Abraham’s Faith and Obedience

And that is why by faith in Hebrews 11 along with the other heroes and patriarchs, some of which you are surprised to find in there frankly, Abraham is listed. So, Abraham was willing to believe God and obey him and therefore God did the following. He chose Abraham to establish his nation on earth, his people. God used Abraham to bless all of mankind and that includes you. Father Abraham would be one of the more biblical children’s songs, a sung in children’s church.

God called Abraham a righteous person even though he did not have righteousness in and of himself, just like Christ is our righteousness today. And then most importantly, or most uniquely, God called Abraham his friend in the same way that we are now his friends because of the work of Jesus Christ. So looking at some of what Abraham did in faith in opposition to fear, we can learn that Abraham obeyed.

In Genesis 12 it says, now the Lord said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country from thy kindred and from thy father’s house unto a land that I will show thee and I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing and I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curseth thee and thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

As we can see in scripture, God makes conditional promises even salvation which is unto or available to all and is upon all, that’s conditional, on all who believe. Though it is not any work or merit of our own. God came to Abraham and required that Abraham believe him. Abraham had knowledge of God’s works. He was no doubt familiar with the flood and Noah, which we’ll get to later, the events at Babel, and knew of God’s mercy to mankind.

In fact, Noah lived three hundred fifty years after the flood, so it’s possible we don’t know this that Noah and Abraham actually knew each other. It’s kind of a wild thought. There was good reason for Abraham to believe God even though he did not know what God was going to do. Thus, as one person quotes, as one preacher said, thus Abraham’s obedience to God was not a leap into some unknown abyss of the demand of a tyrant, but rather was a reasonable step forward in response to a trustworthy creator.

God does not often totally give us the details behind his commands and rarely does he show us the full path we are to take, but we have overwhelming evidence of God’s faithfulness. Obeying God is the wise and logical choice in every circumstance, not because it may seem wise and logical to us but because of who God is and we are commanded to do. So we ask ourselves, is our faith real? If so, will we be followed by obedience? Not because we want to earn God’s favor, life is not formulaic, but because you want to spend time with him and know him because you love him. So Abraham obeyed and went. Obedience is the fruit of true faith.

As one person put it, what you believe is what you do, everything else is just talk. It’s a secular quote but it fits here. It’s very true. Let us be clear, it was not Abraham’s works that justified him, it was his faith but his faith naturally did result in obedience and good works and that is actually what the book of James is about. So Abraham departed, in Genesis twelve four it says, as the Lord had spoken and Lot went with him.

And the Lord appeared unto Abraham, in verse seven, and said, unto thy seed will I give this land and there builded he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him. In Hebrews eleven:eight, we are reminded, by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed and went out, not knowing whither he went. You see, Abraham was willing to obey God even when he did not understand why or know where he was going. For Abraham, obedience did not require a full understanding of the circumstances or end. Often in our lives, why can be a bad question. Why focuses on the circumstances. It turns our attention off of God and to ourselves.

Abraham focused on the person and character of God. Abraham understood the journey would be successful because God had commanded him to take it. What are the things in our life that we know to do but do not understand why? We must be obedient in those things. So again, obedience requires... Now interestingly, as we’re going to see very shortly, Abraham was still fearful. At least three times it’s recorded that he was fearful even if the word fear is not used.

So we get into the fact that Abraham had an imperfect faith that was nonetheless faithfully focused on a perfect God. So Abraham had an imperfect faith because it was not the quality of his faith that we are examining, it is the quality of who his faith was directed towards and that is God. Genesis twelve eight says, and he moved from thence unto a mountain on the East of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel West and Hai on the East. And there he builded an altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord and Abraham journeyed going on still towards the South.

Abraham continued on his journey. And at eleven nine, it says, by faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. However, along the way, and we don’t have the time to get into it, Abraham has several murky episodes and some stumbles. Not protecting his wife the first time in Genesis 12, listening to his wife and having a child by Hagar, Genesis 16, in both cases, I’m scared that I’m going to get killed or something bad’s gonna happen and God can’t take care of it, so I’m going to do something that I will work out myself.

He also doubted God in Genesis 17 and then not protected his wife a second time in Genesis 20 and there were consequences of that we’ll get to in a minute. So Abraham’s life had many mistakes. God works with and is faithful even in our mistakes, for a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief. But ultimately, and here is the important part, Abraham chose to believe and trust God and it is the same way. We can be grateful that we have a merciful God, however, there are consequences as we’ll see in Abraham’s decisions.

Is God ashamed of you? Regardless of your failures, do you still seek a country you cannot see? Do you choose to examine your own reality or do you count what God counts and view life as God sees it? God is not ashamed to be called our Father and Jesus is not ashamed to be called our brother because of what he suffered on the cross for us. How grateful and how much that should motivate us to serve him.

Then we see that God dealt with Abraham on the basis of a covenant. All this sets us up for understanding how God works with us. God made a covenant with Abraham that Abraham would have a son, not only, but also that the entire world would be blessed through Abraham and that is true of us. Christ has redeemed us in Galatians three thirteen it says, from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Quick side note there, how many of you have heard, oh, I’m under a curse, I’ve gotta cast out the demon of lust in certain Pentecostal circles, the demon of bitterness or whatever. Oh, I’m generationally cursed because my parents did some horrible thing. I would like to know how that curse survived the cross, actually, because Jesus was made a curse for me, so the curses stopped there. Praise the Lord because of his salvation.

In these times, people did not sign contracts or give rings like we do in marriage today or in business contracts. They killed animals, hacked them up, and walked between the blood. This was the time in the culture where life and death were harsh realities and blood was well understood. We’re somewhat removed from that in our culture today. After making an agreement, both parties would walk through the bloody line to signify the gravity and seriousness of their life and death commitment.

The symbolism was that if a party did not keep their promise, they were worthy of death. That is how covenants and agreements and bindings between families and tribes were made. Abraham sacrificed some animals in Genesis fifteen ten and created a blood path. Abraham then went into a state of horror. When the sun was going down, the Bible says, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

You may wonder, what does that mean? It was sort of confusing to me when growing up reading that. The Bible does not say exactly why, but I’ve heard it preached and I agree with it, that Abraham was terrified because he knew that he would fail to keep his side of the covenant and then would be a dead man. What did God do next? Well, God reiterated his promise and then said, and it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between those pieces.

In the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abraham saying, unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. God moved through the bloodline twice, one time for his side of the covenant and one time for Abraham’s side of the covenant. It would be like a groom making his vows, not only for himself, but also for his bride without requiring anything of his bride.

God, I personally would not have signed up for a marriage like that. I’m glad my wife made vows too, but God, on our behalf, did that for us. He did that for Abraham, that’s what he did with the cross. He knew Abraham couldn’t do it, so God did it for him. If Abraham failed, God would pay it. It is the same today. Consider that God has maintained his righteous standard of holy law, it is man’s side to keep that law in order to have peace and fellowship with God.

Since we have already failed, God got a body and came to earth to keep the other side of the covenant that we had failed. The man Jesus Christ, the God man, represented all of mankind as the last Adam. He met all of the requirements to keep man’s side of the deal in relation to God’s covenant standing of complete holiness and perfection and anyone who enters into Jesus Christ’s experience and history also enters into complete acceptance in the covenant system that God has set up.

It is important to note that Abraham’s children were the beneficiaries of a covenant that was set up before they were even born and in the same way, a historical fact result in their being blessed and having favored status with God as God’s chosen people even to this day. We are the beneficiaries of the work that Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross two thousand years ago before we were even born.

So God keeps the sides of our salvation. We are the beneficiaries of his work. Does this apply to you? Ask yourself that. There is much more we could cover particularly interesting related to circumcision. That time will not allow us this evening but I’d be happy to talk about it later, I want to get to the fact that Abraham believed God and this is one of the final two lessons that we will learn.

We are considering the form of Abraham’s life in this how and why Abraham became the friend of God. In Genesis 15 we learn, after these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision saying, fear not Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abraham said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me seeing I go childless and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

And Abraham said, behold, to me thou hast given no seed and lo, one born in mine house is mine heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him saying, this shall not be thine heir but he shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad and said, look now toward heaven and tell the stars if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, so shall thy seed be.

And he, that is Abram, believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. Sort of interesting when you look at the conversations God has with people or the conversations that God has with people through his servants. They are all often extremely unexpected and they do not go according to how you would think they would go and that is because God is outside of time. He’s not limited by our timeline. He’s not limited to our three dimensions and time moving in one direction. So he’s already at the end and already at the beginning and all in between and the actual experience matters very little to him because he knows the reality and he is all powerful, all sovereign and is going to work it out. It reminds me of when Naaman came to Elisha and he was very disturbed that things did not go according to how he was. Well that is how God works and this is how God is working with Abraham right here. He doesn’t even dwell on the fact of how this is going to happen.

He talks about the reality of the fact that Abraham is the father of a great nation and Abraham believes it and he’s counted righteous. The details of how it comes apart is a trivial no consequence to God and that is often how it is. While God does care talks about every detail of our lives and we can cast our care upon him, he wants us to focus on who he is, his character and his promises. He wants us to believe that and we are counted righteous because of what Christ did and we are encouraged by the reality of who God is. What did Abraham believe? That he and his wife were going to have a baby and this really pleased God.

What do we believe today? That Jesus Christ is our life and salvation because of what he did for us and to us by dying, being buried, and rising again. So, these are great encouragement to think. One definition of imputed righteousness or how would we define imputed righteousness? God made a statement to Abraham about something supernatural. Abraham believed God’s statement to be true. God saw Abraham’s faith and counted it for righteousness.

Hallelujah that Christ did that on our behalf. Riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivereth from death. So this is very important to note because the same way that we are born again and we come to Christ because of what God did supernaturally on our behalf, we believe it and then that righteousness is accounted to ourselves, is the same way that we relate to God in the Christian life.

He staggered not at the promise of unbelief, of God through unbelief, Romans four twenty says, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. God made a promise that goes against the visible evidence or common experience in our lives. God does this all the time. God sees the faith and counts it as righteousness.

Those who believe will not have their sins counted against them. Instead, God will see them as having the perfect righteousness that Jesus Christ lived out on their behalf. Romans four eleven, we didn’t get to cover circumcision this time, time not permitting, but he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of righteousness of the faith, which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also.

Abraham is our father in the faith, why? Because he believed God’s supernatural promise and then God counted him to be something he wasn’t, a righteous person. I ask you this, are you a righteous person and where does that righteousness come from? And be found in him, Philippians three nine, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Not my faith, not my belief, it’s the belief in the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

So the fear of God versus the fear of man, remember we said we’d get back to this, Abraham was scared, okay? Well, when considering the patriarch Noah in many ways similar to Abraham, Spurgeon writes, his faith produced his fear. His faith and his fear produced his obedience. Count on Spurgeon to have a good quote. Nothing in Noah is held up before us as an example but that which grew out of his faith. This is the same for Abraham and is the same for us. You see, Abraham had a confidence that God was who he said he was and that God would do exactly what God had said. This produced a reverential awe, a terrible respect, and an urgency to be obedient.

Notice in Hebrews 11, all of the good reports begin with by faith. Beholding God and believing him to be sufficient and a God of character was the start. In this way, faith is directional. It is not something that we lay hold upon ourselves by looking or following or focusing on ourselves. It is the object of our faith, as we said, that matters, not our quantity. In Isaiah six, Isaiah saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple.

And we read that the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with smoke. What was Isaiah’s response? Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Isaiah didn’t decide do I have enough faith? No. He was beholding what God was and who he is, which we have access to through the word of God and it wasn’t even about him at all or his faith or whether he was doing good enough or perfectly enough. It was woah, I am undone, a reverential fear and awe of God. Faith followed and then he said, here am I, send me and he was obedient.

This is an example of the fear of the Lord. It led to faith in action on Isaiah’s part. It did not lead to him looking at himself. He became obedient to God’s word. That’s the natural result of seeing God for who he is, fearing him and having faith towards God. So that’s why it says repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, it says in Acts. What of a technicality, but if you’re dealing with people who are doubting without salvation, it can be very helpful.

And we’re to leave the principles of the doctrine of Christ. Let us go unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God. So the fear of the Lord is when we see God for who he is and that produces the faith, the faith of the Son of God and then we’re obedient. When confronted with an impossible situation, our savior had a simple response in Mark eleven twenty two, have faith in God.

How sufficiently true this is. Great ruin comes from the fear of man and not fearing God. Abraham was not immune to this grave error as we well know and neither are we. Fear ignores God’s character and commands. Fear is the opposite of God and this is the fear of man. It is completely opposed to God and his character. We know that God is love and yet it says there is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment.

He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We know that love is central to God’s character. Fear is based on torment and separation from God and who he is. Jesus, the words of this hymn come to mind. Jesus, the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease. ‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears, life and health and peace. Why? He breaks the power of canceled sin.

He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean, his blood availed for me. You see, fear inevitably takes our eyes off of God. It changes our direction. We go from beholding Christ and who he is to looking at others, our circumstances, and ourself. Often this leads to intense battlegrounds in the mind. Some personalities are especially given to these types of thoughts. The fear of man, the word of God says, bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made safe.

When confronted with fear and worry, do not argue with it or engage it or rationalize it. Rather, turn your eyes back to your father and what he has done for you and who he is. I’m struck with the example I I met a couple, wonderful godly family. I think they have a large number of children, eight or nine children, and so the mother, I was talking with the husband and wife of the family and the mother said, When I grew up, I had a lot of fears and I was always scared about this and that. Oh no, what if something bad happens? And my parents would say, You know, that’s probably not going to happen and it didn’t. She said, Then when I got married, she got married at a young age, it was big girl fears now. What if something happens to my child?

And she said it was interesting. Young in our marriage, her husband would say, well, if something truly does terrible happen, then God will take care of us. And instead her husband, whether he was meaning to or not, forced her to confront the reality that it’s not about how likely something will or will not happen, the statistical chance. Really most of the things that we worry about don’t happen, gratefully, praise the Lord.

But it’s about the fact that whatever happens, God is still who he says he is and he is the one that is in control of our and he has promised to take care of us and he will. And that’s a conversation that stuck with me. What happened when Abraham was fearful? Well, we saw that in Genesis twelve and twenty and then again with Hagar, Abraham was afraid of circumstances and what were some of the results? And there are more, if we had time we’d go into it, but some of the results were generational problems regarding women and the wife that his son and grandsons were involved with on multiple levels.

He was faithful to, well, I wouldn’t say faithful, but at least he had one wife other than the episode with Hagar, but the same could not be said of his grandson Jacob. So often these things we can tempt future generations to sin. Of course, they have their own responsibility and agency before God, but it’s relevant to say that Abraham’s fear did produce problems in future generations. The national trouble that Israel, even to this day, has with the Arab people, a bad witness to those around him, pagan kings were calling him to account, and deceit and lying which is totally contrary to God’s truth.

So when confronted with fear, unlike Abraham in this case, run to the promises of God. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge, Selah. The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed. I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 4one 10. So when confronted with fears, we go to the character of God, not even to our circumstances or ourself or how unlikely they may be to occur, though that may be true. We turn to God and we behold him because that will produce the fear of the Lord, not the fear of man or of our own circumstances and as we focus on him, he will give us the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.

So in conclusion, in this brief but exciting study of some of what Abraham’s faith was and how he struggled with fear but overcame his fear to trust God, I will say in Romans four seventeen, as it is written, I have made thee the father of many nations before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

You know, I heard Roman since I was a child and even memorized large portions of it, but that verse, just the wording was a bit tricky for me to understand. Before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were. What is that talking about? Abraham was the father of a great nation because God said he was. So Abraham would walk into a town while he’s on his sojourning travels and they would say, stranger, who may you be? And he says, oh, I am the father of a great nation. And they would say, oh, how many children do you have? Oh, none. Your wife looks very old. Are you getting a new one? No. No. We actually we are... I am the father of a great nation and all of this land is owned by me and my descendants and they would think, well, that old cute is crazy.

But see God is outside of time so when God looked at Abraham and he said, you are the father of a great nation, that was a present reality just like God looks at us and says, you are complete in him. You’re sitting on the heavenlies. We’re supposed to live like it is the point And so God calleth those things which be not as though they were. That’s very, very encouraging scripture because it is...

We are not bound to the three dimensions and time moving in one direction like we are. We can believe and lay hold upon by faith the reality of what God has said about us and live in it and yes, we do need to get through this life and there are many trials and tribulations, but it is a great source of encouragement when we think that God can call things that are not as though they be are.

Are you obedient to the truth that God has revealed to you? Do you obey, do I obey God even when you don’t understand why and does our lives, does my life, does your life show a willingness to follow God wherever and whatever the cost, even if you do falter at times. Walk in the reality of who you are in Christ. Let us all daily believe in God and call the things which we don’t see yet as though they are because they are. The Christian life is about reckoning or realizing and living in the amazing reality of what Christ has done for us and to us in his finished work on the cross.

Have we turned our eyes upon Jesus and seen him for who he is so that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me? What should be the mantra of Christians? Well, no victimhood and no despair. This is a problem in many circles and many groups of people, old and young. Older people can be despairing, young men can be despairing. I’ve seen it both but this is not the mantra of a Christian to be walking in despair or victimhood.

You know, People are more isolated than they ever were. Relationships, marriage, all these things are down. Our culture is worse than it has been. The social fabrics, third places and all these things have fallen away, right? And so a lot of people are now blaming, well, was my parents. It was my trauma. There’s a lot more talk you see about that and while it is helpful to understand some of what you went through, realize that we are not products of our environment like humanists tell us and we can overcome.

God brings us healing through what he has done. Seek that and live in it. No victimhood, no despair. You see, we are not cowering in defeat waiting out our time here on earth before Christ returns. No, when we fear God, we keep his commandments and we have faith towards God. We advance, teaching those around us to obey all of God’s commandments, the second part of the Great Commission. The gates of hell will not prevail against an active advancing and militant, in a godly way, church and that is what we are supposed to be, not battening down the hatches, you know, well, I hope we get raptured out of here tomorrow, but whether it’s tomorrow or Christ comes back a thousand years from now, we truly don’t know. We have signs, right, but our goal is to occupy and to advance till he comes because that is what Christ has commanded us to do it.

As I say unto thee, thou art Peter, Jesus said, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That’s in Matthew sixteen eighteen. So in closing, let’s apply these lessons of the life of Abraham. Let’s be people who believe God, who fear him, who are obedient to him and when fears come, don’t look at ourselves but look at the character and the nature of God and remember that it is God who takes care of us. Let’s be an advancing, Godly, optimistic church because the future is as bright as the promises of God and when we are obedient and faithful to him, he will call the things that are not as though they are. Thank you all and let’s pray.