The Mature Faith

12-14-97

THE MATURE FAITH
GENESIS 22

The faith that makes possible a relationship with God has the potential for growth. It begins as a small mustard seed,
but the mustard seed has in it the potential to become a great tree. It was so in the life of the great example of faith,
Abraham.

Abraham had been walking by faith for forty years when God brought him to Mt. Moriah to offer his son Isaac. The
forty years of walking with God had been marked by ups and downs along the way. The faith that began his walk with
God had been tested severely by the long delay in the birth of Isaac. You might have expected that would be the last
time that Abraham’s faith would be tested, but not so. The last test to which Abraham’s faith was subjected was the
most difficult of all.

When this time of testing came Isaac was already into his teen years. A direct word came from the Lord God that
Abraham was to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. The Lord said, “Take now 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.” This is to us an unimaginable kind of test, but it would not have been that unusual in the world of Abraham.
Worshippers of pagan idols often offered one of their children to their god as a sacrifice. It would not have come as a
surprise to Abraham at this point in history that God would ask for Isaac to be offered as a sacrifice. The difficulty
with this request from God is that it had a conflict with the promise that God had given. God had given a specific
promise that Isaac would be the heir through which God’s purposes for Abraham would be accomplished.

When faced with this command from the Lord, Abraham demonstrated mature faith. Since his faith had grown
through the life experiences and his encounters with God in the past, he was now ready to stand this new test to
which God subjected his faith. You and I need to have mature faith, or at least a maturing faith. If you are a
teenager, it is probably not possible for you to have a mature faith but it is possible for you to have a maturing faith.
If you are a young adult maturing faith is probably the best that you can hope for at this point. But those of us who
have been in the way of faith for longer periods of time should have at this point in our lives a mature faith. By
watching the faith of Abraham in this circumstance we can identify the qualities of a mature faith.

I. A MATURE FAITH OBEYS GOD READILY.
The word of the Lord came to Abraham as a command, “Take your son – and offer him there as a burnt offering on
one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” This command that came from the Lord was received by Abraham as a
command and was readily obeyed. In this deed of obedience we are able to see a mature faith obeying God.

1. As worship
What we see in the faith of Abraham at this point in his life is more than just obedience. It was obedience rendered in
the spirit of worship. God did not command Abraham to murder his son, but to offer him as an act of worship, a burnt
offering. And this is specifically what Abraham did.

When Abraham and Isaac came to the top of Mt. Moriah, they built an altar. “And Abraham built an altar there and
placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.” When he did this
God recognized that what Abraham had done was more than just obedience; it was obedience rendered in a spirit of
worship. God responded by saying, “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.” The word “fear” has in it the idea of deep
reverence and regard for God. The obedience that Abraham rendered to God at this point was with understanding of
the worthiness and the glory of God. This kind of obedience is the mark of mature faith.

2. In difficult things
Those of us who are parents can understand in part the difficulty of what God asked Abraham to do. While it is true
that in the end God did not require the physical offering of Isaac as a sacrifice; in a deep sense Abraham did offer
Isaac spiritually. He knew all of the pain that should accompany such a sacrifice before God intervened to stop the
process.

This is the sign of a mature faith. A mature faith is able not only to obey in the simpler and easier matters that God
requires but it is able to render obedience in the difficult and painful thing. And it is able to render this obedience in a
spirit of worship and reverence for God.

If you want to measure the maturity of your faith, you can subject it to the obedience test. Is there anything you would
not do for God? Is there some limit you have put on your obedience to God? The mature faith is ready for whatever
God may ask.

II. MATURE FAITH TRUSTS GOD ABSOLUTELY.
I am a little hesitant to use the word “absolutely” in this context, but it seems to fit. I am hesitant along with others to
see anything that we do toward God as being absolute, but a mature faith will come closer to this than anything I
know. I gained the distinct impression, as I read the account here in Genesis and the commentary on this account
that is found in the New Testament, that Abraham’s faith trusted God implicitly and absolutely.

1. Without questions.
As you read the inspired account of this incident you will be impressed with the directness and quickness in Abraham’
s response to God. When the command came to Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice the record reads, “So
Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac, his
son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.” As far
as the text is concerned, Abraham asked no questions. Abraham did not struggle with what God had commanded.
The reason he did not struggle is that he trusted God absolutely. The God who had given him Isaac had proven to
be faithful to His word in the past, so Abraham did not stagger or stumble at what God commanded but rather acted in
trust.

The writer of Hebrews in the New Testament gives us insight into the nature of Abraham’s trust at this point. “By faith
Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten
son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” accounting that God was able to raise him up even from
the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.” (Heb. 11:17-19). Abraham believed that the God
who had given Isaac in his old age according to his promise would indeed be able to raise Isaac from the dead if
Abraham offered him as a burnt offering. He trusted God to do the impossible by human measurements. He trusted
God absolutely.

2. Without limits
This is the mark of a mature faith. It has come to such knowledge of God and such confidence in God that it can
believe God for the impossible. All limits have been removed from the understanding of what God can do.

We must not misread the situation of Abraham. We must not read back into his situation our knowledge of the ways
of God. Standing from where we stand we know indeed that God is able to raise the dead. We have the inspired
record of a number of resurrections from the dead, including the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Abraham could not benefit from such a record. There were no resurrection accounts available to him to
bolster his faith in God. Rather he had to depend entirely upon on what he had come to know of God and His
faithfulness. So he counted on God to be able to do what ever needed to be done to accomplish his purpose
through Isaac, including raising him from the dead. Again, if you want to measure the maturity of your faith, you might
want to subject it to this standard. Does your faith give evidence of an absolute trust in God. Can you trust God to
do what he said he will do? Can you trust God, or maybe better are you trusting God for the impossible? Many of us
who have been in the way as long as Abraham have still not come to that place of trust that marks mature faith.

III. MATURE FAITH RECEIVES GOD’S REWARD.
Everything in this account encourages us to move upward in our walk with God and to seek a stronger and a more
mature faith in God. Just recounting the rewards that Abraham received when he acted in faith encourages us to
press on. Let’s just review together a few of those.

1. God rewards mature faith with a deeper knowledge of Himself.
Abraham did not know it at the time, but he was actually experiencing something of the heart of God himself. No one
is in a better position to understand the heart of God than this man Abraham. There would be a day in the future
when God would do fully what Abraham did in symbol. God offered his only begotten Son on a cross and allowed His
Son to die in our place. The father heart of God knew something of what Abraham knew as he walked up Mt. Moriah
with his son, Isaac, at his side.

This is always a benefit that comes to the mature in faith. Their faith brings them into such a relationship with God
that they gain a deeper and fuller understanding of the heart of God than those who never mature in their faith.

2. God rewards mature faith by returning that which has been surrendered to Him in a more useable form.

This is not an unusual incident but rather is an indication of God’s usual method. Abraham offered Isaac to God as a
sacrifice and God gave Isaac back to Abraham. Can you not recognize that in the years to come as Isaac continues
to grow and mature that Abraham saw him through new eyes. He saw him with an even deeper sense of gratitude
than he had ever seen him before. He now related to Isaac not only as a son of promise, but as a son who had been
raised from the dead. He walked with Isaac with a new sense of the privilege that was his.

This happens so often to the mature in faith. God calls on them to surrender something that is extremely precious to
them as an act of worship to Him. They readily make the surrender in obedience and trust only to discover that God
has given them back what they gave to Him. But yet, that which God has given them back always has about it a
different quality once it has been on the altar of God. It is one of the rewards of faith, a mature faith.

3. God rewards mature faith by allowing us to honor and to glorify his name.
Abraham’s strong and mature faith enabled him to do this memorable deed and thereby to bring honor to God in an
unusual way. Can you imagine the impact that must have been felt in the family of Abraham and among the
neighbors of Abraham once the word of this deed became commonly known? There would be no question in their
mind about the place that God held in the life of Abraham. They now knew that Abraham’s God was worthy of any
sacrifice that we might offer to him.

Can you imagine the impression that this made upon Isaac? In the inspired account there is no reference to any
response on the part of Isaac. Isaac seems to have been temperamentally a rather passive person and this may be
the reason that nothing is said in the text about his response. But Isaac would never, never, forget that his father’s
God was worthy of Abraham’s best. Isaac from that day forward would live with an awareness that his father had
given him to God. Oh the blessing that parents can be to their children and grandchildren if they mature in faith! As
they are able to honor and glorify God in an appropriate way a lasting impression is made upon their descendents.

When Abraham died sometime later and Isaac and Ishmael had the responsibility of laying his body to rest, there was
not any question at the funeral time concerning the place that God had in Abraham’s life. They knew that their father
was a man who was ready to do whatever God asked him to do regardless of what it might cost.

A part of this secret of this kind of mature faith is indicated in the text in the two responses that Abraham made to
God. When God called to him in the first instance he said, “Abraham!” Abraham’s response was simply, “Here I am.”
When Abraham and Isaac came to the top of the mountain Isaac was on the altar prepared to be offered the Lord
spoke again from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” Again Abraham responded simply, “Here I am.” This
indicates that Abraham lived with a God-awareness and with a life that was constantly available to God. His faith had
brought him to the place that day by day he was present before the Lord to be and to do whatever the Lord might
choose. “Here I am.” Can you say that to God tonight knowing that the consequences might be a difficult assignment
from the Lord? In that kind of response is the secret of a growing and a mature faith. May God help us to keep on
growing in faith until we come to the top of the mountain where we can discover that God is Jehovah-Jireh , the God
that provides.