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 the first message, you know, 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 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 .6 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 going to 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 8, we're going to 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 .8 through 12. Hebrews 11 .8 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 in 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 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 chapter 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 it's 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 had many sons.

Many sons had Father Abraham. 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, 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 going to 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 8. 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 want to 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 going to 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 9. 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'll 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 you know prop it up you know 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 the life to come.

So Abraham was a man of faith. He believed God even though he never saw the promises were afar off.

If you look at verse 13 all these died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them what afar off they were assured of them.

So Abraham believed God and of course Paul says in Romans 4 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 you know 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, nine hundred years old.

Now we're looking at people post flood when the the age yeah it 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 are three visitors one of 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 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 going to happen in my lifetime I'm not going to 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 you know in the regeneration 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 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 you know 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 did 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 the kingdom of God will thought 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 her of the Calvary's 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 for 16 but now they desire a better that is a heavenly country

I suspect the people in this room we're all Americans here most of us as far as I know you probably love this nation you 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 you know if you want to get upset with me about that then that's fine but my hope is in the future if my hope was built you know right now in the present everything that's happening you know 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 want to 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 talked about faith faith and 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 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 of 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 now 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 got a lot 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 God Abraham at the very least figured if this 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 if I do so look at Genesis 22 verse 1 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 offered 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 3 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 of far 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 6 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 the

G 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 7

Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said my father he said here I am my son then 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

God will provide a lamb. Is that what he said?

Lamb with an L. Okay, that's important. God will provide for himself a lamb.

Verse 9 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 in 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 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

I 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 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 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 they don't sacrifice any animals and they would reject the whole story of Jesus and they would reject that Abraham is anything to do with Jesus and 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 because why again the sacrifice was already made

God the Father Jehovah the Lord provided for himself a lamb so it's just interesting how you know history kind of bears it out that this 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 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 you don't forsake the assembly 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