The Faith of Abraham & Sarah
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Intro
Intro
Alright, so last week Regent started our focus on a man in the Old Testament named Abraham. Specifically, Regent focused on the story of Abraham going to sacrifice his son Isaac. We learned some great things about faith in last weeks message. In fact, this entire series we have learned many things about faith…and what it looks like in our lives. Here’s a list of some of the points we’ve discussed about faith.
Previous Message Points
Faith produces Action
Faith Provides Salvation
Faith trusts the Promises of God
Faith Provides a worldview
Faith Can Be Tested
Faith Produces Obedience
Faith Reveals the Fear of God
Today we are going to take a further look at Abraham, but we are going to start at the beginning of his story and carry it through to the birth of Isaac. Why are we doing this? Because that’s the section in Hebrews 11 we haven’t covered yet. And it’s important to cover it because the author of Hebrews takes great care to discuss several different aspects of his life. If you are looking at your bible in Hebrews 11…you’ll see that Abraham takes up the largest chunk of scripture in this chapter, followed only by Moses.
Abraham is one of the most essential people to the history of the jews. He’s one of the most essential BECAUSE, he is literally the reason that there are jews. He is the father of all jews…it’s from his line that they descended. He was the one God made a promise to…he was the one who was told he would be the father to a great nation…the jewish nation. God’s plan includes Abraham having a son…and the promises made to Abraham are going to be coming through that son.
That’s one of the things Regent stressed so much last week…one of the many reasons why it was crazy for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac was because, all the things that God had promised were suppose to come through Isaac. In fact, Isaac was one of the things that was promised.
So, we got a chance to look at the pivotal moment in the life of Abraham and Issac, but we didn’t get a chance to see where it all began yet. To see how Abraham started this journey that led him to sacrificing Isaac. That’s what we are doing tonight, looking at the beginning of Abraham’s journey…and seeing how Abraham’s faith in this informed our faith.
Another way to word it…we are going to see the things about faith, that we can learn from Abraham’s faith. And remember…this series is called “by faith”. Which as we read those words should trigger in our minds the understanding we have of faith in Hebrews 11.
HEBREWS SLIDE
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
So by having assurance of things hoped for, and by being convicted of things not seen…Abraham was able to accomplish the things we are about to read. BY FAITH he did these actions, and by reading his story…we can learn the power that faith can have in our lives. So..let’s get into the passage today. Instead of reading the entire passage and then going back, we are just going to go through it verse by verse this time and take the points as we go. So if you get your eyes in Hebrews 11, we are going to start in verse 8.
If you’ll remember, the author of Hebrews is just finishing up his example of Noah and the righteousness that came by faith, and now he transitions to Abraham in verse 8.
8 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. 9 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. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
There’s our first phrase of BY FAITH that we are going to see in this passage, and what did Abraham’s faith give him the strength to do? Leave everything he knew behind, the place of his upbringing, the security that comes with establishment and familiarity…and go.
Much like when many of you went off to college away from your hometown. You were leaving everything you knew behind…and you were going to something new. The thing is…you knew where you were going. You knew what college, what dorm room, what classes…you knew all those things. But Abraham didn’t. And we know that because the author of Hebrews tells us that he didn’t know where he was going in verse 8, right there. So that leads us to the first thing we can learn about faith in this passage..
Our Faith Does Not Promise Security
I wanted to word this, “faith is blind”, but I think the wording I chose brings about a little more clarity in what the scripture here reveals. And what scripture reveals here is that if you have faith, you are not always guaranteed to have physical security in life…and for some of you, that’s a tragic thought.
Because you like certainty. You like knowing what something will be like when you get there. In fact, many of you will choose to not participate in things if the information provided or the situation leans itself to uncertainty.
I know I’m the same way. It’s human nature.
Let’s take our summer trip down to Radius this past August/September. I know for a fact, there are some of you that didn’t go because you weren’t sure what it was going to be like…even though you had the promise that God would move in you life through it.
Or Cross Con. I know for a fact, that there are some of you that didn’t come because you weren’t familiar with it. You didn’t want to stretch yourself in it.
But let’s put spiritual things aside. It’s easy to guess that there are some of you in this room who won’t true a new restaurant or a new menu item because of the uncertainty that you’ll like it...
I could literally be eating the food in front of you, with a fork in one hand and a printout of a news article rating the restaurant 5/5 in the other…and you would still choose not to try it because of the uncertainty.
Why? Because it’s human nature to maintain our safety…it’s human nature to maintain our comfort. But…it’s in God’s nature to reward those who deny that part of themselves. Particularly when it comes to the things he has called us to do.
That’s how it was for Abraham. God called Abraham in chapter 12 of Genesis.
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
God called Abraham to leave everything he knew, to leave his home, his country, his family…his father’s house…which by the way…were everything back then. We are talking about a time before currency. Before part time jobs. Before high school and college and careers. We are talking about a time when your family was your life. Your father’s career was your career. Your father’s home was your home. Multiple generations of the same family lived together…that’s how it was.
And God is calling Abraham to step out of that safety and comfort…and into what? Well that’s the point. We don’t know. God just tells him to go…and gives him the promise of what will happen if he does. But…he doesn’t tell him where to go.
Abraham’s faith, did not promise security. The faith God required of him, did not come with a security in worldy circumstances..though it did come with a promise.
Just like, our faith in Christ, does not promise us security in this life. We are not promised wealth or health. We are not promised financial or familial security…we are not given certainty of where or who we are being called to…but just like Abraham we are given the promise. The promise of eternal life. The promise of an abundant life. The promise of being in God’s presence at the end of the days.
So all that to say…be encouraged. Because Abraham’s faith didn’t promise a level of security of information…
But it did provide certainty.
Our faith provides certainty.
it does promise the certainty of God fulfilling his promise. And just like Regent said last week…we need to trust in that promise…so that we may be found to have the faith of Abraham.
Because that’s what he did. He didn’t have the promise of security in where he would live…what he would experience in the immediate future…but he did have certainty that God would fulfill these great promises of making him a nation.
And so, Abraham, BY FAITH, left his homeland…and went into the unknown.
Faith doesn’t promise security. But it does promise certainty.
11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
Our Faith is Miraculous.
Miraculous means “occuring through divine or supernatural intervention”. So, a miracle is something that happens through God’s interaction in it. Healings in the NT are a great example. A person was sick or broken, the natural occurence of creation would not heal them…so Jesus (who was God…the divine) intervened and changed it. That’s what miraculous means…so when I say Faith is Miraculous, what do I mean? I mean.
It’s miraculous in two ways:
1) Our faith is a miracle in itself.
We’ve covered this one a lot the past few weeks, so I will just quickly summarize it. We’ve talked several times how faith is given to us by God. In our natural state, our sinful state…we do not desire God. We do not want him.
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
Without something changing in us…we do not seek God. But…God gives us faith…he intervenes in our lives to awaken us to his salvation. To a knowledge that leads to the truth. So when I say Faith is a miracle in itself…I mean that we are one way, and God intervenes to make it another. That is the literal definition of a miracle.
Your desire to love God, seek him, know him…your salvation…is a miraculous thing. So yes, Faith is a miracle in itself. But that’s not the only thing I mean when I say faith is miraculous.
2) It brings the miraculous to our lives.
Sarah is the example given here of this. We see in Genesis that she was unable to have children.
11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”
So, here we are…after Abraham BY FAITH left his homeland and stepped into the unknown with nothing but a promise from God. And this promise that God gave him to be a father of a nation is on his doorstep. And instead of God choosing to fulfill this promise through a young woman…he chooses Sarah. Sarah…who is not able to have children.
That’s what it means that “the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah”. She no longer had a cycle…she was not physically capable of having children anymore.
But what does Hebrews say? She considered him…God…faithful. And because of that…it says in verse 12 there...
12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
So…because Sarah had faith, she was blessed to witness the miraculous. And the same is true for those of us who have put our faith in Christ.
Our faith in Christ causes us to see the miraculous. Whether it’s in our own lives…like provision, protection, blessing. Or…it’s in the lives of others.
I’ve seen it in my own life. My wife isn’t suppose to be able to have children…yet there she sits…7 months pregnant. And the fact that she’s pregnant isn’t the only miraculous part…but the fact that God has given me the faith to acknowledge that for what it is…to see it for what it is, God truly working…that in itself is miraculous.
We as Christians have been given this amazing gift of discerning the spiritual.
12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.
God has given us the spirit so that we may see the spiritual things. To see a pregnant wife and know that it was God at work. To see someone get the job, or heal from an illness…and know that it was God at work.
Because we have faith, we get to see miraculous things happen in the everyday. And…miraculous things happen when they are out of the ordinary as well.
That was Sarah’s story. She had faith, and God allowed her the miraculous gift of having a child. Her faith led to her getting to witness the miraculous. Because...
Our faith is Miraculous
Alright, into the last part of the text for tonight.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
So what the author is saying is that Abraham, and Sarah…and the other heroes of the faith that he has already listed, were faithful to the end. Faithful to the end, even when they couldn’t see the fulfillment of this promise. This gives us our a quick point for tonight, but a true one nonetheless.
Our faith Produces Perseverance
If you have a sincere faith, then you have a faith that will persevere…a faith that will endure until the end. Just like Abraham and Sarah…and Just like Jesus.
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus…had a joy that was set before him. Something he was looking towards. Just like, part of our definition of faith is something we look towards, things we can’t see…Jesus had enough of a joy set before, that he endured the cross. He persevered through the cross.
One way to tell if you have a sincere faith…is to see if your faith is enduring, if it perseveres…even when you can’t see reward. That’s the kind of faith you need to have…and the kind of faith you should strive towards.
You should desire to have an authentic faith that produces in you a perseverance.
Let’s finish out the passage.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Last point.
Our faith sets us apart.
What does the text say about the saints of the OT? It says they acknowledged they were strangers and exiles on the earth. Meaning…they were saying that the earth is not their home…but rather, their citizenship is somewhere else.
Now, this subject is literally another message in itself. I don’t have time tonight to go through all the nuances of what it means that we are in this world but don’t belong to this world. But, what we do have time for is to see what the faith of Abraham and Sarah made them feel.
And that is…they felt like they didn’t belong to their earthly home…and instead belonged to a heavenly country…a heavenly home.
That’s what it means in verse 14 when it says that people who speak tus…meaning, people who acknowledge they are strangers and exiles on the earth…people who speak that way, make it clear that they are seeking a separate homeland. And verse 15 supports this by saying, if they had been seeking any old homeland…they could have just turned back to the one they came from. But they didn’t.
And the same is for all of us of sincere faith. If we were just seeking acceptance, belonging, worldly pleasure, success, whatever it is…if we were just seeking those things…we could just turn back to the world and receive them. However…we are seeking something better. We are seeking what only God can provide. Redemption, true peace, true joy, and eternity with God. And because we desire those things, we make it clear that we don’t want to return to the world. We don’t want to return to our old lives…but instead act as if we are aliens to this world, that we may live in it but we don’t belong to it.
A sincere faith sets us apart from those who belong to the world. In word and in deed. And…because we acknowledge we don’t belong to the world but belong to God…essentially, because we acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and savior…God does something…what is it? Look back at verse 16.
16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Because we desire to be set apart, belonging to God and not the world…God is not ashamed to be called our God.
How amazing is that? That this big God we talk about every week. An amazing, all powerful, all knowing, God. The God that knows every single one of your sins…every single one of your shortcomings…the God that knew every single sin and shortcoming of Abraham and Sarah…that God. Is not ashamed of you.
Why? Because you belong to him. Because you are his.
So do you belong to him? That’s really the only thing to make sure of when we read this text…when we see what Faith does in our lives.