FAITH OF THE PATRIARCHS – PART 1
01-24-10
“THE FAITH OF THE PATRIARCHS – PART 1”
INTRODUCTION:
I. FAITH TESTED VV. 17-18
A. Letting Go into the Hands of the Lord
-in our last study we focused on Abraham’s faith in leaving his country, his family and his father’s house to go to a land that God would show to him
-Abraham made it step by step to the land of Canaan; it was after he entered the middle of the land that God confirmed His promises to him
-then because of famine he wandered down to Egypt on his own without asking counsel from the Lord; in doing so, he endangered his entire household
-he got into trouble with the Pharaoh when he lied to him about Sarah his wife
-he was rebuked by Pharaoh, sent away, came back into the land of Canaan
-it was then that his nephew, Lot, separated from him and went to live in the area of Sodom and Gomorrah
-just after that separation, which was the final ‘departing from his family’, God once again affirmed to him about the land and also his future inheritance
-this was the time where the Lord caused a wonderful thing to be written:
Gen 15:6
And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. NKJV
-Abraham’s faith had been a work in progress
-God had given him the faith by which to believe; we know from Josh. 24 that Abraham’s father was an idolater
-yet Abraham received the witness that there was only one God and it was Him that should be served; then he received the call to depart
-Abraham exercised that faith in each situation, step by step, albeit with a failure here and there
-through it all Abraham clung to God and to His promises; yet the ‘working out’ of those promises was something he had little knowledge of
-Abraham’s greatest test of faith, though, came when the Lord called him to offer up Isaac, the son upon which all the future promises was based
-Isaac was probably in his late teens or early twenties when this happened; Abraham would have been around 120 years old at this time
-Abraham’s faith in God was tested in this way: he had to let go of his own natural understanding on how God would fulfill His own promises
-Abraham had to put all into the hands of God
B. Lessons on Faith Tested
-the writer of Hebrews said at the end of ch. 10 that the just shall live by his faith
-he was quoting from the book of Habakkuk
-these Hebrew believers in Jesus had been through quite a lengthy time of trial
-their faith had been tested on numerous occasions; Heb. 11 was written to encourage them, to strengthen them, to let them know they were not alone
-Abraham had received God’s promise that in Isaac, not through Ishmael, the spiritual blessing would be passed down, culminating in the Redeemer
-Abraham knew that only through Isaac this was to happen; it was as if Isaac was to Abraham his only begotten son
-this of course formed a foreshadow of things to come through God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ
-God the Father, offered up His only begotten Son, Jesus, and received Him back from the dead; He is now at the Father’s right hand right this moment
-just as Abraham’s faith was tested by God, so our faith gets tested by Him
-God does not test our faith to destroy it; He tests our faith to show what He’s already done in us
-that work–His work–can only be revealed through allowing trials and testings
-it’s similar to an engineer who has drawn up a schematic for a piece of computer hardware
-he can prove on paper that it will work; but it has to be tested to be shown that the project actually is valid and solid
-I believe the Lord does the same thing with us who are His children
-there will come times in our lives when the circumstances surrounding us collapse into a heap of rubble
-it may be a marriage that is failing; it could be the project you’re responsible for at work that is being rejected by the client
-possibly it is that tumor or that disease you never thought would happen
-and we find that the more we try to shore it up, the harder we seek to stop the hemorrhaging, the worse it gets
-we are at our wits end with no more strength, no more courage, no more means to deal with it
-it is at that time that we must–we must–we must–fall upon our Savior Jesus and cry out for mercy, for strength and for strategy
-Abraham, when he was tested, obeyed and offered up Isaac by faith; he had to trust God more than in his own understanding of ‘how will it happen?’
-is there an Isaac in your life? are you having to let go of something that is very precious to you?
-it’s not so much that you just let go; it’s that you commit it into the hands of God
-our perspective of “the right time” can be so different than God’s perspective of “the right time”
-I believe there are certain appointed times in our lives when God brings us to crossroads for purposes possibly far different than we initially thought
-an opportunity may have been presented to you to do this or that; and it has been on your mind and heart for a long time
-but the question needs to be, “Is this God’s timing?”; the need may be obvious, but it may not necessarily be the timing of God
-God’s desire is that the blessing we receive from Him is a 100% blessing of what He has in mind; but so often we settle for less through impatience
-how do you know when God is giving direction to do this or that? 5 tests
-1.) in the course of your daily reading of Scripture you keep coming across principles and phrases that bring to mind a particular direction or involvement of your life
-2.) you find a real desire to be involved in that particular endeavor
-3.) seasoned brethren in the Lord are a safe gateway through which to discern if a direction or opportunity is possibly God’s leading
-4.) there is peace in your heart and conscience over the prospect of being used in that way
-5.) the circumstances of your life seem to be pointing in that direction
-whether you step forward or wait until further notice, both will require you to step forward in faith
-waiting on the Lord is very much an active, forward movement on our part
II. FAITH FULFILLED V. 19
A. Setting Our Sights on God Instead of Our Reasoning
-v. 19 tells us that Abraham had to make sure his trust was in God’s ability to bring to pass His own promises
-it was a definite clear command from the Lord to offer up Isaac his son
-Abraham had walked with the Lord for many, many years now
-he had grown in his faith to know through experience and the witness of the Holy Spirit upon his spirit when it was really the Lord’s voice
-the questions on his mind as to the ‘how’ had to be left with God; he lifted his reasoning to a higher level
-he concluded that if God had given the promise in the first place, and now God was calling him to offer up Isaac, God was going to have to raise him from the dead to fulfill His own promise
-in this way he lifted his reasoning and faith to a higher level and rested his faith upon God instead of upon his own reasoning
-it’s not that you let go of reasoning altogether when you enter situations like this; it’s that you lift your reasoning to include the ‘God Factor’
-including the ‘God Factor’ means you understand that your collection of factors at hand are not complete; sound logic is based upon sound facts
-there may be some good initial factors that point to a direction; but the outcome of it has to be left into the hands of God
B. Setting Our ‘Isaacs’ Into God’s Hands
-what is your ‘Isaac’ right now? it could be your deepest hopes, your deepest desires, those things that are most precious to you
-it could be your ‘five year plan’, your upcoming marriage, your oldest child’s educational opportunities that you never had
-it’s not a time to get superstitious and think, “If I release these things into the hand of God, He will take them away from me and never give them back.”
-release means that you count Him more important and worthy of more value than anything that is a part of your life here on earth
25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. NKJV
-Jesus isn’t seeking to turn His disciples against family relationships; it’s just that He must have first place in the hearts of each of His disciples
-although family relationships are usually the most precious things to us (as it has been said, “The most precious things in life are not ‘things’”), we are usually more concerned about our own life more than others
-but even here Jesus calls us to release the concerns of our own life into His hands; choosing to follow the Savior Jesus will eventually get you into trouble
-this is the reality of the case in many countries today; yet when they trust Christ for their salvation, they realize they take upon themselves a ‘death-sentence’
-sold out, no turning back, total commitment…these are terms descriptive of Christ’s call to all His disciples, including you and me