Abraham: A Faith to Leave the Land (Hebrews 11:8-10) | Worship Service

What counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Wasted away, my strength was dried of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.

You forgave of my sin, therefore let everyone who is godly Offer prayer to you at a time when you may defile. Great waters shall draw you some deliverer.

Who will count sin in me are the sorrows.

But steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in love.

Down at the cross where my Savior died Down where for cleansing from sin I cried. There to my heart was the blood applied Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood applied Glory to His name. I am so wondrously saved from sin.

Jesus so sweetly abides within There at the cross where He took me in Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood applied Glory to His name. O precious fountain that saves from sin I am so glad that I entered in There Jesus saves me and keeps me clean Glory to His name.

There to my heart was the blood applied Glory to His name. Come to this fountain so rich and sweet. Cast thy poor soul at the Savior's feet. Plunge in today and be made complete. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood applied Glory to His name.

We were ruined in our guilty and undone. When your love reached out with sovereign hands And beckoned us to come. You sought out the wonders Made the prodigals come home. With a lavish feast you welcomed us.

For you made us your own. You have taught our son His law That we've been taught We're your children now You made us your own. No strangers to the world But no strangers to your throne. We draw near you now with confidence For all our fears are gone.

And when Christ our King returns We'll meet saints we've never known And forever we will be amazed That you made us your own. You have taught your son how brave We've been taught. We're your children now You made us your own.

You have loved us like you loved your son. We've been taught We're your children now You made us your own. Your children now You made us your own. You are Lord Most Holy Lord Most Holy. You are Lord. You may be seated.

Good morning everyone.

We have a baby shower scheduled here for next week, next Saturday for Lindsay Holmgren, and details for that are in your bulletin, so please make sure you take note of that. Also for next Saturday after the baby shower, probably afternoon, whatever works out for whoever's going to volunteer for this, looking for a group of guys, five, six, seven, eight, ten able-bodied men who would be able to help take the stuff that we are storing in the upstairs of our church and move it down out into the shed, the storage shed that we have out here to the north of our facility.

We're going to empty that out because within the next couple of weeks, we're going to have drywallers in there and be starting work in earnest on that upstairs, so we need to get all of the junk that we, well not junk, but the stuff that we've been storing up there that doesn't fit down here, we want to move it out so it's out of the way.

So we'll do that next Saturday after the baby shower, in the afternoon, 1230 or 1, or whatever works out for whoever's going to volunteer. So if you'd like to help out with that, please let me know, and I'll put you on the list and make plans with you.

And then also the conference registration is both online as well as out in the foyer. If you register here or talk to whoever is doing registration today, they'll be able to give you a discount code for that conference registration, and feel free to take advantage of the opportunity to register for that.

We've already had registrations come in from Ohio, California, Washington, Montana. People are flying in from all over the place right now, and we haven't really promoted it anywhere but right here, and whoever happens to be watching online.

So that's going to change in the next couple of weeks as we promote that outside, and we're hoping for a very full conference. And if you want information on that, you can visit the website, and there's also some information in your bulletin.

Romans 4 and Justification by Faith Apart from Works

Please turn now, will you please, to Romans chapter 4 for the Scripture reading. Romans chapter 4, this is a passage where the Apostle Paul talks about the faith that saved Abraham and makes the point that this is the same faith that saves us, and that we are saved in the same way that Abraham was saved.

Evidence of something that we're seeing in Hebrews chapter 11, that is that from the beginning, it is faith that pleases God, not works, not human merit or righteousness or achievement, but simply trusting God and taking Him at His word.

And Paul uses the example of Abraham here to make the point that Abraham was justified by faith and not by works. Romans chapter 4, we'll read together the entire chapter. What then should we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, has found?

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his way is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.

But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account. Is this blessing then on the circumcised or on the uncircumcised also?

For we say, faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it credited? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe, without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had while uncircumcised.

For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified.

For the law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there is also no violation. For this reason, it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is a father of us all, as it is written, a father of many nations have I made you.

In the presence of him whom he believed, even God who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which has been spoken.

So shall your descendants be. Without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, he was able also to perform.

Therefore, it was also credited to him as righteousness. Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

He who was delivered over because of our transgressions and was raised because of our justification. Will you stand with me as we pray? Let's bow our heads. Our gracious God, we thank you for the salvation that is ours in Jesus Christ.

Every Lord's Day we gather together to worship you because you are worthy of our praise and our adoration because of who you are, because you are a gracious God, a loving God, a faithful God, a just God, a God who credits the righteousness to those who believe, who trust in your Son.

We thank you that our righteousness and our standing before you is not based upon our own merit, our own abilities, or our own worthiness, but solely upon the worthiness and the merit of Jesus Christ because of what he has done.

Because he died, because he was buried, and he rose again on behalf of all those for whose sin he bore. We can be justified and declared righteous before you, and we are grateful for that. We praise you for that great gift of salvation.

We thank you that in your mercy and in your grace that you are working out your plan and your purposes in this world around us. And though the nations around us rage and they seek to cast your fetters off of them and to establish their own power, their own authority, and their own kingdom and dominion, we know that in the end all things will belong to you, all things do belong to you, and you will bring them all into subjection under Jesus Christ to accomplish your eternal purposes in this world and for all of eternity.

So we pray that in this meantime, while we wait for that to be seen and made visible before us, we pray that your people would be faithful, that your missionaries would be faithful, that you would bring fruit and effective gospel proclamation through those whom you have sent into the nations.

We pray that in our own land you would make us faithful to preach the gospel, to proclaim its truth, and to abide in its precepts. We pray that we would be united in our own love and affection for Christ, in our hatred for sin and unrighteousness.

Give us grace and wisdom to live in these times and in this world that we may honor you by giving to you the obedience that you are due. We pray that our hearts may be subject to you and to your word and that you would accomplish your every purpose in us.

As we gather here together in worship, we pray that you would be honored through us and in us and by us in our words, in the meditation and contemplation of our hearts and through all that is said in the preaching of your word and in the singing of your worship to you.

You are worthy, and we thank you for that. We praise you in the name of Christ our Lord and our soon and coming King.

Amen.

The Lamb of God and Redemption Through His Blood

Your only son, no sin to hide But you have sent him from your side To walk upon this guilty start And to become the Lamb of God. O Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God I love the Holy Lamb of God. O wash me in his precious blood.

My Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God Your gift of love they crucified They laughed and scorned him as he died The humble king they made a fraud And sacrificed the Lamb of God. O Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God I love the Holy Lamb of God.

My Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God Was so lost I should have died. But you have brought me to your side To be led by your step and brought And to become the Lamb of God. O Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God I love the Holy Lamb of God.

O wash me in his precious blood Till I am just a Lamb of God. O wash me in his precious blood Till I am just a Lamb of God.

Dead in Sin, Made Alive by Grace

In Ephesians 2, it says,. And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness towards us and Jesus Christ.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast. We're going to end this morning's service with O Great God.

O great God of highest heaven, Occupy my lowly heart, Load it all and bring supreme, Conquer every rebel power, Let no vice or sin that resists your holy rule.

Have love and purchase me,.

Make me yours forevermore. Was blinded by my sin, Had no ears to hear your voice, Did not know your love within, Had no taste for heaven's joys, Then your spirit opened to me, Through the gospel of your Son, Gave me endless hope and peace.

Best dependent on your grace, And guard my soul from the evils that I face, You are worthy to be praised, With my every thought and deed. O great God of highest heaven, Glorify your name. You are worthy to be praised, O great God of highest heaven, Glorify your name.

You may be seated.

Abraham, Hebrews 11, and the Call to Leave by Faith

Let's pray together before we open God's Word.

Our great Lord, we are so grateful that you have revealed yourself in the pages of Scripture, in history, to us by opening our eyes and making us to see Christ, and by your grace in drawing us to Him.

We thank you for the mercy that you have shown us in our salvation, and for the mercy that you have shown us in revealing to us in your Word what you want of us, what obedience means, what our faith is, and how we are to walk in it.

And we pray that you would grant us grace and understanding this morning as we look at this passage of Scripture, that we may see in Abraham those things which are parallel to ourselves, and that we may learn the appropriate lessons from what is revealed here in Scripture.

We ask your blessing upon this time for the glory of Christ our Lord. In His name we pray. Amen. Please turn, if you will, to Hebrews chapter 11. We are going to be back in Hebrews 11 this morning, particularly starting at verse 8.

We laid the necessary foundation of going through the Abrahamic promises beginning in Genesis 12 and tracing those through the end of the book of Genesis, starting at the beginning and seeing the way that information is communicated and revelation was given as it unfolded in history, helps us to understand how it is that those passages and those promises should be understood and how they're going to be fulfilled.

And having laid that necessary foundation, we traced the promises from Abraham through Isaac and then Jacob and then to Joseph, and we stopped with Joseph at the end of the book of Genesis. And you can see, just as you glance through the order of the next heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11, how that was necessary to go all the way through Joseph.

You'll see Abraham is mentioned in verse 8, Abraham's faith. In verse 20, we're introduced to Isaac. In verse 21, he mentions Jacob. And in verse 22, Joseph. And those are the main characters that we looked at finishing up last week in Genesis, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then Joseph.

And each one of those men are commended for their act of faith, for their faith here in Hebrews 11, and their evidence of faith always comes back to the promise of that land for each one of these men.

It's not like Abraham got the promise of land and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph all had faith relating to something else. It was this land promise. It was this Abrahamic covenant, which is the theme all the way through Hebrews 11, beginning at verse 8.

All four of these men, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, they were looking forward to something. They anticipated something. They were trusting in something, namely, the word of God regarding the promises that he gave to Abraham.

Now, there are a number of Jewish traditions associated with Abraham that the rabbis have believed that are contained in some of the rabbinical writings and the commentaries on the Old Testament. There are a number of traditions that Jews today believe about Abraham.

Jews love their traditions. You see that even in the first century in the time of Jesus. He reproved the Pharisees for their traditions that they had. As the Jews read through the Old Testament, any time there was a white space, they would fill that with tradition, something attached in a commentary, something that they believed, something that some rabbi said, and they would usually attach to those traditions the same type of reverence and authority that they would give to Scripture, which is why Jesus had to reprove the Pharisees and the Jews of his day, saying, you nullify the word of God by your traditions.

Why? Because they would take their traditions and even elevate them above the clear teaching of the word of God. I'm a big fan of listening to Ben Shapiro and Dennis Prager. I like both of those men, Orthodox Jewish men.

When it comes to political things, I think that they're mirror images of me in many ways, but when it comes to spiritual things, it's just a face plant every single time. Why? Because it is their traditions that cloud their understanding of spiritual things.

It was the same in Jesus' day. Here are some examples of traditions that the Jews had regarding Abraham. It was believed, and is believed by many Jews today, that Abraham started off as an idol worshiper.

So far, so good. We get that in Joshua 24. We're going to look at that in a little bit. He started off as an idol worshiper. But they believed that Abraham began to reason to himself that everything created around us could not be the product of multitudes of gods, many gods, or a council of gods.

He began to reason and logically come to the conclusion that everything had to be the product of one God, one sovereign God. So Abraham, by his own volition, left all of the polytheistic religions of his day and the idol worship behind him, and he became a monotheist.

In fact, Abraham invented kind of monotheism. There were no monotheists before Abraham. Abraham was a good monotheist, and he began to evangelize others in this monotheistic religion. And Abraham was such a righteous and pious and good and godly man that God looked down upon Abraham and saw in him this commendable faith, this virtue, this piety, this God-seeking monotheist named Abraham who lived in Ur of the Chaldees, and God thought to himself, now there is a man I can work with.

So God appeared to Abraham and said, let's make a deal. Monty, whoever that guy was back in the 1950s, let's make a deal. What was it? Monty Hall. I was going to say Monty Python, but I knew that was not right.

Monty Hall. Let's make a deal, Abraham. So he suggested to Abraham that he would give Abraham certain things if Abraham gave to him certain things, and so they worked out this deal. This is basically the Arminian view of salvation.

That God looks down through history, sees which one of us are virtuous, righteous, smart, and spiritual enough to embrace the gospel if offered to it, and God says, I can work with that person, I'll choose that person and bring that person to the gospel.

It's the Arminian perspective of salvation. You can see how this would work out very good in a Jewish system of religion because the Jews believed in their own works righteousness, their own deeds, their own piety, their own faith, their own abilities to please God, and so here is Abraham, which is the prototypical example of somebody who on his own effort and his own merit can please God to such an extent that God would work with Abraham.

That is how the Jews would view Abraham as being a virtuous person that is worthy of our following after his example. Now Paul corrected that in Romans and in Galatians. Paul made the case in Romans that Abraham was not chosen because he was a virtuous man.

He was not chosen because he offered something to God. In fact, Paul makes the case in Romans and Galatians that Abraham was chosen by sovereign grace and that the faith that Abraham had is the same faith that you and I have.

It is a faith unto salvation, a faith which is the gift of God, a faith that results in obedience. It is the faith that pleases God. Paul had to make the case that salvation was by faith and not works.

The author of Hebrews makes the case that faith is not just for salvation, but that faith is for all of life. Faith is something that starts us off at the beginning of our salvation. At the moment that God redeems us as lost sinners, that faith is active, and that faith is obedient, and that faith is present, and it grows all the way through of life.

We begin in faith, we live in faith, and we die in faith. That is the story of every believer in Jesus Christ. We begin in faith, we live in faith, and we die in faith. Faith is for all of life. That's the lesson of Abraham.

So in verse 8, we'll notice in verse 8 he picks up the story of Abraham and makes reference to the things that we noticed last week and the last two weeks, and that is the promise of the land, that Abraham went out to a place that he was to receive for an inheritance.

That's verse 8. Verse 11 speaks of Sarah. By faith, even Sarah herself received an ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered him faithful who had promised, Sarah being Abraham's wife.

So there were promises made to Abraham regarding a land and regarding descendants. God honored the promises for both of those to both of those men. Impartial, there are more fulfillments of those promises that are yet to come.

But verses 8 through 10 deals with Abraham. Verse 11 deals with Sarah. So we're focusing on Abraham in verses 8 through 10. We're going to be looking specifically today at verse 8. And I want you to notice that there are three things about Abraham that manifested his faith.

His faith is made evident in three things. First, in verse 8, he left his home for a promised land. In verse 9, he lived in the land as a pilgrim. And then verse 10, he looked for an eternal city. He left, he lived, and he looked.

I didn't borrow that outline from anybody. I came up with that all by myself, as far as I know. If anybody else had that, I'm not litanizing that. Knowingly, I might be doing it unknowingly, but I'm certainly not doing it knowingly.

It's a good outline. He left the home for a promised land. He lived in that promised land in tents. And then he was looking for an eternal city. Let's read the text, beginning of verse 8. By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance.

And he went out, not knowing where he was going. That is, he left. He left Ur of the Chaldees and went into the land that God was to show him. Verse 9, by faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promises.

For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. He left, he lived, and he looked. You can see how Abraham is the perfect prototype for what it means to walk and to live in faith as a believer.

Because this is the story of everybody who is in Jesus Christ. At some point in our salvation, in the past, we have left something. We have left family, we have left old religion, we have left our attempts at self-righteousness, we have left our sin, we have abandoned any and all of those things.

And then, currently, we live in this land, in this world, which is not our home. We recognize that as Christians. We are to live as aliens and strangers in this world, because our citizenship is not here.

So having left everything behind us that God calls us out of, darkness, into light, now we live as aliens and strangers, dwelling, as it were, living semi-permanently in a world which is really not our home.

And how are we to do this? By looking forward to something that we are to receive in the future, right? Just like Abraham, we look forward to that city whose architect and builder is God, a city with foundations.

We're looking forward to what we have in the future, the fulfillment of those promises. We have left, we are living, and we are looking forward. There's three tenses of your Christian life there. Today we're looking at Abraham leaving.

Verse 8, read it with me again. By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. I want you to notice the connection between Abraham being called and Abraham obeying.

By faith, Abraham, when he was called, he obeyed. I want you to notice that God takes the initiative in salvation. We see this in Abraham's life. Abraham was called, and Abraham immediately obeyed. His obedience was itself the evidence that he had faith in this God who had called him.

But there is no record before this of Abraham seeking God in any way. There's no record before this of Abraham being a righteous or a pious man who warranted God's grace or God's favor to him. There's no record of that.

There's no record of Abraham becoming a monotheistic Yahweh worshiper long before he was called. We just simply read of Abraham and Terah, his father, and dwelling in the land, and moving around, and Terah dying.

And then suddenly, in Genesis 12, verse 1, Now the Lord said to Abraham, Go forth from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you. It is God who pursued Abraham.

There's no record that Abraham was pursuing God. God pursued Abraham. And this is the way it is with every sinner who is saved. It is always God who is the one who initiates it. It is God who pursues sinners.

Jesus said, You didn't choose me, I chose you. We love him because he first loved us. God is the one who initiates salvation. God is the one who plans salvation, who purposes salvation, who affects salvation.

And when he called Abraham, that effectual call to Abraham came with it. The power to obey, and the faith to believe, and the willingness to obey. It is God who does this. God pursues sinners. Sinners do not pursue God.

There's no such thing as a seeker church. A church full of seekers. Because there's no such thing as a seeker. Romans 3, verse 9 and 10. As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands.

There is none who seeks after God. I know you're tempted to think in your mind, Well, there was a time when I was pursuing the truth. I was looking. I was investigating. You were being drawn is what you were.

You weren't seeking. You were being drawn. Jesus said, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. This is the drawing of God. God draws sinners. Sinners don't seek after a God that requires them to lay down their lives and to die to themselves.

Sinners don't seek such a God. Sinners do not seek a God who promises wrath for their sin, against sin. Sinners do not seek after a holy God. Sinners are drawn to God, but it is God who does the initiating.

It is God who does the planning. It's God who, by His power, draws sinners in. And He did this with Abraham. Abraham was an idol worshiper when God called him. Genesis, sorry, Joshua, chapter 24. Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the river, namely Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.

Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the river and led him through all the land of Canaan and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac. He was an idol worshiper. Terah, Abraham, his relatives, they were idol worshipers.

Isaiah 51, verse 1. Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain.

There, Isaiah the prophet reminds them of their humble beginnings. Look from the pit from which you were taken out of. You think Abraham was this noble person out of all of humanity who warranted God's grace?

It is not so. Look to the pit from which you were dug. Look to that rock from which you were hewn. Abraham and Sarah, those are humble beginnings. God calls sinners to turn from their wicked ways and He grants with that call repentance and faith.

Those are gifts of grace. He calls us to Himself. He reveals Himself to us. He opens our eyes. He changes our hearts. He gives us hearts to obey. This is the drawing of God. And every sinner who has ever come to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith for salvation and the forgiveness of sins has only come to Jesus Christ in that way because God was at work in the heart of that one bringing him to faith in Christ.

Because God is an initiating, converting, redeeming God. God seeks sinners. Sinners don't seek God. And Abraham's conversion is an example of this. Living in idolatry in a land surrounded by pagans, God said to Abraham, go, leave this and go there.

And Abraham, this is Abraham's regeneration. This is Abraham's conversion story. He turned from his idols to serve the living and true God. That's what salvation is. 1 Thessalonians 1, 9 and 10, Paul said to the Thessalonians, they themselves report what kind of a reception we had with you, how you turned from idols to serve the living and true God.

You turned to God from idols. This is repentance. It is a turning around. And it is God who is said in the book of Acts that turns us from our wicked ways. This is the gracious God who pursues sinners.

He finds sinners who hate him, who are at war with him, who want nothing to do with him. And God opens their eyes and works on their hearts and turns them from their sin, makes their sin look exceedingly sinful, and makes the Savior look exceedingly glorious, so that he turns them from their sin and opens their eyes and redeems them, gives them eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to obey.

This is all the gift of faith. It is all part of that sovereign grace of God that comes in the effectual call. God called Abraham, and Abraham turned. Why? Because the gift of that calling, that effectual calling, comes with the willingness and the ability to obey it.

All men are idol worshipers, every last one of us. Every last sinner, before they come to faith in Christ, is an idol worshiper. We have idols of ourselves, idols of our reputation. We make idols out of our comforts, our conveniences, the ease of our life.

We make idols out of our nation, idols out of our leaders, idols out of church leaders, idols out of everything in our home, idols out of our possessions, our retirement. We have no problem coming up with idols.

And real conversion is God calling to the sinner, and the sinner recognizing those idols, the hideousness of that idolatry, and turning from that sin to salvation in Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5 .17 says, If we are in Christ, we are new creations.

We have left something. And Abraham is the perfect example of what it means to leave something. And he walked away in obedience. And this is, actually, it's in Abraham's obedience that we see that his faith was real.

We can't see that somebody's faith is genuine unless we see how their faith works itself out when they obey. This is what James meant when he said that men are justified or made to appear righteous in the eyes of other people by their act of obedience.

Show me your faith without your works, I'll show you my faith by my works. Because my works or my act of obedience is, in fact, the evidence of my faith. And where there is no obedience, we have no reason to think that there is any such thing as genuine faith.

Let me say that again. Where there is no obedience to the Word of God, we have no reason to believe that genuine faith exists. Abraham was obedient. Luke 6 .46, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you do not do the things that I say?

That's what Jesus said. You call me Lord, but you don't obey me. You know how incongruous this is that these things just don't match up? That we affirm His Lordship, then those who affirm His Lordship, those who are owned by Him, those who belong to Him, we will, in fact, obey Him.

And obedience is the theme of Hebrews 11. One of them, Abel obeyed God and he offered the sacrifice that was commanded. Enoch obeyed God and he walked with God. Noah obeyed God and he built the ark for the salvation of his family.

And Noah's obedience was irreverent obedience. Remember, it was a cautious, meticulous, pious, diligent obedience that was careful to observe all that the Lord had given him to observe. And so when Abraham obeyed, his obedience was immediate.