Faith Tested
Hebrews • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 27:53
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· 733 viewsWhen God is pushing our faith to the limits, He is not asking you to step out on a limb, He is asking you to step out upon the Solid Rock of Jesus Christ!
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Our Scripture lesson this morning is taken from Hebrews 11:17-19:
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.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
God tests the faith of His people.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
God does not have to test the genuineness of our faith because He has any doubts about it—he knows everything—God tests the genuineness of our faith in order to purified and strengthen it. Having been purify and strengthened, our faith will result in praise, glory and honor going to Jesus on Judgement Day.
This is why the author of Hebrews concludes his examination of Abraham’s faith with its greatest testing.
Abraham’s Faith Tested
Abraham’s Faith Tested
God tested Abraham’s faith with the greatest trial imaginable:
He said, “Take your son, your only son 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 I shall tell you.”
The testing of Abraham’s faith consisted in three trials. The first of these is the testing of his devotion to God.
Faith Tested by Devotion
Faith Tested by Devotion
Devotion to God is at the heart of true faith:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
This is not just an Old Covenant commandment. Jesus reaffirmed it and amplified it when He said:
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Jesus words are not mere hyperbole, they are a real and present choice, if we follow Christ, all of us will have to be willing to sacrifice a relationship with a person we love. Let me give you an example:
Years ago, I was on a retreat with other pastors. The topic of homosexuality came up. I was shocked when a minister I knew declared that he did not believe homosexuality was a sin. I and other ministers confronted this man with Scripture. His response was telling, he said to us all, “You will sooner or later come to my way of thinking because sooner or later someone you love will come out of the closet. At that point you will have to choose between the Word of God and the person you love.”
This man was right, sooner or later, we will all have to choose between the Word of God and someone we love. It may not be homosexuality, it may be some other sexual sin such as “living together” or murdering a child through abortion or stealing from someone through fraud. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. What once was a sin, now people don’t even bat an eye at. Our society has so radically fallen into immorality that to stand up for any of the Ten Commandments will endanger your relationship with someone.
Thankfully, God rewards our obedience and faith and often times we can remain faithful to God and not sacrifice our relationships. It is possible to lovingly disagree with someone. However, we must be willing to make the sacrifice. Even when we are loving, there is always the danger that the other person will break our relationship if we don’t condone their sin.
Faith Tested by Understanding
Faith Tested by Understanding
Not only was Abraham’s devotion tested, but his understanding was as well. We see this in verses 17-18:
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.”
The very one from whom God promises to Abraham depended was the very one whom God demanded to be sacrificed! Can’t you see what a difficult problem of faith confronted Abraham: God’s promise seemed to be pitted against God’s command. If God was to be faithful to his promises to Abraham, then Isaac must live; but if God’s command was to be obeyed, then Isaac must die!
Sooner or later faith and obedience to God will move us beyond the place of our understanding. The most difficult question a minister faces are the “why” questions: “Why did my child have to die?” “Why have my crops failed another year?” “Why has my wife abandoned me and the kids?” “Why was I born with this physical or mental impediment?”
Why do people come to their ministers with such question? It is because their faith has taken them to a place beyond their ability to understand.
Faith Tested by Trust
Faith Tested by Trust
The testing of our faith by devotion and understanding, eventually, brings us to that place where our trust in God is tested because the only thing left to stand on is God Himself. God knew that this is exactly where He was taking Abraham:
He said, “Take your son, your only son 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 I shall tell you.”
Isaac was technically not the only son, but he was the only son through whom the promise could be fulfilled. Moreover, Isaac was the son whom he loved with all his heart. To obey God meant trusting in God. Trusting in God’s character. Trusting in God’s power. Trusting in God’s wisdom. Trusting in God’s love.
The bottom line for all of us is trust in God. Do we trust God when He asks us to sacrifice what we love? Do we trust God, even when we don’t understand?
Abraham passed the test, because he trusted God. Abraham’s faith was found genuine.
Abraham’s Faith Found Genuine
Abraham’s Faith Found Genuine
Abraham trusted God because...
He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
On that three-day journey to Mt. Moriah, Abraham must have run over in his mind again and again what God had promised, what God was now commanding and most importantly who God was. He knew God’s promises depended on Isaac being alive. He knew obeying God meant Isaac would be killed. He knew that God was trustworthy and all powerful, therefore, he concluded that God would raise him from the dead. We don’t know when Abraham reached this conclusion, but it had to be sometime before the morning the sacrifice was to be made, for we read in Genesis 22 these words:
So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
God Himself Will Provide the Lamb
God Himself Will Provide the Lamb
Abraham’s words to his son Isaac were not one of those little white lies parents tell their children to take away their fears. The words, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” were the words of faith having come to understanding. Abraham understood a sacrifice of atonement had to be made, but it wasn’t his son Isaac who would be consumed by the fire. Abraham understood, that even if the knife went into the heart of his son, God would raise him up before the fires were lit.
A Parable
A Parable
When we read in our English bibles in Hebrews 11:19, “figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.” we need to understand that the Greek word for “figuratively” is literally “in a parable.” This story is teaching us a parable: Isaac was not killed and raised to life, but it is pointing to someone who was. Isaac asked, “Where is the lamb?” Throughout the whole of Old Covenant history, people were asking the same question. They knew the lambs that were being sacrificed at the Tabernacle and Temple could not take away their sin. The answer finally came from the lips of the last Old Covenant prophet, John the Baptist. When John saw Jesus he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
Jesus is the Answer When Your Faith is Tested
Jesus is the Answer When Your Faith is Tested
Earlier I said that the hardest questions a minister gets are the why questions. The only answer I or any other minister can give to those questions is Jesus. Paul writes this:
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
When God is pushing our faith to the limits, as He did with Abraham, He is not asking you to step out on a limb, He is asking you to step out upon the Solid Rock, who is Jesus!
Jesus said, “Abraham saw my day and rejoiced.” (Jn 8:56) When else did he see that day, if on his way to Mt. Moriah? Like John the Baptist, Abraham saw the Lamb of God! This is what we must do when our faith is tested, we must learn to see beyond the trial and see Jesus—the Lamb of God!
Let us pray.