were filled, and people in the United States, they believed in Jesus.

There is at least a general Christianity throughout the land, and what's happened over the

past 10, 20, 30, 40 years, just an amazing number of people have just turned their

backs, and they stop assembling with the church.

And when, this isn't always true, but usually is true, when people stop assembling with the

church on Sunday, that means they have fallen away.

So the author of Hebrews is trying to get people, stick with Jesus, stick with the faith, and he's bringing up all

these examples of faithful believers to try to inspire people.

Hey, stick with it like they did.

Be faithful like Noah.

Be faithful like Abraham.

So now we're talking about Abraham, who again is not just the father of all who have faith.

He's our father too.

Remember the Sunday school song, Father Abraham, right?

How's it go?

Father Abraham.

Many sons.

Had many sons, many sons, had Father Abraham.

I am one of them, so are you.

Okay, okay, I am one of them.

So this is Christian singing this.

I am one of them, I am one of Abraham's children, and so are you, and that was said about Christians.

So he's the father of all who have faith, but more specifically, he was the father of the

children of Israel.

Abraham gave birth to Isaac, Isaac to Jacob, and Jacob had 12 sons.

That's the 12 tribes of Israel.

So that's what's going on with the context.

So let's just go through these verses and hopefully we'll see how this could inspire the Hebrew Christians

to stick with Jesus because the story of Abraham, especially the story of him and Isaac,

it all points to Jesus.

Maybe you've read the book of Genesis and you've never seen that before, but this morning you're not gonna

be able to miss it.

The story of Abraham points to Christ.

So the point of the author of Hebrews, if you fall away from Christ, you are falling away from the

faith of Abraham.

You'll see that.

Let's go through Hebrews 11, verse eight.

By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as

an inheritance.

What place is that?

We know it as the land of Canaan, or they knew it as the land of Canaan.

Today we call it Israel.

Non -Christians will call it Palestine.

Christians, typically, we wanna call it Israel.

So God told him to go to this land that I will show you, and by faith, Abraham,

he obeyed.

Abraham did what God said.

And here's the thing.

We're gonna see, hopefully, that the promised land actually is a picture.

Verses 15 and 16, I think, make it clear.

The promised land is a picture of heaven and eternal life in the new heaven and new earth.

Look at verse nine.

By faith, Abraham dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents

with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.

In verse 13, Abraham is called a pilgrim, so he never owned any of the

promised land.

The only spot in the promised land that really belonged to him was his

burial plot.

So obviously, Abraham never really saw the fulfillment of the

promise.

That means he had to look ahead, and these promises would be fulfilled.

Abraham knew they would be fulfilled in the life to come.

We see that in verse 10.

Abraham did what?

He waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is

God.

This is the new heavenly city, new Jerusalem spoken about in Revelation chapters

21 and 22.

Even Jesus spoke about this city in John 14.

Remember when Jesus said, in my father's house are many mansions.

He says, I go to prepare a place for you, and this is a reference to the city Abraham

was looking for.

So this is all faith, looking to the future, having hope in the life to come.

So Abraham was the father of the Jews.

He's the father of all those who have faith.

This is why the apostle Paul said in Galatians 3 .29, if you are Christ, then you

are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

So Abraham was given the promise, I will make of you, God said, a great nation.

What do you need for a nation?

You need land, you need people, you need some sort of government in the land.

Did Abraham ever see that?

I mean, he was in, he dwelt in the promised land, but he lived in a tent.

Why did he live in a tent?

Because he had to prop it up, break it down, move.

I mean, he didn't actually possess it himself.

So if God's promise to Abraham is gonna come true, it did come true to his descendants, that's right,

but again, it all points to the life to come.

So Abraham was a man of faith.

He believed God, even though he never saw it, the promises were a far off.

If you look at verse 13, all these died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen

them, what?

A far off, they were assured of them.

So Abraham believed God.

And of course, Paul says in Romans four, it was accounted to him for righteousness.

How do we know that Abraham is in heaven today?

How do we know he was a child of God?

Because he believed, it really comes down to that.

But let's go back to verse 11, because now speaking of a great nation, you need land,

the promised land, but you also need people.

And Abraham was an old man at this point.

He had no children, that's what he wanted most.

But his wife, Sarah, was barren her entire life, and now she's old.

There's no way she can have children.

So Abraham's hope of having children, this promise, it just seems so far out.

There's just no human way this is possible, yet they believe.

Look at verse 11, by faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive

seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age.

So Sarah, do you know how old she was when she gave birth to Isaac?

90 years old.

Can you imagine that?

No, of course you can't.

Now things were a little different.

I think the way people aged back then was different than today.

I mean, Moses lived to be 120, and he didn't even need glasses when he was.

So I think there were some differences.

The people we've looked at prior, you think of Abel, Enoch, and

Noah.

These were people in the antediluvian world, the world before the flood when people lived to be seven,

eight, 900 years old.

Now we're looking at people post -flood when the age dropped down to about 120,

and that you topped out there.

But Abraham, they did have a child.

In Genesis 18, when the Lord, there were three visitors, one had two angels, one of them was the Lord.

Remember, he gave Abraham this word, you will have a son, and Sarah was in the

other room, and she overheard it, and you remember what she did?

She laughed.

Now she didn't laugh because she didn't believe, I mean, she believed it.

It says right here, she trusted in God, he was faithful.

She laughed, I think, because of the, well, I mean, you're laughing too, right?

So 90 -year -old, I'm gonna have a child.

But she did.

And that child, Isaac, Isaac had Jacob, Jacob had 12 sons.

From then on, over the course of 400 years, a family of 70 in Egypt went

up to about probably upwards of 2 million.

But even then in Egypt, when they left Egypt, wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, at that

point, still the promises had not yet come to pass because they still didn't possess

the land.

So they never saw it in their lifetime.

Again, verse 13, all these died in faith, not having received the promises, but having

seen them afar off, they were assured of them.

And they embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Abraham understood it wasn't gonna happen in my lifetime.

I'm not gonna see it.

This world is not my home.

I will see it in the age to come.

Jesus talked about this age.

We call it the millennium.

John wrote about this in Revelation 20.

The kingdom age, Jesus called it in the regeneration.

And he told his disciples they would sit on 12 thrones.

But the point is, it's all in the future.

And there's a lot of things in the Bible that we read, things that we believe and we trust in.

Like eternal life.

Have you seen eternal life?

You haven't seen eternal life.

What do you see?

What do we see?

People grow old.

And if the Lord doesn't return in our lifetime, people, they pass on.

We don't actually see it.

So all this to say that faith is faith for the future.

Hope in what God is going to do in the future.

That's the way it was with Abraham.

That's the way it is for us.

Abraham looked ahead.

Verse 14, for those who say such things that they're strangers and pilgrims in the earth.

This earth is not our home.

They confess that.

But what do they do?

Those who say such things, they declare plainly that they seek a homeland.

This speaks of heaven.

And that's where Abraham is now.

He is in heaven with the Lord.

The third heaven, paradise.

When Jesus returns to this earth, this age to come, the kingdom of God

will be followed by the new heaven and new earth.

But it's all in the future.

Look at verse 15.

He says, and truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out of, they would have had opportunity

to return.

Was Abraham gonna look back and go back to Ur of the Chaldees?

Was he gonna go back to the land he came from?

Not a chance.

And this is all in the author of Hebrews in his mind.

I'm just gonna say Paul from now on.

If I say that, forgive me, okay?

But it's in Paul's mind that he doesn't want the Hebrew Christians to backslide.

He doesn't want them to go back.

And he's saying, Abraham didn't go back.

Abraham wouldn't go back.

You shouldn't go back either.

Look ahead, verse 16.

But now they desire a better that is a heavenly country.

I suspect the people in this room are all Americans here, most of us, as far as I know.

You probably love this nation.

You're probably grieved about things happening in this nation, but you love this nation.

But still, as much as I love it, I realize this is not my home.

If I were putting my faith and trust in the red, white, and blue right now, I mean,

I'm sorry, it's just not there, okay?

If you wanna get upset with me about that, then that's fine, but my hope is in

the future.

If my hope was built right now in the present, everything that's happening, you get what I'm saying.

Our hope is in the future.

We desire a better that is a heavenly country.

That's what Abraham said.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city for

them.

So Abraham's not interested in looking back.

The Jewish Christians shouldn't be interested in looking back.

And if you have come out of your former life and you've placed your faith in Jesus, you've turned away from

whatever you were doing before and now you're living a new life in Christ, you don't wanna go back either.

What is there back there for you?

And I think this is why some people lose faith because they're not looking forward.

They don't have hope for the future.

They get so focused on the here and now and they try to cling on to the

temporal instead of the eternal.

They get ensnared with the things of this life.

And if you thought this life is all you have, then yeah, you're gonna live for today.

But that's not the message of scripture.

It's not how Abraham lived because he had faith.

If you have faith, we need to look ahead.

So it's all to the age to come.

So now we're gonna get into the story of Abraham because this is the basis of our hope.

We talk about faith.

Faith in what?

Faith ultimately in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Faith in God and what he has done.

So now we're gonna look at Abraham and how the picture of him and Isaac really points to Christ

in the gospel.

Look at verse 17, by faith Abraham when he was tested, what was he tested?

He was tested by God.

Remember, what did God tell him to do?

Yeah, he offered, when he was tested to offer up Isaac, who he had

received the promises, he offered up what?

His only begotten son.

God actually told Abraham all those years of waiting for a child, he finally had his son, Isaac, who

was just the joy of his life.

And then God says, okay, Abraham, now you have the child, the promise.

Now I want you to go to this land, go up on a mountain, and I want you to sacrifice him to me.

Can you imagine what he must have thought when he heard that?

So when God tested Abraham, he told him to do that.

Was Abraham willing to do it?

Now, a lot of people are troubled by this and I'll address that in a moment.

But Abraham, was he willing to do it?

Yeah, let's go to Genesis 22.

Turn to Genesis 22, but Hebrews 11, 18 says, of whom it was

said in Isaac, your seed shall be called.

In other words, here was the dilemma.

How could Isaac fulfill the prophecy and give Abraham so many descendants they number as the

stars of the sky?

How could Isaac give him all these descendants if Isaac dies?

Like God, you're telling me to sacrifice him.

If he's dead, how is that possible?

So Abraham is being tested.

But as far as the connections, we're gonna see clear connections between Isaac and Jesus.

Just a few off the bat, Isaac was born a miraculous birth, right?

90 years old, that's miraculous,.

If you didn't know.

You did.

Jesus was born of what?

A miraculous birth, virgin birth.

Isaac would bring forth a multitude of descendants for Abraham, like the sand of the seashore.

Jesus will bring in a multitude of descendants.

He's the firstborn among many brethren.

Jesus brings in who knows how many in the end, hundreds of millions of people into the family of God.

God will have many children because of what Jesus did.

So there's these connections between Isaac and Jesus.

And then this connection that just as Jesus died and yet rose again, now

Isaac was to die and yet somehow he was going to live and

fulfill this promise.

How is all that possible?

Well, we'll find out.

And then of course it says in Hebrews 11, 19 that Abraham at the very least figured if

I have to go through with this, which I think he probably knew he wasn't gonna have to, who knows what he was thinking, but he figured God is gonna

have to raise him from the dead.

If I do.

So look at Genesis 22, verse one.

Now it came to pass, so this is the life of Abraham.

It came to pass after these things that God did what?

God tested Abraham.

And he said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am.

And 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, which I

tell you.

This mountain became known as Mount Moriah.

This is the site.

Today we call it the Temple Mount.

This is where David and then Solomon decided this is the exact site where the temple

would be built.

Very fitting because the Jews offer their sacrifices there.

That's where Abraham was to offer up Isaac.

Many modern readers are offended by this.

How could God tell Abraham to do such a thing?

Well, if you know the story, you know that Abraham didn't have to go through with it.

But yes, people are offended.

They don't understand it, but people are offended at the message of the cross too,.

Right?

The idea that Jesus would lay down his life and die on the cross.

I mean, this is just the way it is.

It's called the offense of the gospel, but it's part of the

message, unfortunately, or fortunately, this is God's will.

So verse three, so Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey.

After hearing this, he sets out and he took two of his young men with him and Isaac, his son

and he split the wood for the burnt offering and rose and went to the place in which God had told him.

Then on the third day, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off.

And Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey, the lad, and I will go yonder

and worship.

And notice what he says, and we will come back to you.

That's the first statement of faith.

Abraham, he doesn't say, I will come back to you.

He says, we will come back.

God says, you're gonna offer up your son.

Abraham's trusting in God.

No, Isaac's coming back.

I don't know how he's coming back.

I don't know how it's gonna go.

I'm gonna trust God.

We will come back to you, a statement of faith.

And this is what we need to do when we don't understand how can there be a way, God, you said this.

I don't understand how this can be possible.

We just trust in the Lord and this is what God says and I believe it, verse six.

So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son.

And he took the fire in his hand and a knife and the two of them went together.

And compare this with Jesus.

The wood laid on Isaac's back points ahead to the wooden cross laid

on the back of Jesus.

And then Isaac notices something.

They have everything they need for the sacrifice except what?

The sacrifice.

They have all the other stuff, but no sacrifice.

Verse seven, Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father and said, my father.

He said, here I am, my son.

And he said, look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb?

Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?

And Abraham said, my son, God will provide for himself the

lamb.

God will provide the lamb for a burnt offering.

So the two of them went together.

And this is the second statement of faith.

The Lord will provide a sacrifice, but pay close attention to what Abraham

said.

He specifically said a prophecy, if you will, that God will provide what?

The lamb.

God will provide a ram.

Is that what he said?

Lamb.

Lamb with an L.

Okay, that's important.

God will provide for himself a lamb.

Verse nine, then they came to the place of which God told him and Abraham built an altar.

Because what are we doing?

We're showing how the story of Abraham and Isaac pictures Christ and the gospel.

They come to this place.

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.

Isaac is submissive.

Isaac is not fighting him.

Isaac doesn't even seem to open his mouth, which Jesus, if you remember, he did not open his mouth.

He was like a lamb before its shearers, like a lamb brought to the slaughter.

He did not open his mouth.

Totally submissive to the will of his father.

Verse 10, and Abraham stretched out his hand and he took the knife to slay his son.

And at that moment, an angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham,

Abraham.

And he said, here I am.

And he said, do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him.

For now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your

son, your only son from me.

And we believe that God is omniscient, don't we?

We believe that God knows the future.

Did God really have to go through all this to know what Abraham would do?

I don't think so.

Who's this for, really?

It's for Abraham's sake.

So Abraham will know that he has faith.

Have you ever gone through something so difficult in your life?

If you thought about it beforehand, you might think, I don't know if my faith can endure this.

But you didn't really think about it.

You went through the trial and then on the other end, you come out and you say, wow, my faith

endured.

And it makes you stronger.

You realize I actually have, not just faith, I actually have a strong

faith in God.

That's what's going on here for Abraham's sake.

Look at verse 13, Abraham lifted his eyes.

So God stopped him and then he looks up and there behind him was a ram,

okay?

A ram with an R, ram, caught in a thicket by its horn.

So Abraham went and he took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.

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.

In the King James version of the Bible, you get the name of God, Jehovah Jireh, which means the Lord

will provide.

And God did provide.

God provided the ram, didn't he?

God provided the ram, yes?

Yes.

But what did he say?

God will provide for himself what?

The lamb.

God didn't provide the lamb, he provided for Abraham a ram.

However, 2 ,000 years later, God the Father did provide for himself

a lamb.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world.

Jesus was led up a different mountain, okay?

A different father, God the Father led his son up a different mountain, Mount Calvary.

Only with Jesus, there was no word from heaven at the last minute to put a stop to it.

God the Father did sacrifice his only begotten son.

So you see then the picture of Abraham and Isaac, how this clearly points ahead

to the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

So that's what the author of Hebrews is doing.

He's pointing to the story of Abraham and showing them, and they would have known, every Jew knew this

story, they would have known, and the connection that's being made, if you fall away from faith in Jesus, you are

falling away from the faith of Abraham.

You're not just leaving some new sect.

You're not just leaving a church.

You are leaving faith in God.

That's what you're doing.

The gospel clearly foreshadowed in Genesis 22.

And by the way, this story, for the people that are offended by it, I grant you, this is

a bizarre story.

Without the connection to Jesus, let's be honest, this story makes no sense.

It's totally bizarre, totally unreasonable, if it doesn't point to Jesus.

So I just say that with no disrespect to all the Jewish people who are still waiting

for a Messiah.

They believe Genesis is scripture.

My friends, it doesn't make sense without it pointing to Jesus, but it does

make sense.

Once you understand that this points ahead, that the whole sacrificial system

points ahead to Jesus, and you consider if

Hebrews was written in 68 AD, just less than two years later, the temple was destroyed,

the entire sacrificial system ceased.

They haven't offered a sacrifice since.

Why?

Because the lamb was already provided.

Isn't that interesting that the Jewish people, and again, I do not mean any disrespect,

but they don't sacrifice animals, do they?

The local temple, synagogue, whatever, they don't sacrifice any animals.

And they would reject the whole story of Jesus, and they would reject that Abraham has anything to do with Jesus.

I mean, that's just part of Judaism.

They would reject it all, and yet still, two years later after this was written,

the sacrifice, it ended.

It has not gone beyond that.

Why?

Again, the sacrifice was already made.

God, the Father, Jehovah, the Lord provided for himself a lamb.

So it's just interesting how history kind of bears it out that this sacrifice

really was once and for all, and it put an end to all sacrifice in offering.

But going back to the reason why the author of Hebrews was writing and bringing this to a conclusion,

he's trying, once again, to appeal to his readers using Abraham as an

example.

He's saying, look at faithful Abraham.

And I would say that to you this morning.

Look at faithful Abraham.

He is an example for us all.

And by remaining faithful to Christ and the gospel, you stand, the

Hebrew Christians and you today, you stand in that lineage of faithful men

and women.

You get a big, long list in Hebrews 11, whether it's Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,

Sarah, David, Deborah, you stand in that lineage if, if

you don't forsake the assembly, if you remain faithful to Christ.

This is what the author of Hebrews is saying.

Stick with Christ.

I say that to you because knowing as a pastor, no matter what pastor it is, no matter what

church it is, any given congregation on any Sunday over the course of a year

or two, it's always in flux.

There's people who come, there's people who go.

There's people who make professions of faith.

There's people who fall away.

And I just want to leave you with this word, stick with Jesus, stick with the faith of Abraham.

I'll just close by what the author says in chapter 12.

He says, because of this, based on everything that was said, let us lay aside every weight

in the sin, which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race

that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our

faith.

Let's close in prayer.

Our Father, how thankful we are for everything that you've done.

How thankful we are for these great examples of faithfulness in Hebrews chapter 11.

And Lord, we probably all know individuals that we look to, that we know personally that are wonderful

examples of faith.

But most of all, Lord, we thank you most of all for the grace that you've shown in your son.

He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God

in him.

Lord, I pray that you would strengthen the faith of your people for the days ahead.

Help us to pass each test.

Pick us up when we stumble.

And Lord, if there's anyone listening this morning who has never trusted in Jesus, I pray that today they

would make Jesus the Lord and savior of their life.

We ask it all in his name, amen.