Obey

Life of the Church

Good morning everyone, it’s good to see you all here for our worship service on this snowy Sunday, and welcome to everyone watching online.

I have just a few announcements to cover before we begin this morning. The men’s group will not be meeting tonight. They will meet next Sunday, though, and there will also be a men’s prayer breakfast on the 27th at 8:00.

We’re still looking for some shoeboxes to begin filling with toys for Samaritans Purse. If you have empty ones, please bring them to the church office.

We’re also in need of some plastic containers so Jesyka can help store and organize some supplies for our children’s department. If you have some of those around that you’re not using, please get them here as well.

Della, can you tell us a little more about the baby bottles?

And we’re also having a card shower for Isabelle Baldwin, who will turn 90 years old on February 27. You’ll see her address there in your bulletins.

Sue, do you have anything?

Opening prayer:

Heavenly Father, this morning—and all of history—is about you. As we gather here, help us to worship you with an undistracted heart. You know how our minds wander to the upcoming week, to present worries, to thoughts of others and other things. Help us put those thoughts away and focus on you and your glory. Let Your Spirit stir our hearts, our souls, our minds, and our strength to exalt your Holy Name. For it’s in Jesus’s name we ask it, Amen.

Sermon:

In 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul shares the three virtues that should govern the Christian life: faith, hope, and love. The early church fathers added four more virtues to those: prudence, justice, temperance, and courage.

But there is one other virtue I want to talk about today that is more demanding than all of those, but it’s the single tool that God uses to train us in all the other virtues — and that is obedience.

Over and over, the Bible tells us that God blesses and rewards obedience.

James tells us to be doers of the word, and not just hearers.

Jesus tells us that we should obey because others are watching how we live, and our testimony should glorify God.

“Blessed are all who fear the Lord,” says Psalm 128, “who walk in obedience to him.”

There is no aspect of the Christian life more important than that. And there is no greater example of human obedience than the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, which also happens to be one of the most difficult passages in the entire Bible. That story is found in Genesis chapter 22, verses 1-18. Turn there with me now.

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 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.”

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.

But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns.

And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”

And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

And this is the word of the Lord.

This story is so hard for so many people, and it’s easy to understand why. Because any God who tells a father to build an altar, put own his son on top of it, and then sink a knife into his own son’s chest, cannot be a good God. Cannot be a loving God. Right?

And yet that’s exactly what God does to Abraham. Why? What’s the reason for this, and what is God trying to show us through this story?

We get a clue right at the beginning with the first three words of verse 1: “After these things ... ” That tells us an important point: what’s getting ready to happen to Abraham is because of what’s happened to him already, and that centers upon Abraham’s wife, Sarah, her maidservant Hagar, and Abraham’s two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.

God had said he would make Abraham into a great nation. But there’s a problem: Abraham doesn’t have a family, because Sarah can’t have children. Remember when we talked about Sarah and her laugh?

God says don’t worry about that, one day you’re going to have a son, and through your descendants the whole world will be blessed.

But Abraham and Sarah decided to take matters into their own hands. Sarah gave her servant Hagar to Abraham as another wife, and Hagar became pregnant with a son named Ishmael.

That worked out about as well for Abraham and Sarah as it does for any of us when we choose not to wait on God. It was a mess. Sarah hated Hagar, and Abraham was always in the middle.

But after decades of waiting and doubting and hurting, Sarah finally gives birth to Isaac. It’s a miracle, because both Abraham and Sarah are elderly, and in all of that celebration, Sarah’s jealousy of Hagar finally gets the best of her, and she tells Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away.

For 25 years Abraham has wandered, watching as God’s promise never came into being, but his faith never failed. Now God has finally answered.

Isaac is growing into a strong young man. Aside from the pain he felt in sending Hagar and Ishmael away, Abraham’s life has finally found a calmness.

He is happy, at peace with his neighbors, and wealthy. Abraham has come to a point in his life where he can finally rest. And after these things, in verse 1, God tests him.

Now that is an important word — test. In the King James that word is translated as “tempt,” and that’s the one of those times that the King James gets it wrong and modern translations get it right.

Because God doesn’t tempt anyone, does He? This word in the Hebrew is better translated “to prove,” or as it is here, “to test”.

Temptation says, “Do this pleasant thing and don’t worry that it’s wrong,” but trying, or proving, says, “Do this right and good thing and don’t worry that it’s painful.”

And that’s what God does. He’s going to try Abraham, in order to prove Abraham. And what is God trying and proving? Abraham’s obedience. Abraham’s will to do what God tells him, no matter what it is and no matter how much it hurts.

And we see right away that all these years of wandering and trusting and talking to God has made Abraham into a person of deep faith and devotion, because when God calls Abraham’s name in verse 1, Abraham’s immediate response is, “Here I am.”

Here I am, Lord. Direct me. Guide me. Lead me. Tell me what you want of me, and I will do it. When Abraham says, “Here I am,” it is the very definition of obedience.

Then in the next verse comes God’s command, and pay attention to the way God says it, because every word is meant to show Abraham how hard this is going to be.

He says first, “Take your son.” Not one of your many lambs, Abraham. Not one of your many servants. Your son.

And not just your son. God says, “Take your ONLY son” — and that can’t be Ishmael, because Ishmael’s gone. It can only be Isaac, Abraham’s heir, the only son by Abraham’s first and legitimate wife, Sarah.

And it’s not just your only son Isaac. God also adds, “whom you love” — the son who was an answer to your prayer, the son God will bless the world through, the only son left to you now because you allowed Sarah to drive Ishmael away.

God says, “Take your only son whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and kill him there so you can offer him as a sacrifice to me.”

Imagine that. Just imagine it. To be promised by God himself that the entire world will be blessed through you and your children, and after years and years that child finally comes, and now God not only says that child has to die, but you have to be the one to kill him.

I want you to notice two things here. One is that Abraham has to do this in Moriah. Moriah is a three-day journey from where Abraham is now.

It would have been bad enough for God to have said, “Abraham, I want you to go out right now and sacrifice your son Isaac to me.” It’s much worse to have to agonize over having to do it for three solid days.

And the other is that God never tells Abraham why he has to kill his son. God just says, “Go to Moriah and sacrifice Isaac to me.” He never gives a reason for it.

You know this command by God has created a crisis in Abraham’s heart. Everything about this feels wrong.

But all those years of learning and stumbling and praying and walking with God have taught him that no matter what you face in life, no matter how confusing things may seem, no matter how much it hurts, there is only one thing we need to do: obey.

Look at verse 23. This is Abraham’s faith, right here. The Bible never says anything about what Abraham’s feeling, but he’s a good man and a good father, so you know he’s confused, frightened, and torn.

But when does he set out for Moriah? Not just the next morning, but early the next morning.

Most Christian and Jewish scholars agree that God gave Abraham this message at night, so early the next morning was the absolute soonest that Abraham could leave, and so that’s when he left.

And before he left, he cut the wood he would use to build the altar Isaac would be sacrificed upon.

We know from verse 13 that there was wood on top of Mount Moriah, where this sacrifice was supposed to take place. Abraham knew that. So why chop the wood there at home? Why burden himself and Isaac even more by having to carry all that wood for three days?

Because of the same reason he left early in the morning. If Abraham would have taken a week to get ready, to think things through, and then finally left with Isaac, would that be obedience to God? No. It wouldn’t.

And if Abraham left and made it to the top of Mount Moriah, and then spent a few hours gathering firewood so he could figure a way out of this, would that be obedience to God? No. It wouldn’t.

And that’s exactly why obedience is so hard. We can talk ourselves into anything, can’t we? We can rationalize everything we do and turn even the most sinful things into some kind of good.

But when it comes to obeying God, all of that is gone. You either do it, or you don’t. With God, there is no partial obedience, and there is no delayed obedience. There is only obedience.

On the third day, in verse 24, Abraham looks up and sees Mount Moriah rising in the distance, and he knows he’s about to give up the son through whom the world would be blessed. All of the promises God had made to him were on Isaac’s shoulders, and now God was about to take Isaac away.

But look at what Abraham tells his servants when they reach the mountain in verse 5: “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”

Abraham knows that God told him to sacrifice Isaac. And Abraham is obedient, so that is exactly what he’s going to do. But he still tells his servants that he and Isaac are going up on that mountain, and then he tells them that he and Isaac are going to come back down. So what exactly is Abraham thinking here?

We get a clue in Hebrews 11, that famous chapter listing all the heroes of faith, and in Hebrews 11:19, it says this: “He (meaning Abraham) considered that God was able even raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”

Do you see? Abraham knew that God had said sacrifice your son Isaac, but Abraham also knew who God was. Abraham knew God’s character, that God was merciful, and loving, and protecting, and wanted nothing more than to bless those who worshipped him.

Abraham would sacrifice his son, because that’s what God told him to do. But Abraham also knew that God would never allow harm to come to Isaac. God would either keep Isaac from being sacrificed, or bring Isaac back from the dead.

The only way Abraham could walk up that mountain was because he knew God would somehow keep Isaac safe, and that is why knowing who God is, knowing God’s character, is so important in getting through those times when God seems to make no sense.

Those times when God seems to make no sense are the times when we have to lean on who we know God is, and the only way we can have that knowledge is if our lives follow the life of Abraham — if we have that personal relationship with God that comes through worship and prayer.

They set off together in verse 6, Isaac carrying the wood and Abraham carrying the flame and the knife to kill his son, and in verse 7 we have this tender moment that must have tempted Abraham to use that knife to stab at his own heart.

Isaac says, “Dad.”

Dad. How many years did Abraham wait and pray to hear that word from his one true son with Sarah? How often did Abraham’s heart melt at the sound of that word from Isaac’s mouth?

Isaac is about 25 years old here. He’s a grown man. Abraham has enjoyed a quarter of a century with his son, but is that enough time for any parent to enjoy their child? No. Not close.

Abraham answers him in a way that shows the love he has for Isaac: “Here I am, my son.”

Abraham was every bit as devoted a father as he was a believer, yet now he was faced with this terrible choice to obey God or obey his own heart.

Isaac asks him, “Where is the lamb we’re supposed to offer?”

And watch Abraham’s response in verse 8: “God will provide the lamb.”

Abraham knows he’s in a situation he can’t fix. What God has told him to do feels impossible, because how can Abraham kill his own son?

But instead of trying to solve this unsolvable problem, Abraham simply obeys. He tells Isaac, “I don’t know how this will turn out, son, but I know that God will take care of us both so long as we do what he says.”

We marvel at this level of devotion, don’t we? It’s hard for us to even fathom having such a faith. In fact, Abraham’s faith here is so far beyond our own that most of us consider it madness. If God tells me to sacrifice one of my own children, the first thing I’m going to tell him is No.

But Abraham is still obedient. And the answer to why and how he is still obedient is the same — Abraham trusted God. That was the lesson of his entire life, and its the same lesson for ours.

God says, “Trust me. I love you more than you could possibly love yourself and I have plans for you more wonderful than you could possibly dream. But you have to trust me.”

And after 100 years of trying to walk in faith, Abraham has finally come to the place where his trust is absolute, even when he is scared and confused. And because his trust is absolute, so is his obedience.

They reach the place where the sacrifice is to be made. Abraham builds the altar, and now he tells Isaac the truth about what’s happening. We know that because verse 9 says that Abraham binds Isaac. That was how sacrifices were made.

Remember, Abraham is an old man now and Isaac is in the prime of his life, so the only way Abraham can tie up his son is if Isaac lets him. Isaac knows what’s about to happen, but he doesn’t struggle. It’s taken years for Abraham to trust God, but Isaac is already learning that lesson.

Isaac lies upon the altar. The fire is waiting nearby. Abraham stands over his son. He raises the knife, and you can almost see the blade trembling as every human instinct in Abraham screams out, “No, don’t do this. This is the son you love, this is God’s promise.”

But Abraham’s faith screams out, “God said do this thing and so God will make it right, please God make it right.”

The blade going higher as Abraham’s heart says, “I don’t want to do this, don’t make me do this,” and his trust says, “But I will obey, God, I will obey.”

And just before that knife is thrust downward, Abraham hears his name called.

Verse 11 says that voice is from heaven, and it is the angel of the Lord. In the Old Testament, who appears as the angel of the Lord? This is Christ, right? Christ before his human life on earth.

The angel of the Lord says in verse 12, “Don’t lay a hand on the boy,” and Abraham looks up and sees a ram caught in a thicket. He cuts Isaac’s binds and takes the ram instead, offering it as a sacrifice.

He calls that place Jehovah-jireh, meaning “The Lord will provide,” and that name combines God’s constant watching over us with his constant response to our cries of faith.

This is a hard story to read, isn’t it? And still so hard to understand, because what God commands Abraham and what Abraham is willing to do goes against everything we know to be right. But it had to be that way, because this was Abraham’s greatest test.

And God will test you the same, because that’s the only way we learn trust, and trust is the only path to true obedience.

We learn from this moment in Abraham’s life three things: how God tests us, why God tests us, and the rewards of God’s tests.

First, how does God test us? How did God test Abraham? Abraham had given everything he owned to God except for the one thing he held most precious — Isaac, his son and greatest blessing.

All through the Old Testament we read that God is a jealous God. He doesn’t want some of us or most of us, he wants all of us.

If we have a hundred things and give him 99, you can bet God’s test is going to come straight for that one thing you’re holding onto. Because that one thing? That one thing is really your God. For Abraham, that one thing was Isaac.

What’s yours? It takes a lot of courage to ask that question. It takes even more to answer it. But that’s exactly how God tests us.

But why does God test us? Why put Abraham through such a terrible ordeal, and why allow us to go through such painful trials? The answer to that is found in what God is truly asking Abraham to do.

On the surface, Abraham is being asked to give up control over the most precious thing in his life and yield that control to God.

But if we go deeper, we see that what God is asking for isn’t the sacrifice of Abraham’s son, but the sacrifice of Abraham’s heart.

In its most basic terms, Abraham is being asked the same question our own trials ask of us — what do we love more, God’s blessings or God himself?

The only way to live the life God wants, the only way to true joy and peace, is if you answer as Abraham answered — I choose God over God’s blessings. I will obey even if it hurts me.

When we trust God with almost everything, we may as well trust him for nothing. When we obey God most of the time, we may as well not obey him ever.

Why does God test us? So he can know we’re obedient to him. That’s what he tells Abraham at the end of verse 12 — “Do not lay your hand on the boy ... for now I know that you fear God.”

But now wait a minute, that sounds like God didn’t know whether Abraham would go through with this. That can’t be true, because God knows everything, right? Yes, but — and this is important — God doesn’t personally experience everything he knows.

I’ll give you an example. God knows about sin, yes? Of course he does. But God has never personally experienced committing sin and he never will, because God is holy.

God knows about human life — he created it. But he wanted to experience human life, and so he took the form of Jesus.

It’s the same here with Abraham’s obedience. God knew Abraham was obedient, but he only experienced that obedience just as Abraham was about to bring down that knife.

God wants not only to know your heart, he wants to feel it, he wants to experience it. It’s the difference between having faith and showing faith.

And it’s only when we show our faith and trust him even when we don’t know why we should that God truly becomes Jehovah-jireh in our lives, the Lord who provides.

He did that with Abraham by providing the ram, and what is the most important thing to remember with that ram?

It was there the whole time. The ram was there when Abraham bound Isaac. The ram was there when he laid his only son on top of that wood. Abraham just hadn’t seen it yet.

While Abraham walked up one side of that mountain with his problem, God was already sending the solution up the other side. The answer to Abraham’s problem had already been supplied, but it was only revealed to him when he trusted God enough to take that final step of obedience.

And when we take that final step of faith, when we give God everything in and about us, that is when the reward comes. Look at verses 16-18. This is basically God repeating the promise he’d made all the way at the beginning when he first called Abraham to leave his home.

But there’s one important difference. This time God swears it, right in verse 16.

Before, God had promised Abraham that through his offspring all the nations of the world would be blessed. But now that promise is an oath, and what’s the difference between those?

God’s promise is a guarantee. It’s what God is going to do once all the conditions have been met.

But God’s oath means those conditions have been met, and the promise begins happening right now. And what took place in this moment to turn God’s promise into Abraham’s reality? Obedience.

There will be a time when God will ask of you something that seems impossible. Moments when God feels like a stranger out to break your heart. Maybe that’s your life right now. And yet he remains Jehovah-jireh, the Lord who provides.

What did he provide to Abraham? The same as he provides for us. Strength equal to the challenge before you, grace to save you, and a blessing that far surpasses anything you can hope for.

But you have to trust. You have to obey. And if you do that, you will encounter a God who will never let you fall. A God you can truly call Father.

Let’s pray:

Father we know that even as our hearts are being drawn toward you, the world draws those same hearts toward itself. Each moment, we face a choice to obey you or obey ourselves, to cling to you or cling to our own wants, and to offer up our entire selves as a sacrifice to you, or hold a bit back out of fear and mistrust. Teach us that the way to true peace and happiness lays not in taking control of our lives, but in giving you the control. Every day, Father, you prove your devotion to us. Help us to be more devoted to you, for you are Jehovah-jireh, and you will always provide all we need. For we ask this in your precious son Jesus’s name, Amen.

Benediction

And now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.