Biblical Faith | Hebrews 11:17-19

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Abraham is an example of saving faith!

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So, if you would, please turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11. We are going to take a brief pause through our expositional series through the
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Sermon on the Mount. And so this morning, I want us to talk about what is biblical faith.
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And since we have been in the Sermon on the Mount for some time, Jesus has told us many things of what true sons and daughters of our
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Heavenly Father looks like. They are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven by faith and faith alone.
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Now all throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is constantly contrasting sons and daughters of our
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Heavenly Father, men that are blessed before God, with the Pharisees. The Pharisees are a religious people that are hypocritical.
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They oftentimes trust in their own self -righteousness. And so, one of the Beatitudes that Jesus talks about is blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see
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God. And so Jesus is beginning to explain what a blessed man and woman look like.
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They have a transformed heart. That is a heart of faith. And so faith is a matter of the heart before God.
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The Pharisees had it wrong. They sought glory from men with their works and they only gave lip service to God.
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And so Jesus in fact rebukes the Pharisees in Luke's Gospel. He says, you seek to justify yourselves before men, but God knows the heart.
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And so there is in fact one time in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus explicitly mentions the word faith back in Matthew chapter 6.
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He's instructing believers on how to lay up treasures in heaven and to seek first the
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Kingdom of God and His righteousness and God will provide for our every need as He sees fit.
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And I remember Pastor Nathan talked about how this is easier said than done. When we're going through the hard times, we must renew our hearts that God is sovereign over His creation and He has a purpose for us.
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And so a lot of times we get anxious and worried about many things. And that's where Jesus goes in to say, but if God so closed the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will
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He not much more clothe you? Oh, you of little faith. And so Jesus mentions faith here and that's all of us at times, right?
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All of us that are truly in Christ, we oftentimes have little faith reminding us that we are like little children.
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But time and time again, our Heavenly Father extends His grace and His mercy towards us.
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And I love how Jesus says, oh, you of little faith. This reminds me that we are not made right before God and saved by any mighty works that we can accomplish.
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No, it is by faith and faith alone in the perfect Savior. And that little faith is a gift of God.
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That little faith was a work of the Holy Spirit that began a good work in you and will bring it to completion.
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One day we will step into glory all eternity with God. And so that little faith will be transformed into a great faith that rests in the
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Savior and feels that love that we can never be separated from. And so as you're looking at Hebrews chapter 11 with me,
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I want us to look more in depth about what this faith, this little faith that Jesus is talking about.
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Many of you may be familiar with Hebrews 11. Maybe you've heard it called the chapter of faith or the heroes of the faith.
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Okay. And that is because there is a great cloud of witnesses, many examples of men and women that have lived by faith.
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And the writer of Hebrews is telling us this has always been the plan of salvation. It has been by faith alone and the saints live that faith out.
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This is not a new and innovative teaching. And so the writer of Hebrews is writing this almost as an apologetic to the
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Jewish people saying you're going back to the ceremonial types of laws that are pointing to Jesus.
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Y 'all are gravitating back to those ceremonies rather than looking to their fulfillment. And so Second Temple Judaism, they actually twisted the
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Old Testament scriptures into a way of obtaining favor with God by keeping his laws and commandments and not resting in God's promises by faith.
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So I really want to drive that point home this morning. The book of Hebrews is written to implore them not to neglect a great salvation in Jesus Christ because he is the author and the perfecter of our faith.
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And so if you would look with me at verse 17, verse 17 through 19, in fact,
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I would like to ask you to please stand for the reading of God's holy word. This morning, Hebrews 11, starting verse 17, says, by faith,
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Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son of whom it was said through Isaac, show your offspring be named.
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He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
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Let's pray this morning. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would bless our endeavors to understand your word this morning.
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God, please keep me from speaking error, God, and I pray that your truth would shine through and would edify your people.
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Please help us to be people that live by faith and show that faith to the watching world.
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Lord, we love you and pray all these things in your name, Jesus. Amen. You may be seated. So we're just going to be examining the life of Abraham in these three verses, but the book of Hebrews highlights that the saints of all time, even the saints in the
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Old Testament, they were justified by faith and they lived by faith in sanctification.
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So we look now at one of the most important figures in all the Bible, Abraham, right?
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He is so important in the Old Testament and we see him talked about so many times in the New Testament.
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The Bible calls Abraham a friend of God and a lot of times we understand him to be the father of the faith and that is because Abraham was justified by faith way before God gave the
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Mosaic law to Israel. That illustrates that Abraham was saved by faith before the law and the
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Gentiles who didn't have the written law, they understand that he was a model for their salvation as well.
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And the application is that we too are justified, saved before God by faith and faith alone and Abraham is the perfect example of that.
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And so I want you to make a very important note this morning if you have a way of doing that, but right now, Genesis 15 verse six, right?
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First Bible or first book in the Bible pertaining to Abraham says, and Abraham believed
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Yahweh. He believed the Lord and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now we may read that in passing and think, okay, that's a very good description, but that is telling us how we are justified, made right before God and it's based on him believing the promises of God.
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We learned that this is faith. We learned that this is firm trust in God's promises and God cannot lie.
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And that's how it was counted, declared righteous, a right standing before God. And so this was by faith and not by his works.
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I want us to develop this train of thought this morning. Yes, we're learning about biblical faith that works, right?
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The just shall live by faith, but there is a distinction how we live our lives versus what's truly on the inside that God knows the moment that we have faith in his son.
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And so the writer of Hebrews is wanting to make a case that this has always been the way of salvation and apologetically and very intentionally.
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If the writer of Hebrews can show that salvation was by grace through faith in the coming savior with Abraham, then it would be true for the
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Jews. And so we see with Abraham, he was justified by faith and he lived that faith out.
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That means that he demonstrated his faith by his works to other people and the watching world.
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Jesus taught the same truth in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.
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The apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter two beautifully said the same truth this way. He said that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
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God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And so I want you to keep this in your mind.
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We are justified by faith. The moment that we have faith, that trusting in the promises of God, trusting in the savior,
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God knows the heart. Right? But if your heart has changed, that's going to compel how you live the rest of your life.
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And so in Hebrews 11, we have this great cloud of witnesses, many examples of saints living their lives to the glory of God.
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But look back right before Hebrews chapter 11. Look at verse 38 in chapter 10, because all of chapter 11 flows out of this verse.
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This verse says, but my righteous one shall live by faith. Now other many good translations say the just shall live by faith.
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The point is the justified by faith, my righteous ones, God says, will live that faith out.
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Now that verse, the just shall live by faith or my righteous one will live by faith.
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This is an Old Testament verse. This is Habakkuk chapter two, verse four.
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And this is repeated many times in the New Testament, just like Genesis 15, six. I'm wanting you to see that salvation has always been the same, whether we look in the
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Old Testament pointing forward to the Messiah, or we look in the New Testament showing us that Jesus fulfilled everything.
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So that doubly emphasizes that everything has been by faith. In fact, that is the most common phrase that we see here in chapter 11.
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By faith Abel, by faith Enoch, by faith Noah, by faith Sarah, and on and on it goes.
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And so I think a very natural question to ask at this point is, what is faith? Look with me in Hebrews chapter 11, verse one, where we see, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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So we kind of have a parallelism going on. The writer of Hebrews is saying the same thing, but just two times in slightly different ways.
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And so I want us to look at that briefly. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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And so assurance of things hoped for. Assurance means that you have firm trust in something.
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Other good translations say that this is the substance of things hoped for. Now this hope is a blessed hope.
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This is something sure because we are looking to the promises of God. This isn't like,
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I hope it rains or doesn't rain tomorrow. So this hope is actually talking about something certain.
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But when we look at the word assurance and substance, it's meaning that we are trusting in something that is real, even though we may not see it with our physical eye.
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But the writer of Hebrews is, but we see it with the eye of faith. We feel it in our hearts because of the work that God has done in us.
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And so assurance is firm trust. And then the conviction of things not seen.
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Conviction and assurance are really close together here because they deal with categories of the heart.
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The word conviction implies a response. So please understand that conviction is an outward action based on an inward assurance.
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This is biblical faith. Biblical faith is internal. Biblical faith is a person's heart trusting in God who has revealed himself and given us promises.
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Biblical faith brings conviction to live out your life to the glory of God. And so this faith, this kind of biblical true faith is so important because without it we cannot please
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God. Look down with me at verse 6 in Hebrews chapter 11. We read, and without faith it is impossible to please him.
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For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
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So faith here is not just having knowledge right here. This is talking about a wholehearted devotion to the presence of God in your life and engaging in fellowship with him in every aspect of how we live.
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And so Abraham had the faith that pleased God. His faith was real.
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His faith persevered through trials and it's because Abraham trusted in the promises of the all powerful
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God who cannot lie. That's so important because if God could lie then how could you trust him?
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God is the God of truth. So when God speaks it's the highest authority and he cannot lie.
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God cannot deny himself and so when he says something you can rest assured that it is going to happen.
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And I love that because we see that in the life of Abraham. And so Abraham, look with me at verse 17.
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By faith Abraham when he was tested offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son of whom it was said through Isaac shall your offspring be named.
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So I really want to key in on that word tested. Abraham's faith was tested.
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And so guess what that means? If anyone in here professes faith in Jesus Christ, trusting in God, your faith will also be tested.
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And so God does not test a person's faith to prove anything to himself because he knows all things.
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Y 'all have been studying in 1 John that our hearts may condemn us at times when we feel guilty or convicted, right, we're going to struggle with all these types of doubt thinking about who we are, but God knows all things.
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So when he says that you are saved, you are justified in Jesus by faith, he knows all things.
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He cannot lie. So that is certain to happen in your life. And so testing is not for God's benefit, but it is for our benefit.
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God is testing an individual to show them whether they have a mere professed dead faith or that they have true saving faith that perseveres to the end.
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And I believe understanding this is so important for our assurance of our salvation.
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Think about it as you're growing in Christ, going through trial after trial in this fallen and broken world, and you find that your heart is continually looking to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, then you can be assured that he is going to bring it to completion.
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So this should change our perspectives about trials, right? The book of James says that, in fact, you should be able to count it as joy.
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And I think you should almost say, wait, I can find joy even through the hardest times. Absolutely.
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James encourages Christians early in his book, he says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
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We have to understand that going through trials purifies our faith. It's like putting precious metals into the furnace to be refined.
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And when it comes out, it comes out more precious, more valuable. And so for the child of God, going through trials will draw our hearts to spend precious time in God's word.
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We'll go to God's word in fellowship with him and our hearts will cry out to him. We will desire to spend precious time in fellowship with the saints.
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And so when we go to God's word, our hearts and our minds are renewed of God's love, his goodness, his grace, and his mercy.
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Our trust will increase, right? We will be reminded that God is sovereign over all things in his creation.
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And when we meditate on these truths, it'll alleviate any kind of doubt that you are going through. In fact, it will renew the assurance that you have in Christ and give you joy.
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Amen. And so that is exactly what we see in the life of Abraham. His faith was tested, don't miss this, with one of the hardest trials imaginable.
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So look with me back at verse 17. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.
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Does anybody know what it means here when we read offered up? This means, if you're familiar with the story, this means that God was calling
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Abraham to sacrifice and kill his son. I can't imagine that.
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I can't imagine being in that situation. And we're going to look more in depth into this story, and I hope it grabs your heart to really feel what
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Abraham was called to go through. And not only was he called to sacrifice his son, but his only son of promise.
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And so when we read that, his son, his only son, Isaac was the unique son that carried the promised gospel of salvation for all mankind.
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And so we ask the question, how did Abraham have the faith to persevere through the worst trial imaginable?
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Look with me at verse 19. This is the key. I love this so much. Abraham, he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
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God was able. Of course God was able. He is king of kings and Lord of lords.
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The scriptures declare, hallelujah, for the Lord our God almighty, he reigns.
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God is sovereign. Right? When he says he's going to do something, he is able. The scriptures tell us that holy, holy, holy is the
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Lord God almighty who was and is and is to come worthy are you our
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Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created.
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Abraham knew that God was able. God was able even in a circumstance that seemed impossible, right?
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Our text says that he was able to resurrect him from the dead. Resurrections just weren't happening every day in the time of Abraham.
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He was actually making a leap saying, I don't know how God would keep his promise, but he would do something as incredible like,
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I don't know, raise Isaac from the dead. That is incredible. That is biblical faith.
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In fact, the apostle Paul says in Romans 4, he talks about another trial in Abraham's life and says this, no unbelief made
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Abraham waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised.
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That is biblical faith. That is the kind of faith that is pleasing to God. That is the kind of faith that perseveres through trials and counts it as joy.
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That is a faith, hear me, that cannot be manufactured by man. That kind of faith comes from above and is given from God as a gracious gift.
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So I want to invite you to turn with me in your copy of God's word to Genesis chapter 22.
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We purposely don't have it up here, so y 'all will engage more with your Bibles. This is on purpose. So Genesis 22, this is giving us a more in -depth look of the three verses here in Hebrews chapter 11.
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I want us to look more in detail. What persevering faith looks like in the midst of trials and testing.
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So look with me at verse 1 in Genesis 22, where we read, after these things,
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God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am. So I just want to pause real quick here.
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I want to look at the word tested. This is the correct word being used, and I love the good old
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King James Bible. I love it because it's a word for word translation.
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We should always say if it's word for word, it's worthy of our study and contemplation and meditating on God's word.
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However, the King James incorrectly interprets this verse, and this is very important.
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The King James says God did tempt Abraham. Now all the other translations say tested, and that's proper.
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However, this is important to note theologically, because the New Testament in James says, let no one say when he is tempted,
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I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
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So it's important to note that Abraham is being tested by God, not being tempted by God.
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In fact, Pastor Nathan preached on this a few weeks ago as we've been going through the Sermon on the
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Mount. Remember when Jesus prayed, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
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Those are the proper categories that we have to understand this. That God sovereignly tests us by ordaining trials, but he will never dangle temptation in front of us by his loving hand.
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However, since God is sovereign, he will permit the devil, the evil one, the great tempter to come into the picture and into our lives.
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And so that's why we earnestly pray for God's providence, that he would show us grace and mercy.
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This should drive us to pray that God's providence will deliver us from the wiles of the devil, because he is looking to entice our flesh with temptation.
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And so God tested Abraham. Look with me at verse 2. He said, take your son, your only son
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Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which
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I tell you. So I just want to remind you, we see this phrase, only son. Abraham had other sons.
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He had Ishmael, right? But Isaac is the only son of promise, the gospel promise.
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And so I want you to think about for a moment what may have been going through Abraham's mind.
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He just told him to sacrifice his son on an altar. Abraham would have been thinking, you want me to kill my son?
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Wouldn't that be murder? Wouldn't that be human sacrifice? I don't know what all was going through Abraham's mind, but it wasn't good, right?
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Because when I read this story, it makes me step back and think, Jeremiah, you have no idea what this situation was like.
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And on a side note, I don't think God was telling Abraham to do something sinful, right? I look more into the
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Greek and Hebrew of what murder is. It entails maliciousness. It entails a premeditation of slaughtering another image bearer of God.
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What we have to understand is God is the author of life and death, right? So he is able to accomplish that in any way that he will.
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So he was not calling Abraham to sin here. But nonetheless, no matter how many thoughts were racing through Abraham's mind, he did not question
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God's goodness. He knew that God was able to do what he had promised even through Isaac, that he may do something like even raise him from the dead.
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So look with me at verse three. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and his son
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Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.
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And so we see that he got up early here. And I think Abraham probably would have had a really difficult night sleeping, right?
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A lot of us have had almost nights where we can't sleep at all because we are anticipating something almost unbearable the next day, right?
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We've all experienced that at some time or another. But I would like to think that Abraham maybe did get some rest.
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I would like to think that he was going to sleep praying to God what was on his heart and trusting in him.
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And so what do we see with Abraham? He was quick to obey God and got up early the next morning. And so I want you to notice two more people here in this story, the two young men.
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These were more than likely Abraham's hired servants. And I want to point them out because them being there is very important to understanding more in this story.
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Look at verse four. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.
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Then Abraham said to his two young men, stay here with the donkey. Don't miss this. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.
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Now I want you to see the act of faith that Abraham was doing. He was telling two witnesses, we're going to go over here.
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You don't know what all that's going to be, but we are going to come back alive. Abraham was showing his faith to man.
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He was showing them that, hey, God will provide ultimately. And those two men were there to bear witness to that fact.
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In fact, Isaac, who doesn't know what's going to happen, he was the third witness. And so I believe that Abraham is demonstrating his faith to man.
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We know later in the narrative in the Old Testament, God would give his law to his people and the truth of anything was established on the basis of two or three witnesses.
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And so you have them here in this story. Abraham was demonstrating his faith before men.
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Remember the verse that all of Hebrews chapter 11 flows from? The just shall live by faith.
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And so we have three witnesses here able to watch this happen. And I believe all Christians here, all
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Christians, thousands of years later, we also get to witness how Abraham's faith was active along with his works and his faith was completed by his works.
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That comes from James chapter 2, verse 22. The book of James is very important, showing us that the just shall live by faith, right?
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We will justify that we are truly justified before God by faith by how we live our lives before men.
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That is why James also says, faith without works is dead. If you just say you're a
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Christian and your life doesn't bear fruit of that, what is that telling all of us in here? You're not really saved, right?
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You may know some Christianese, you may know some of the right words, but you are not in Christ, right?
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But God truly knows the heart. That is biblical faith, trusting that God is able and that will result in a changed life, a life filled with good works, not to glorify self, but to glorify
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God. And so here in Genesis 22, we see how this
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Abraham is showing his faith to mankind and how true saving faith works.
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Genesis 22 comes after Genesis 15. Remember that verse that I wanted you to make note of?
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Abraham believed Yahweh and it was counted to him as righteousness. Why is that important?
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Because Abraham was justified before God way earlier in his life. Genesis 22 is showing us how the just shall live by faith.
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That is beautiful. And so God truly knows the heart of man. And Abraham had firm trust in the all -powerful
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God who was able to keep his promises, even do something like resurrect Isaac from the dead.
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And so those are two points that I really want you to be able to walk away with this morning and understand that we are justified by faith before God and we are justified by our works before men.
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And so from our perspective, we see Abraham's life, his faith being put on display where he trusted that God would ultimately provide.
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Look with me at verse 6. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son.
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And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together.
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And Isaac said to his father Abraham, or he said to his father Abraham, my father. And he said, here
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I am my son. And he said, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offer?
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Abraham said, God will provide. God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.
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So both of them went together. Can't imagine. Can't imagine from the child's perspective, looking to your earthly father that's supposed to protect you.
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Where's the sacrifice? I don't see any. And Abraham said, God will provide. Now, I think when
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Abraham said that God will provide for himself a lamb, I think he was referring to Isaac in that moment.
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Wasn't telling him. But I love what he said, God will provide. Abraham knew that God sees exactly what is happening, that God knows all, and he will provide perfectly in his time in the way that he sees fit.
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So look with me at verse 9. They went, when they came to the place of which
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God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order that, and bound
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Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar, on the top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
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But the angel of the Lord called from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here I am, Lord.
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He said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear
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God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son for me. Oh, it's almost like I could take a deep sigh of relief, right?
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Do y 'all feel that, too? Can you imagine this type of, this trial of testing that Abraham had to go through?
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I can't. And oftentimes I say, look, Job had it worse than any other person, right? He had everything taken from him, and I do believe that.
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However, Job was not asked to sacrifice one of his children. Can't imagine what was going through, but God did provide, right?
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And I want to draw your attention to a new person in the story, the angel of the
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Lord. And so have you ever read throughout the Old Testament and come across the angel of the Lord and ask yourself, who is that?
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Well, I believe, it's without question, that this is God. This is
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God appearing in a physical form that can be seen and heard by man. And so we get a clue here in the context of how we see the word the.
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This is an important term, this is the definite article, this is saying the angel of the Lord. Both Old and New Testament, we see we get angels of the
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Lord, we get an angel of the Lord. So the fact that we see the, this is showing us something unique and separate about the angel of the
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Lord from all other angelic beings. And so all throughout the Old Testament, the angel of the
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Lord speaks as God, identifies himself with God, and exercises the responsibilities of God.
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And so I think the perfect example to show that the angel of the Lord is God is the time in Exodus 3, where Moses was talking with the burning bush.
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That was the angel of the Lord. And he said that I am, I am the eternally existing one.
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I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so it's without question that the angel of the
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Lord is God. And God is calling out to Abraham and commands him not to harm his son.
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And then he says a very puzzling statement, right? Do y 'all remember what he said? He says, for now
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I know that you fear God, saying that you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.
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Is this puzzling? Did God not know what was gonna happen beforehand? Right, isn't that a valid question to ask here in this text?
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Let me reassure you, God knew exactly what was about to happen. God knows all things.
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He is omniscient. Have you ever thought about why God is able to give prophecies to prophets to declare the future?
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It's cuz he knows all things. He knows it perfectly. And so we see even the scripture telling us, for the
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Lord searches all the hearts of man and understands his every thought of intentions.
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And so with that, God knew the intent and the heart of Abraham. He would have known during his three day journey that he was being sincere and following and trusting in the promises of God.
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He would have known whether Abraham feared him or not, okay? So we can take that off the table.
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God was not learning like a man would. God knows all things, okay? So how do we understand this?
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For now I know that you fear God. We have to understand is that the scripture oftentimes,
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God will speak in a way to provoke a response, right? Y 'all remember earlier in Genesis? Remember after Adam sinned,
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God calls to Adam and asked the question, where are you? Does that mean that God had no idea where Abraham was?
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No, right? But he was calling forth to get a response from Adam. And so this statement is designed to reveal to us a truth that needs to be presented and expanded more in depth.
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One theologian, John Calvin, said God is speaking on our level so that we may understand that Abraham passed the test.
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God not only knew what Abraham was going to do, but he had purposed and ordained this event to happen the exact way that it did for our benefit, for Abraham's benefit, for the two witnesses' benefit, for Isaac to learn about this gospel that God will provide.
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This is for us, that God was there and testifies to the fact that the just shall live by faith.
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With me at verse 13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his thorns.
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And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
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Please make note of that phrase, instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, the
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Lord will provide, as it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. I love this, because even earlier back in verse 8,
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Abraham knew that God would provide. He had an unwavering faith, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
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So God was showing Abraham no matter how impossible the circumstances are, he can be trusted.
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Now yes, Abraham did have faith, but he also learned and grew in his faith.
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That is biblical faith. And so we must be encouraged that even when we are unsure how God is going to keep his word, we too can be certain that he is faithful and he will grow us in our faith through the trials, through the hard times.
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And we can count it as joy. Abraham acknowledged that God had provided, and so he named the place
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Jehovah -Jireh. That means that the Lord will provide, and so we see how
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God did provide. He provided a ram. It was caught in a thicket by his horns, and Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son, right?
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A ram. This would have been a male sheep that died as a substitute in Isaac's place.
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Is that starting to make you think about something so much more that's being presented here on Mount Moriah?
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God is giving us a presentation, not just of this one event, but of his eternal grace, his continual provision, and his all -encompassing wisdom.
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Jehovah -Jireh does not mean the Lord did provide, but the Lord will provide.
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In other words, this is not just simply pointing to a past event to be memorialized.
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Actually, this is pointing and anticipating a future action that God will do. And so all of Genesis 22 is foreshadowing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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I love that. We see so many wonderful, intricate details interwoven throughout the story. Back in verse 2,
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Isaac is Abraham's only son, his unique son of promise. This is referring, pointing to Jesus.
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He's the only son of God, the unique one, that was sent by the Father to be the Savior.
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Back in verse 6, we see that Abraham took the wood and laid it on Isaac to carry to the place where he would be sacrificed.
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Who is that pointing to? This perfectly points to Jesus carrying his own cross as he walked to Calvary.
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In verse 8, Abraham said to Isaac that God would provide a lamb, a sacrifice. We understand that Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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And like we've been emphasizing here in verse 13, a ram was offered as a sacrifice instead of, on his behalf, in his stead, as a substitute.
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And that is because Jesus Christ is the perfect substitute for all that the Father has given him because he bore our sins on Calvary.
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God provided a perfect substitute for us and all of those who look to Jesus, who is the author and the perfecter of our faith.
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The New Testament puts it this way. I'm so glad that we understand verses like John 3 .16. 2
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Corinthians 5 .21 says this. For our sake the Father made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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Want us to know that verse as well. Because what that means is when you look to Jesus in faith, in faith alone, meaning apart from your works, anything that you can accomplish by your hands and your feet, getting up into a baptism is not going to save you.
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Not going to church and helping people. Those works do not make us right before God. But we are saved by faith, and faith alone apart from our works before God Almighty.
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And when we look to Jesus, we get forgiven this way. All of our sin, past, present, and future goes back in time.
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Gets put on the cross of Calvary, right? And in exchange, we receive the perfect righteousness of Jesus credited, imputed, covering our account completely.
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Now some people think, well, I'm going to sin and mess up in the future, so I feel like I got to do something.
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Listen, Jesus is a perfect savior. That's why even all your future sins are delivered.
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And guess what? You don't want to go back to the old way of life anymore because he's saved you. He's given you a new heart with new desires.
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That's why the scriptures declare the just, the justified by faith will now live out their faith to the watching world.
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That is the gospel, and we see that here in this account in Genesis 22. And so in Hebrews 11, 19,
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I think the author was intending to say, this is a picture and type of Jesus. Because that verse 19 in Hebrews 11 says, he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
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I believe the author of the book of Hebrews is saying Isaac was a picture here. Because Jesus Christ actually was sacrificed as an offering for sin.
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Jesus actually resurrected from the dead. And our heavenly father received
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Jesus back, his only son, after he ascended on high. So with that being said,
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Mike Rupert, we got to start laying in this plane, right? I want all that in the forefront of your mind, okay?
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I want to challenge us this morning as we prepare for the Lord's Supper. I want you to examine yourself and ask yourself this hard question.
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Do I have the faith of Abraham? Now, I'm not talking about if you've hiked up a
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Mount Moriah in your life, or if you have done all these mighty wonders and deeds, I'm not talking about any of that.
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I'm asking, do you have the faith that is confident that God is able to keep his promise and salvation in Jesus Christ?
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I want you to ask yourself, what does your faith look like as you're going through trials?
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When things aren't going your way, are you filled with anxiety and frustration? And dare I even say, get mad at God.
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Or do you find joy going through trials knowing that God is strengthening your faith?
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And you may say both. And that's right, because we're not going to have a perfect faith. Remember what
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Jesus said? Oh, you of little faith, right? We're like little children. But we must drive our focus back to the only
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Savior. Jesus said, oh, you of little faith. There was actually another man in the gospel account that said, he cried out to Jesus.
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He says, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. You may say,
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Jeremiah, how could I possibly have the faith of Abraham? He was asked to sacrifice his son
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Isaac. Well, what if you were faced with giving up the thing you care most about here on earth in order to be obedient to the will of God?
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What would you do? That may be giving up your job, your comfort, your luxuries, certain friends.
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Some people have had to count the cost of following Jesus by separating from their family, losing those deep relationships for the sake of following Christ.
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Jesus said these very important words in the gospel. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
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Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Now, we say hate's a strong word because it is.
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But here's the idea. If somebody was looking at your life and your love for Jesus looked the same as your love for other things going on, right, right?
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That's a lot of people. But if someone looked at your life and saw your love for Jesus was here and your love for your family and these other things were down here, they might almost say, man, you really love something and hate everything else.
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That's the picture that Jesus is drawing here. He says we must count the cost. Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
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So I want to remind us that this is not going to happen perfectly. But Jesus doesn't want people to say, well,
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I'll just simply add you to my life and everything else. No, he wants your heart, right, the thing that has your faith.
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He wants all of that, not your accomplishments. You can't do it. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. He wants you to trust in the one who is perfect, and that is
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Jesus Christ. That is biblical faith, crying out to the
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Savior saying, Lord, I believe you, help my unbelief. Help give me whatever, help me give up whatever it takes in order to follow you.
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That is biblical faith. And so Abraham was an example of someone who was justified by faith and lived by faith in sanctification.
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We see this with many other people in Hebrews chapter 11. And in light of this, the writer of Hebrews exhorts
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Christians in the first two verses of chapter 12. He says, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely, and let us run the race with endurance, the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.