Faith of Abraham
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We continue looking at the conversion of Abraham.
We continue looking at the conversion of Abraham.
Please open your Bibles to
Your Bible might call this whole beginning section of , The Call of Abraham.
Last week we learned about Abraham.
I think that Abraham is an important man for us to study.
He was previously an idolater in Ur.
He wasn’t seeking God.
He wasn’t pursuing God.
And out of that idolatry, the Lord pursued him and converted him.
As a Christian, the question for us is often now what?
People want to be growing, and when you’re not growing, it’s not satisfying.
Something’s off.
You ever had those dry spells in your life.
Essentially, you’re looking for a change, and you ask yourself, what should I be doing now?
Abraham is a good person to look at in those moments of lostness.
Why?
Because he was lost.
Then the Lord appeared to him and called him.
We can see in Abraham’s life, how to exist as a Christian.
Let’s go ahead and read this text now to get an idea, what I’m talking about.
Go ahead and read with me now.
(ESV)
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
I have three points for us in our sermon for today.
I have three points for us in our sermon for today.
Go
Worship
and Be a Pilgrim.
Our first point is, Go.
Our first point is, Go.
Remember, when we see Abram, we are talking about the same man who later is named Abraham.
Part of the call of God, and part of the call of a Christian, is that there is a separation.
A Christian is a saint.
Literally, they are holy ones.
We are different.
And the word church in Greek is ekklesia, or literally, the called out ones.
When God calls a person, he is called out from everyone else.
God is separating the Christian.
You’ll notice that in verse 5 it says that Abram went.
God had appeared to Abraham earlier.
Actually, probably much earlier than we even realize.
We read about the call of Abraham last week, in the first 3 verses of this chapter.
I said that those first three verses make up what is called the Abrahamic Covenant.
I actually think that was spoken to Abraham sometime at the end of chapter 11.
What I mean by that is that in it says that Terah, that’s Abraham’s father, left Ur, and they went to Haran and settled there.
Why did Terah leave Ur, I think it’s actually because of what we seen the first verses of .
I think that those first 3 verses were communicated to Abraham, while they were in Ur.
But Abraham didn’t fully obey.
Verse 1 said, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”
He took his time.
His dad came with him.
And in the process, they got delayed in Haran, a land of idolatry.
But then in it says, “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him,”
A Christian is a saint.
Literally, they are holy ones.
We are different.
And the word church in Greek is ekklesia, or literally, the called out ones.
When God calls a person, he is called out from everyone else.
We know there was a delay, then here in verse 4, he finally goes.
What happened so that Abram eventually obeyed?
What happened that caused him to go?
The answers a little rough. His dad died.
We read about that at the end of chapter 11.
God told him to go.
Abraham didn’t go.
But then with the death of his father, he was then went.
God told him to go.
He didn’t go.
God brought about the death of Abraham’s father.
Now he goes.
Why is this significant?
Because I want you to see the hand of God even in your actions.
The sovereignty of God is for our good.
says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Often times we think only about disaster.
That God uses disaster to shape us.
Kind of like how God used disaster in Joseph’s life to save many people.
But do you realize that it can even happen for our obedience, our sanctification.
But
God can cause disaster in our life so that we can be freed to obey.
As long as Abraham’s father, Terah, was alive, Abraham would not obey God.
God is sovereign over life.
Terah dies.
Now Abraham goes.
God is making us his own.
The church is made up of the called out ones.
We are to repent.
We are to separate.
And yet … like Abraham, we don’t obey.
Throughout Scripture, God issues these commands, and the hardness of the human heart is that we don’t obey.
And like Abraham, he does something to make us obey.
At the point of conversion, it’s Him giving you a new heart.
And for this I praise God.
Can you see in your life how God is separating you now?
It can be painful can’t it?
You lose friends.
You lose family.
Abraham lost a father.
Sometimes, you become a Christian and people separate from you.
says, “With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you;”
You
And yet, this is for our good.
If you are experiencing the pain of being separated, you can actually rejoice that God cares enough for you to do this to you.
This pain is for your obedience, it’s for your sanctification.
The cost to follow Christ is high.
It must be that He is greater than anything else in your life.
In Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
A Christian is a disciple of Christ.
And if you are going to follow Christ, then you must separate and follow Him.
In , the Great Commission, it tells us what a disciple is.
This is someone who is baptized, and taught to observe all that Christ has commanded us to do.
And yet, as you watch your life change, hopefully you can look back and see where God separated you.
Perhaps he separated you from family, friends, your closest associates.
He pulled you out of sin.
Abraham, lost his father, but gained a blessing.
You lost your old life, and gained salvation.
And in these moments rejoice that He called you and separated you.
The next thing that we see happen to Abraham, is that he worshiped God.
The next thing that we see happen to Abraham, is that he worshiped God.
Abraham left his family.
He went south.
He went into Canaan.
Then in verse 6 it says he came to the oak of Moreh.
This will end up being a very special place in the life of Abraham, and the nation of Israel.
It was at this spot that the Lord appeared to Abraham.
In verse 7 God says, “To your offspring I will give this land.”
Remember, earlier in the chapter, God told Abraham to go to the land that He would show him.
Abraham didn’t really even know where he was going.
There he was in the middle of Canaan.
Actually, it’s almost dead center of Canaan.
There in the middle of the land, God appeared to Him.
He said, “This is it.”
And God was faithful to His promise.
Then notice what Abraham did next, he built an altar to the Lord.
In the midst of heartache, his father’s death, he was lead by the Lord, and encouraged by the Lord, and then he worshipped the Lord.
As Christians we can’t lose focus of what the prize is.
Imagine if Abraham responded the way many of us do to heartache.
Selfishness blinds a man to the providence of God.
God says leave.
God had promised Abraham a nation, land and to be a blessing.
Abraham stays.
But his father was a stumbling block.
His father’s presence kept him from obeying the Lord.
So God removes the stumbling block from his life so that this eternal promise would be his.
This is all for Abraham’s good.
This should be a good thing.
But imagine if instead of Abraham rejoicing, imagine if Abraham instead said, “Where is God?
Where was God when my father died?
Don’t we respond to heartache that way?
I’d rather we be more like Job who said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Abraham was in the presence of God and he rejoiced.
In some ways you aren’t that different.
God has appeared to you as well.
Not physically, like with Abraham.
But He is present in your life.
If you are a believer:
He has sovereignly chosen you.
He called you.
He drew you.
He converted you.
If you are a believer:
You have the Holy Spirit within you.
The presence of God is active in your life.
In I and II Corinthians, Paul repeatedly says that you are a temple of the Holy Spirit.
In fact, the worship of God in our life should be even grander than Abraham’s.
He was only seeing the promises of God from a distance.
He wasn’t a nation.
He didn’t have a land yet.
He wasn’t a blessing.
He hadn’t received what God had promised yet.
Yet, He rejoiced in the Lord.
But what about you?
says, “be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”
We know so much more about God than even Abraham.
We know the prophecies are true.
We know that Jesus died on the Cross for our sins.
We know that Jesus has been raised from the dead.
Isn’t that amazing?
I was reading this past week, the very end of Acts.
As the book of Acts ends, I feel like I’m spoiling a great story … but the Bible’s a rather old book, and by now I shouldn’t have to give you a spoiler warning.
Much of Paul’s life was about making it to Rome.
He finally makes it to Rome, and he gets to tell the Jews living there the good news about Jesus.
He got to tell them that the Messiah has come, and that He, Jesus, had bee resurrected from the dead.
I bet that was a cool experience.
We have the unique opportunity of being on this side of the promises of God.
Jesus has come.
He has been resurrected.
We have His Spirit in our hearts.
May we not be disheartened by the suffering of the world, or the suffering in our life and instead, look with anticipation at the promises of God, and be excited when we see them fulfilled.
And if you are looking for the fulfillment of the promises of God, spend some time reading the Bible.
There you’ll find treasures of God, and the fulfillment of promises.
Think back to the Cross, and be reminded of how Christ has saved you.
Then we move to our final point, we are to live as pilgrims.
Then we move to our final point, we are to live as pilgrims.
Abraham lived the remainder of his life as a pilgrim.
If there was a point that we need to understand right now, this is it, we are pilgrims.
After Abraham encountered God at the oak of Moreh, he built his altar, then he moved on.
Verse 8 says that he moved to Bethel.
There he pitched his tent.
And then he built another altar to the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.
Abraham spent his time living in the land promised to him, but he never actually received the land.
commends Abraham’s faith by saying, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”
He lived as a stranger.
He lived as a foreigner.
He lived as a traveler, never settling down.
He was a pilgrim in this world.
I would contend that we too are to be pilgrims.
Just as Abraham lived as a stranger, or visitor, we are to live as visitors in this land.
Never completely settling down.
Never being completely at home here.
And how does this happen.
First, by having faith.
His confidence wasn’t in himself.
And really, there was nothing for him to boast in.
Remember, these promises were impossible for him to fulfill.
His faith was knowing that God would do something.
says, “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
He was always looking forward to something, trusting that God would do it.
If we too are to be pilgrims and to have faith, what is our faith?
It’s that Christ has come.
That Christ died for our sins.
And that Christ was resurrected.
And He is preparing a place for us.
Our faith is not in us, it’s in Him.
Our faith is actually in someone.
Our faith is counting on someone.
And that someone is Christ Jesus.
And until we know Who He is, we can never go, we can never rightly worship, we can never live as a pilgrim.
John Calvin once said, “… our knowledge should serve first to teach us fear and reverence; secondly, with it as our guide and teacher, we should learn to seek every good from him, and, having received it, to credit it to his account"
our knowledge should serve first to teach us fear and reverence; secondly, with it as our guide and teacher, we should learn to seek every good from him, and, having received it, to credit it to his account.
First, we learn that He is sovereign, that He is king, that He is Lord.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion & 2, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, vol. 1, The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 41–4
Then, when we have established Him as authority, and someone to be trusted, then we can step out and trust His promises.
In order for us to become a pilgrim, we must become obsessed with Jesus Christ.
Part of being a pilgrim is understanding your place in this world.
commends Abraham’s faith by saying, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”
Abraham saw the promised land.
He lived in the promised land.
But it was never His.
He was a sojourner.
He was a traveler.
He knew there was a land, and he knew that in the future it would be his children’s.
At the same time, we need to understand our place in this world.
says, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.”
Like Abraham, we cannot get too settled down in this world.
And what does this mean?
It means that our obedience to God will never be mainstream.
We can’t wait for the world to accept God for us to follow Him.
We can’t wait for the world’s opinion of Him to change for us to follow Him..
We have to get used to being the weird ones.
If we are living in the shadow of idols and pagan mindsets … then we live in their shadows, worshipping the Lord as pilgrims in a strange land.
There in Bethel, in the land of Canaan, Abraham built his altar and called upon the name of the Lord.
In a foreign land, surrounded by idols, the minority, he worshipped the Lord.
You’d be surprised how this theme of being a pilgrim shows up in the Bible.
This is one of the main themes in Daniel.
It shows up in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the minor prophets.
It shows up in the lives of the apostles.
And it continues on into the early church.
says, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,”
Can you do that?
Can you die to the world around you?
Can you consider yourself a citizen of heaven first?
As our culture drifts away from our Judeo-Christian values, expect to become pilgrims in our culture.
Expect to be the weird ones.
Expect to be the minority.
Expect to never be at home in this world.
But not only are we pilgrims, but we are joyful pilgrims who exist to give God praise.
But not only are we pilgrims, but we are joyful pilgrims who exist to give God praise.
Notice that, when Abraham was in Bethel he built another altar and again called upon the name of the Lord.
Abraham was a pilgrim, but he was a joyful pilgrim.
Even though Abraham never received the land, he trusted God in His promises, and even rejoiced.
In , Jesus says of Abraham’s joyful attitude, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
You see, if we have faith, then this means we are trusting God and we know something of God.
It’s not an empty faith, it’s a faith that is expressed in rejoicing in the reality of God.
The joy of a Christian, is the product of a faith, that knows Jesus to be Lord, who died on the cross, was resurrected from the grave, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
The first question of our family discipleship book boldly says that the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.
The Christian who seeks to glorify God will enjoy Him.
I lead you to this point.
If you have faith, are you a joyful pilgrim, who expresses His praise in joy
May we count ourselves dead to the sin, and alive in Christ.
And until the Lord returns or calls us home, may we rejoice in Him.