The Father of Faith

1) Faith is obedient to God’s Call.

a) “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.”

b) Genesis 12:1-5, Begins with a call of God. (This came at age 75 for Abraham). An invitation to a relationship.

c) Obedience is really just an outward evidence of our inward trust in God.

d) Going without knowing “a land that I will show thee”

e) Often involves leaving or laying aside those things that are familiar or comfortable (a sign of trust)

f) God will often give a glimpse of the goal, but on the path we must trust Him one step at a time.

2) Faith waits for God’s Consummation.

a) “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.”

b) Abraham adopted the life of a pilgrim in this earth.

c) He trusted God to fulfill the promise, not man’s power (Genesis 14:22-23)

3) Faith trusts in God’s Covenant.

a) “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”

b) Account from Genesis 15: (God making covenant with the Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ.) See Galatians 3:16,18-19

c) It was a covenant that God would keep, not Abraham.

i) Smoking oven – picture of God’s justice, “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lordof hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” Malachi 4:1

ii) Flaming torch – picture of God’s light and salvation, “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch.” Isaiah 62:1

iii) God made covenant with himself. Abraham entered the covenant by faith!