The Place of Faith

Well, the title of our main message today is, The Place of Faith. The Place of Faith. I invite you to open your Bibles with me together, and let's turn first to Genesis 15. We're going to begin in Genesis 15 here, but we're actually going to begin our study by reading three short passages of scripture here in Genesis to begin as we come this afternoon to a study in the life of Abraham, an incredible man, an incredible story. And we're going to look to venture into the deep waters of his faith in the promises of God. So Genesis 15, let's read verses one through six. Genesis 15 verses one through six to begin.

After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless? In the air of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. Eliezer, as a side note, was the head steward of the household. And so if Abraham remained childless, Eliezer would by custom become heir. Continuing in verse three. When Abram said, Look, you've given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir, Eliezer. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This one shall not be your heir, but one will come from your own body shall be your heir. Then he brought him outside, brought Abram outside and said, Look now toward heaven. Count the stars if you're able to number them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. Verse six, And he believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness. Now if you'll turn with me forward just a few chapters to Genesis 21. We're going to begin in verse one. Just a few chapters for Genesis 21 verses one through three. Genesis 21 verse one. And the Lord visited Sarah, and he had said as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him Isaac. Now one final passage to read is one chapter forward to chapter 22. Chapter 22 and our focus chapter today. We're going to read verses one through ten here. So this passage comes now and is one of incredible significance in light of the promise that we see God has made to Abraham and his son Isaac. Genesis 22 verse one through ten. And it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am. And he said, Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and and Isaac his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey. The lad and I will go yonder and worship and we will come back to you. Verse six, So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, laid it on Isaac his son. He took the fire in his hand and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, My father, he said, Here I am, my son. Then he said, Look, the fire in the wood. Where's the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, My son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering. So the two of them went together. So they came to the place which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there, placed the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, laid him on the altar upon the wood, and Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. Let's stop there. Again, this afternoon we come to the life of Abraham.

And when you look at Abraham, in the life of Abraham in particular, we discover that to walk the pathway of faith involves facing challenges. It involves trusting in promises. Even when things seem too hard, even when things appear to be hopeless. Anyone who's read the Bible knows that biblical faith is something that puts great demand upon all that are prepared and enabled to embrace it. In the Bible, we find many examples of what might be described as great tests of faith. But I put it to you today. This test, no other test, comes to us with the the chilling challenge that's contained here in Genesis 22. We know, of course, of the greatest test, Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. But not a single other test can I find in the Bible that hits me like Genesis 22 does. Because consider what God is asking Abraham to do here. He's not asking him to part a C. He's not asking him to tumble some walls. He's not asking him to to fight an army. He's asking him to sacrifice and kill his son.

That's going to be a test of faith, isn't it? God promised Sarah would bear this child. And Sarah did conceive and bore Abraham a son, Isaac. Any of us know the joy of taking a child in our arms? Our own child, maybe the child of a loved one. We can begin to imagine what was going through the heart of Abraham here. A hundred-year-old man who takes this tiny baby in his arms. How could he suppress all the emotions as he thought of all that the future could hold for this tiny baby? It was not only special that this little one arrived, but it was very important because we read that it's through this boy that the descendants of Abraham would come. We read it. One who would come from your body, Abraham, your own body, would be heir. And he says, look to the heaven. Count the stars if you're able to number them. And God said to him, so shall your descendants be. And it begins with Isaac. So this emphasizes just how important it is that Isaac, not only this little fellow here, not only make it through the first six months, but that he is able to make it through his youth, make it into manhood, furthermore into fatherhood. Now, with that in mind, look at this test that God designed for Abraham here. First of all, notice the context, the context here. We're not given any details as far as the exact length of time that elapsed from Genesis 21 and the birth of Isaac and this incident. It just says that sometime later, you know, verse one of Genesis 22, now it came to pass after these things. Now, we can look at this and infer certain things in this passage. For example, verse six says that Abraham took the wood of the burnt offered and laid it on his son Isaac. So we might infer that Isaac at least made it to a point of being a sturdy youth. However old he might have been, he's large enough to carry wood for the burnt offering. Maybe Isaac was in his teen years, somewhere in there. So we have this test. God tested him. Look at verse one. Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, here I am, he said. Now God had spoken to Abraham many times before, but never like this, never like this, when in verse two he says, Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering in one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. Take your son and sacrifice him. Now I read that and certain questions begin to come to my mind. You know, I find myself asking, is this my God? Could God do that? Is this the God to whom I've committed my life to? Is this the God whom I look to for direction?

It is. It is. Some have balked at this and even have tried to deny the authenticity of these verses because it doesn't square with their notion of God. But what's important? What's important? What's important is that these things square with God's notion of God, if you will. You know, how God has revealed himself to us, not our notion of him. So faith is needed here because human reasoning comes along and it denies these kind of things. Human reasoning does that. Human reasoning ignores, tries to explain away these kind of things, yet faith comes along and faith actually confronts impossibility. Faith confronts things that are seemingly super irrational. Faith says, I can't ignore this. I've got to wrestle with these things. We must wrestle with these things. It's in these inconceivable tests where God's character is found. It's in these inconceivable tests where God's purposes are found for us.

So Abraham was no doubt dealing deeply in wrestling with these directions from God. So much of it must have been swirling in his mind.

I was reading that Abraham would have been familiar with the notion of sacrificing your firstborn in the area of the Canaanite religion. It was common at that time to offer, as a great offering to their gods, small g, to take your firstborn and sacrifice them on the altar. In the pagan culture, that was the apex of their worship. So all these things were flowing through his mind. That's what I know of the pagans. God's asking me to do this, flooding his mind, wrestling. But what was the most important thing for him to do is the most important thing for us to do in these moments. You got to get rid of the noise. You got to get rid of all the noise. Get rid of those things that are coming to weaken our faith and grab on to whatever it is from the perspective of God. You got to grab on to God, grab on to God's perspective on things. He needed to let go of his own rationale and grab on to God's promises. Very important. Because what did God know that Abraham didn't know? God knew that he wasn't going to have Abraham kill Isaac. God knew he wasn't going to have Abraham kill Isaac. We've read the end of the story. God stopped Abraham from killing Isaac, didn't he? Isaac wasn't going to lose his life this day. Whether God's stopping him, which he did, or whether Abraham backing out and losing faith, Isaac wasn't going to lose his life on this day. God knew he wasn't going to have Abraham kill Isaac. We know that because we've read the end of the story. But Abraham didn't know it. That's what made it such a test. Have you ever considered that whatever test you're going through today, have you ever considered that there may be a provision that God has created for you? Have you ever considered that there may be a provision that God has planned to provide you in the test? But you just don't know about it yet. Interesting to think about.

Now that's the context. Notice the cost. There's a cost here that's involved. When we look at the book of Hebrews 11, we read of those that are highlighted in the faith. These faith giants. It's a portrait gallery of faith. We discover Abraham is at the heart of it all. So let's turn there. Keep your marker thingy here. We're going to come right back. But if you'll turn to Hebrews 11, as we consider the cost of faith, the cost of faith, Hebrews 11. Let's look at verse... begin by looking at verse 8.

Look what it says about Abraham. Abraham's faith here. Hebrews 11 in verse 8. It starts by saying, Let's pause there for a moment. He went out not knowing where he was going. We look at that statement with just wonder, don't we? Goes out not knowing where he's going. And then verse 11, we recognize Sarah was well beyond the age to bear a child. The middle of verse 11, she bore a child when she was past the age. We look at that with great admiration. But then we go forward to the beginning of verse 17. And these words, we just stand in silence to these words. Verse 17, But by faith, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.

I put it to you, is this what faith is all about? Is this faith?

Obeying God no matter what the cost might be. You don't know where you're going. You're confronted with a physically impossible situation.

And you're now asked to perform the inconceivable.

Is this faith? Put yourself in Abraham's shoes. He looks at his son. After the promise, he had waited 25 years. He's now raised this young boy, maybe to the age of her in the mid-teens. Sees Isaac running around as a toddler, grows into infancy and out of infancy, makes progress toward manhood. He sees this young man that he loves. On the one hand, he sees God's promise through this young man, his young son, the promise of a multitude of descendants. On the other hand, he hears God say, take him and sacrifice him.

You've been in these kind of confusing conflicts. I know you have. If you've spent any time on your journey, your spiritual journey, you've been in these things that you just can't reconcile. It keeps you up at night. It has an effect of just making your... it's just like a heaviness on your chest. You can't get rid of it. This is what's going through Abraham's mind, no doubt. Let's go back to Genesis 22 for a moment as we drive home the cost of faith a little bit here more. Genesis 22 and verse 2 again. Look at every word of verse 2 must have been like putting a dagger in his heart here. Genesis 22 verse 2, you know, God says again, take your son, your only son whom you love, sacrifice him. I look at that and I say, I don't even know what faith is about. I can't even begin to put myself in this kind of faith. So I asked myself this morning as an individual, let's all ask ourselves, what leap of faith am I taking? What leap of faith am I prepared to take? Am I needing to take at this moment? What leap of faith is a fellowship are we taking that cost us that cost us? Because there's cost involved here. In the movement of faith, there's cost. And God touched him where it hurt. And it's exactly where God may choose to touch us, to teach us to truly rely upon him. He'll touch us where it hurts.

He knows where we hurt.

He may touch us in our pride. He may touch us in our pocketbooks. He may touch us in what we envisioned in our future plans.

Where is he touched you today in a place of hurt?

There's cost involved in the movement of faith. And then there's consequence. You see, if Isaac is sacrificed, it would put an end to the hope of descendants through him. So human calculations, you know, by all human calculations, Abraham's action would have been an end to God's divine plan. And so this would have been apparent to Abraham. And the problem lay in the fact that what God would do would want him to do to Isaac, and what God promised he would do through Isaac, it didn't line up. Abraham was confronted with the test. So would he go the way of human reasoning, you know, which would mean disobedience? Human reasoning in this situation would mean disobedience. Or would he walk the path of faith? The path of faith, which would mean a radical transformation in how he viewed himself, how he viewed his family, how he viewed God. It's always the way. It's faith versus human rationale. Dependence on God, or am I going to depend on myself? It's looking at the future from the perspective of God who's all-powerful, or it's looking from the perspective of my abilities to reconcile the problem.

Are we facing the future with this kind of faith? Do we have this kind of faith? Biblical faith? Faith without safety nets? Faith on the edge with no way back? Only one way forward?

How did the father of the faithful view these things? Look at verse 3. It's almost like a clinical dimension to this in Abraham's movements. Verse 3.

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. So let's stop there. So I asked myself, why did he get up early?

Boy, of all the days, this would be the day just to pull the covers back over your head.

This is the day you wouldn't want to face. The day you were going to take your son on the journey toward his death. Abraham got up early. Can you imagine?

It's interesting to note this was a practice of Abraham when he was facing difficult situations. You can look there briefly, but we won't take the time to read it. Genesis 21, a chapter back in verse 14, he was dealing with his other boy Ishmael, and he got up early as well. So it's a very difficult situation with Ishmael. Got up early as well. So there's a sense in which it would seem safe to infer that when he was faced with a difficult task, he met it resolutely. Head on. It's got to get done. I'm getting up early. I'm going forward with God's help.

So verse 3, he saddles the donkey, lays the wood of the bird offering on his son. I don't know. Did he have no emotion at all? It's very difficult to look at these scriptures here and try to imagine what was going through his mind. I think verse 3 might be described. The best way I can think about it to help me is scales. You look at a grocery store, you might see different places. You might see scales. So you have on this one scale, one side, is all these things like human rationale, common sense, human affection, life, dreams, life plans.

God brings the test and the scales rest. On the other hand, Pan, then Abraham, places what? Amongst all that weight, what does he place on the other side? His faith in God. Trust in God. Faith and trust outweigh them all. So ask yourself, where has the Pan fallen for you in this past week? Where are the scales tipping in the face of your future? This is our test. We're in this test too.

Verse 4. Verse 4, then on the third day, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place, the place of the sacrifice afar off. What does that tell you? So day one, he gets up, saddles, places on the sun, they walk. Goes back to bed. Day two, he gets up, places the saddle, puts the wood on his son, they walk. Day three, same thing. Plenty of time to think. Plenty of time to change his mind. Plenty of time to think of another scheme. Plenty of time to conjure a U-turn. But he kept going. Why? Faith. What's the picture here in verse 6? Look at this. Ah, just put yourself here. Verse 6. So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, laid it on Isaac his son, took fire in his hand, took a knife. We know what the knife was going to be for. And the two of them went together. So no doubt they would have been embraced in conversation for three days, embraced in conversation with my son, all the while carrying the material between us for his sacrifice. And just dreading the moment of the inevitable question that was going to come.

My father, verse 7. Ah, that that that would have just sent a chill down his spine. Isaac would have said that a hundred times before. Not like this. Here I am, my son. And then the question in verse 7. Dad, you know, dad, look the fire of the wood. Where's the lamb for a burnt offering? Can you imagine? And then verse 8, you know, Abraham gives the response, the model response to any agonizing question. Verse 8, Abraham said, my son, God will provide. God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering. So the two of them went together. Where? Verse 9, they came to the place of which God had told him. Here's the place. This is the place. It would have, we all have places, don't we, that are etched in our mind. I've got to quote one song, at least. So Beatles 1965, In My Life. There are places I remember in my life. Some have gone, some remain. Some have changed, some good, some for better. It's true. There's places in our mind that you may be thinking of right now. Maybe it's the place of the final surrender to the calling of God. Maybe it's the place where God spoke to us in a peculiar way, to set us on the pathway to our purposes. This would have been a place deeply etched in the mind of this father and son. We can ask, what is this place? What is this place?

I think we understand it to be the place of obedience. That's what it is. It's a place of obedience. There's so much. It's not so much in geographical context, although it's interesting if you look up this area. This is actually near the vicinity where Christ was sacrificed. Where Isaac would have been sacrificed. The geography, though, is not as ultimately important in that, as verse 9 says, it's the place that God had told him. The place that God had told him. This is not a place that Abraham would have been otherwise, would it? So, Abraham was simply in the place of obedience.

Very important. And as I read these scriptures, I realized that Abraham could maybe be best described, not necessarily as a hero, but just simply described as an obedient man of faith. And as you read Genesis, you see that Abraham had blown it so many times before he got it right here. It's the inevitable truth, then, that Abraham is an example to us primarily because he kept striving for this place of obedience. He didn't give up. He kept striving for it until he finally came to the place of obedience with God.

So, let's consider how much more would we discover of the abundance of God's love and the adequacy of his provision if we would just daily ensure one thing that we're in this place of obedience? Think of God's call to obedience. What pops into your mind almost immediately is, in my mind, it's Christ's words, if you love me, you obey my commandments.

So, he doesn't say, if you love me, you're going to get a funny feeling in your stomach, you know, in the pit of your stomach. It doesn't say, he doesn't say, if you love me, you're going to be caught up in the wonder of it all. And not that there's anything wrong with that, that's actually very good and proper.

I'm very an emotional person, so I can actually, that speaks to me, the pit of my stomach, the wonder of it all. But that's not what he says. He says, if you love me, you will know you love me because of obedience. So, we're first to be in the place of obedience. It's not a it's not a glandular condition. It being in Christ is not some glandular condition.

It's not whether we feel like it. You know, I don't feel like praying. I don't know if I feel like worship to God today. I don't know if I feel like going to church today. I don't know if I feel like going to church today. I don't know. Christ says, I don't care how you feel. Do it. Obey me. And if you obey me, the miraculous thing is that then you will discover the abundance of my love. You'll discover my joy. You'll discover the adequacy of my provision.

Some of us have not reached the place of faith because we're not in the place of obedience. If you're like me, what keeps me in the place of obedience sometimes is I want to know all the details. I want God to tell me specifically what he has planned for me. I don't want to go out and not know where I'm going, you know? So, Father, tell me where I'm going and then I'll decide to be obedient or not.

The Lord says, no chance. You start obeying me. And in due time, you will know what I specifically had planned for you. So, are you in the place where God may speak to your heart and lead you forward? Or are you waiting for God's plan for you to come down in some kind of little package that you can unwrap, find out what God has planned for you from now until Christ's return?

I can tell you the package is not coming because God's purposes for our lives, it unrolls gradually. It's like a scroll. We don't know what God has planned for us as we go to the place. We just go to the place He tells us. It's interesting to look at verse 2. You see this concept. In verse 2, God tells Abraham to go to the region first. And then I'll tell you where to go from there. Go to the land of Moriah to offer him as a burn offering. And then on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. So go to the region and then I'll tell you the mountain that I want you to climb.

So perhaps we haven't scaled our mountains because we haven't even made it into the region.

So this would be the place where Abraham would sacrifice his son, showing obedience and sacrifice cannot be separated. If you know nothing of sacrifice, you will know nothing of faith. Sacrifice is at faith's beginning. If you want to be my disciple, take up your cross every day, Christ said. That's Luke 9.23. You know, Christ, when He spoke these words about taking up your cross and all of those words, often He spoke to crowds. And what you find is that the crowds begin to dwindle. They begin to dwindle down. He was not in the business of drawing the biggest crowd. He was in the business to create the smallest, most useful nucleus that He can use.

God didn't call and Jesus Christ didn't call people to the lowest common denominator. He made it as difficult as possible for them to get on the pathway of faith. Think about that. You see it over and over again. Christ made it as difficult as possible for them to get on the pathway of faith. He said things like, if you want to come die, come on.

If you want to live in obedience, then you're going to live in sacrifice. He taught it. He applied it. Sometimes forcefully. You think of the young man who came to see him, a young man who would have probably been a deacon or an elder in any church today or that time. A very qualified individual. Young, upright, good background, new God's law, plenty of cash. He would have been a very useful young man to have around. He comes to Jesus. This is Luke 18. We won't take the time to turn there. Luke 18. He comes to Jesus, asks the right questions. Good teacher. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? The conversation continues. Jesus says to him, you lack one thing. I'm sure he's thinking in his mind, oh great, one thing. We can knock that out pretty quickly. Let's move on. What is it? Sell all you have. Mmm. Distribute to the poor. Uh-huh. And you will have treasure in heaven. And come and follow me. In other words, do that and then come follow me.

He heard it. He became very sorrowful. Why? Jesus put his finger right on the place of hurt. Didn't he? For this young man. Right at the point of obedience. If you want to walk in my footsteps, here's the prerequisite. Sell all you got, give it to the poor. And he's not talking in terms of money. You know, he could have said something else to someone else. He could have, the woman at the well, you remember? He said, how about your husband? Oh, place of hurt. How about your husband? I don't have a husband. That's right. You've had five. And the one you're living with right now is not your husband. Oh, right there. Right there.

But she dealt with it. We don't know the full story.

It's an indication she dealt with it. She went and said, come and see this man who told me everything I ever did. But you see, there's sacrifice involved. There was a revolution. There needs to be a transformation, cost involved, and following Jesus Christ, again, that young man would have been signed up in so many churches. But Jesus sent him away sorrowful.

Are you prepared for sacrifice? Are you prepared for God to test you right at the place of hurt?

Are you prepared to change your job? Whatever it may be, are you prepared to turn the whole thing upside down, go for God in the place of obedience and sacrifice if he asks you to do it? If he doesn't, that's fine. But are you ready for the ultimate test? I think the ultimate test is coming for each of us.

Young people, look at this. It's a wonderful example for you. Look at verse 9 and 10. This shows that Isaac must have embraced Abraham's faith. He must have embraced Abraham's God, which is our God, which is your God. Look at this, verse 9 and 10. Then they came to the place which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there, placed the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, laid him on the altar upon the wood. Abraham stretches out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

Did Abraham force Isaac? There's nothing here with that.

Two possibilities. Either Abraham wrestled him, that's not here, or Isaac voluntarily put his hands behind his back, you know, allowed his father to bind him. He got on the wood.

It's clear that Isaac had faith in his father's God. And to you, moms and dads, or to you, grandparents, or to you that have influence over young people, you see here that Abraham very effectively communicated to his son his faith, what was on his heart, then so that his son could absorb it, take it in and say, yeah, that's my God, too. I want that faith, dad, that you have, where they are able to say the Lord will provide. I don't know, son, I don't know how he's going to do it, but I know you're the central part of the future purposes. That's what we need to tell our young people. Whatever you're going through, young one, you are the central part of God's future, just like Isaac.

I believe Isaac believed the Lord would provide.

So, young ones, do you believe that the Lord will provide in your life? I hope you do. So, you can fit and meet these challenges, just like your parents are striving to meet them, just like your grandparents, or just like those you admire.

So, verse 11 to 14, we see the provision God provides, just at the right time. Provision of a ram, it stopped a sacrifice, released Isaac. Verse 11 through 14, But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, so he said, Here I am. Verse 12, and he said, Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. And Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. So, no wonder he called it the Lord would provide. And of course, this is the beautiful picture of what Christ has done for each and every one of us, who've given ourselves to him. This is a reminder of our commitment that we stood condemned to death. And our elder brother came and said, I'll take his place. I'm buying him. Oh, let me go in his place. Let me go in her place.

I wonder if after all this they had to just take a moment to sit and think about all this. Let it let the wonder then come in, you know, of who God is just for a moment. Let it sink into their hearts, into their very being. It's an incredible test of faith. And as we work to a conclusion, as we observe these inconceivable tests, this inconceivable test, instead of it breaking Abraham, you'll notice it brought him to the summit of his lifelong walk with God. It was do or die time. It was crunch time. Abraham's faith was either going to be destroyed and he'd be nowhere, or he would be at the summit of what all God wanted to do through him.

And because he responded in trust and faith, it was. And this is our challenge. This is our challenge in every juncture of our life as we're on this walk individually as a congregation. We are facing these tests that have the potential to break us. We can't let it break us. Can't. We have to remind ourselves, nah, the scales. Where are my scales tipping here? Instead of it breaking us, may these tests bring us to an advance on the summit, to the mountain, the mountain to the summit of our lives, so that we will one day receive all of the wonderful promises that God has made to us. May this be the place of faith today for each of us. In our Almighty God.

We will take a five, ten minute break, get a snack, get some coffee. And this is, of course, after our final song and prayer. We'll have the Bible study.