To live ... and die, in faith!
Notes
Transcript
“God will provide”
“God will provide”
I hope I find you this morning again in the picture gallery, in that passage of portraits - Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah.
We have been making our way through a letter written to receipients very much at a cross-roads in their lives!
They are suffering trials and tribulations
Their hope is faltering
Their new find faith does not seem to be paying off
And so, they too, need encouragement, and certainty!
They urgently need to hear, just like, perhaps, we do, the words of the proprietor of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: “Everything will be alright in the end - so if it is not alright, it is not the end.”
And things are certainly not all alright, yet, is it, loved ones?
And I suspect that you also feel that way!
And that is why you are there, watching this recorded sermon - so that you, too, can be reminded that we have a sure and certain hope:
The certainty, that:-
“Everything will be alright in the end!”
Good onya, brothers and sisters,
But, there is more ...
As Christians, we have an infinitely better promise: Everything is alright … now … and will be forevermore!
But, that’s what you have come to hear,
come to see, isn’t it!
Let’s return to the gallery, friends, that portrait gallery of faith, as Alistair Begg, calls it:
13 These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth. 14 Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return. 16 But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He received the promises and yet he was offering his one and only son, 18 the one to whom it had been said, Your offspring will be traced through Isaac. 19 He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead; therefore, he received him back, figuratively speaking.
We are looking intently at another picture of Abraham.
This time not the portrait of Abraham and Sarah, but a stark picture of a day in the life of Abraham, a day he would carry with him to the day he died!
The picture is grim!
But Abraham’s faith shines through in the picture, and he would be unimaginably, richly rewarded for his faith!
(We find the picture in Genesis 22)
1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered. 2 “Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” 3 So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. In his hand he took the fire and the knife, and the two of them walked on together. 7 Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.” And he replied, “Here I am, my son.” Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together.
Have you been tested in your faith, friend?
How did you go?
To what degree have you been tested?
You know … when it came to sinning, or not sinning, when you were tempted, how did you go?
////////////// pause /////////
Do not despair, yet! God’s Word, the Bible offers a surprising answer of hope to this very question!
Please bear with me to the end!
“If it is not alright - it is not the end yet!”
Look at the picture! Let your imagination go into overdrive now ...
See, there is Abraham!
He is in a pondering mood!
Perhaps we find him in bed, still amazed at the faithfulness of God, in having given him a son, when he was 100 years old - a son of his own loins!
Perhaps he is thinking: “How can anyone not trust in God?”
To God be the glory and my praise, forever!
Perhaps, he thought the words that Joshua would later say:
14 “Therefore, fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord. 15 But if it doesn’t please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship—the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living? As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.”
And in that certainty - that glowing confidence in God almighty, God speaks to Abraham from heaven (one of only a few places in heaven that God audibly speaks from heaven):
1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered. 2 “Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
Picture Abraham, loved ones!
One can imagine his blood running ice cold!
Why, Lord?
Why this?
Why now?
What of your promise, Father?
Like a mother, cradling in her arms, a two weeks old baby ...
a now dead, two weeks old baby!
A mother and child, for whom many prayed!
But now the baby is dead!
“Why, God?
Look, friends, see Abrahams anguish!
3 So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about.
After a sleepless night
(is that why he is up so early, not because he is thrifty, but because he could not sleep anyway, at the thought of soon to kill his only son, as a sacrifice to God)
he ups, and goes, this time to get the axe, to prepare wood for the fire that would consume his precious son!
He drags himself out of bed, into a day, that would, for all intents and purposes, be his mental and perhaps physical destruction!
He knows, soon, he will do something for which he cannot fathom where he will find his strength.
Why, God?
Why give me the greatest gift I could ever hope for, and then grasp it from my hand?
But he gets up, and pale and shaking he, goes to the barn and gets the axe. He is sick to his stomach, but he gets up and goes, just like he did when God first called on him to leave everything behind, and go to a land he did not even know ...
“Do you remember, God?” Abraham, might be thinking.
“Do you remember? I trusted you, Father, when you asked me to leave everything I knew behind!
Do you remember, God, that you made a promise that day, Lord:
1 The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
And now this?
But Abraham gets up, and cuts the wood, and prepares for the journey - and he goes!
See the picture, friends:
Abraham, shoulders slumped;
Two young men with them, to serve them on their journey
And a donkey
Out of his house, his place of safety
To a mountain (Moriah) … a lonely hill …
a lonely hill, that God would tell him about / tell us about ...
Three days later (three days???) (three days???)
(Now where have we heard that before?)
O, I remember:
Like Jonah!
40 For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
Three days later, Abraham and Isaac and the two young men, and the donkey, arrive at the foot of mountain that God had led them to:
And it suddenly dawns on Isaac.
Up to now, we may imagine him running around the donkey as they were making their journey to this place. It’s all a bit of an adventure for the 12 year old Isaac!
But then, it strikes him:
7 Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.” And he replied, “Here I am, my son.” Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Friends, do you remember our good Friday sermon (you can still find it on YouTube … ) Of the young child walking with her father into Jerusalem, on that Friday we call “good”, and asking: Father, everyone has a lamb to offer! Where is our Lamb for the sacrifice?
Isaac is suddenly puzlled:
This is not like his father, to forget the most sacred part of an offering, a burn offering, to the God in whom he trusts so unconditionally!
“Father, where is our lamb?”
Abraham, now with hardly any strength in his bones, mutters:
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together.
The scene of what happens next is given us in Genesis 22: 9
9 When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.
Isaac is struggling, perhaps crying out: Father! Father! What have I done?
Why are you doing this!
And then, verse 10
10 Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
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I recall one Sunday morning on our farm in South Africa, loved ones:
I first new something was very wrong when I found my father at the gun safe, taking out the point 22 rifle, taking a single round (bullet) and with shoulders hunched, walked towards the old thorn tree, where a Blessbuck calf lay bleating helplessly:
We had found the calf near its dead mother, and my father had raised that calf on a baby bottle, trying desperately to save the calf's life.
But, the strain of the calf's ordeal, had left it blind, and it was clearly suffering!
The calf’s suffering became to much to bear for my dad, and so he decided to put the animal out of its misery.
And so he shot the calf that he had loved so much!
He clearly believed it was the right thing to do!
But it broke his heart!
And his hand shook uncontrollably as he pulled that trigger!
And then he cried!
I did not see my father cry often ...
Imagine Abraham, friends!
Did he cry, as he bound Isaac?
Surely! He must have wept! One can imagine him asking:
Why, God!
But he did not falter in his faith!
He believed, trusted, was convinced that God would be faithful to His promises - even to the degree that he was convinced that God would restore Isaac from the dead.
We see that when we read Heb 11: 17-18
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He received the promises and yet he was offering his one and only son, 18 the one to whom it had been said, Your offspring will be traced through Isaac.
And then, verse Heb 11: 19
19 He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead; therefore, he received him back, figuratively speaking.
Abraham so trusted God that he was prepared to sacrifice him to God, in the sure and certain hope that God would find a way to keep his promise, the promise that Abraham would be the father of a faithful multitude so vast that they would be uncountable!
And you and I, brother, sister, are we not the fulfilment of that promise?
Do we not know this to be true, on the grounds of our faith?
Yet, little could Abraham understand the way that God would show that He is faithful, and that he keeps his promises!
Little could he know - that God would provide, just as he had said to Isaac, in an attempt to comfort his son!
He did believe it! That much is clear! But he could not foresee, how God would provide!
Friends, I hope you are starring intently at the picture, of Abraham, Isaac, there at the altar:
Perhaps your gaze is directed at Abraham, and his grief … even as you ponder your own grief and worry … Abraham, his hand raised, ready to slaughter his son, in faith!
Perhaps your eyes are focused on Isaac, and his fear, and his tears, as you consider your own fears and uncertainties and your lack of understanding all things ...
But I ask you now, to see something else, in the picture:
Look closely now:
13 Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.
See the Ram, friends, in a way you may have missed before!
At the moment of the supreme expression of Abraham’s faith, God kept his promise spoken prophetically through Abraham:
God provided the Ram!
We would see that ram again, some 2000 years later, as it turned out!
On another high place!
Now it would have a new name: Golgotha ... or Calvary!
(There is much evidence that Calvary was situated at the same spot as that hill in Moriah, where Abraham’s faith would be tested!)
What happened there in Moriah, was a foreshadowing of our great salvation, when another son - an only son - would be killed! - Jesus!
And this time the Father’s hand would not be stayed!
It could not, for then the price for our sin would not have been paid, and the promise could not be honoured!
Because God is faithful - and just - and merciful according to His promises!
Do you believe that?
“Everything will be alright in the end!” So the story goes!
That’s nice for a Hollywood ending ...
But, as Christians, we have an infinitely better promise: Everything is alright … even now … and will be forevermore!
Because Jesus, the only Son of God, was born, slaughtered and died, and was raised - on the third day!
Just as the whole Bible said it would be!
Now that is something you can stake your life on!
And that … is faith!
Amen!