Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11 as we pick back up in this hall of faith. Last time we were together, we were looking at Abraham and Sarah, the faith of this couple, their saving faith as they and the other patriarchs looked forward in faith, not to that dry dusty land in the Middle East, but to the true home of the saints whose architect and builder is God. They looked beyond the land God called them to the better country, Hebrews says, that was built by God for them. And so faith looks forward.
And now tonight, even as we look forward, it may be if the Lord doesn't return, we're all going to die before we reach heaven. And so we need a faith that can help us face difficulty and even death. And the writer turns to that subject here in verses 17 through 22, because he wants his hearers to persevere in faith to the end. And so he encourages them and he encourages us that God's people of old endured through the pressures of difficulty throughout their history and in that same faith we can too.
He selects here just following along, he selects four examples in verses 17 to 22. The faith of Abraham facing the death of Isaac in verse 17. The faith of Isaac at the end of his life in verse 20. The faith of Jacob as he's dying in verse 21 and the faith of Joseph in verse 22 as he's thinking about what should be done with his bones when he's dead and buried.
So death is on his mind. How can we face death in faith? And tonight in particular in the case of Abraham, when we face circumstances and even commands of God that seem to conflict with God's love and care for us in his providence. How do we face those things?
And so let me invite you to consider this evening. I'll read the whole passage, but we're just going to focus tonight on Abraham. But here's the Holy and Inspired Word of God from Hebrews chapter 11 beginning at verse 17. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son of whom it was said through Isaac shall your offspring be named, he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which figuratively speaking he did receive him back.
By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff, by faith Joseph at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. Amen, this is God's Word. He write it on our hearts, let's pray together.
Oh Father, grant that your Word would be a light to our path of lamp to our feet. Grant that it would encourage us by the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the glorious hope that we have in Christ and the resurrection. Keep and encourage than the confidence of your people this evening in Jesus name. Amen.
Amen. Others tell the story of 1899 of two prominent men who died, the matter of their death illustrates the difference between the difference that faith in Jesus makes versus not having it. The first was a man named Colonel Robert Ingersoll, for whom the Ingersoll lectures are named at Harvard University. He gave his mind and his efforts to destroy Christianity, to repudiating it, to refuting it publicly.
And he died suddenly that year that he did so and leaving his family unprepared, they were utterly devastated. And so grief-stricken was his wife that she wouldn't allow his body to be taken from their home until the health of the family required it. His remains were then cremated and at his funeral there was such a scene of dismay and despair that even the newspapers commented on it. Death came and they had no hope.
They didn't have the hope of the gospel and the hope of the resurrection. The other man who died that same year was Dwight L. Moody, the great Christian evangelist. He had been declining for some time and his family had gathered around his bed.
On his last morning his son heard him exclaim, Earth is receding, Heaven is opening, God is calling. You are dreaming, Father, said his son, but Moody replied, No, Will, this is no dream. I have been within the gates. I have seen the children's faces.
Moody seemed to revive them, but then he began to slip away again. Is this death? He was heard to say? This is not bad.
There is no valley. This is bliss. He is curious. His daughter had now come into the room and she began to pray for him to recover.
No, no Emma, he said. Don't pray for that. God is calling. This is my coronation day.
I have been looking forward to it. And Moody died not long after. His family confident of his entry into Heaven. His funeral was a scene of assurance and hope.
Those in attendance sang hymns and exalted God. Where Odeth is your victory? Where Odeth is your sting? Trusting in Jesus makes all the difference.
What kind of faith do we need if we ourselves are to face difficulty and even death with this kind of confidence and assurance? This evening I just want to take verse 17, the whole passage answers that question. In the example of Abraham, you'll notice it there, verses 17 to 19. And if you want to, you can turn to Genesis 22 because the writer points us there and we're going to read a portion of that as well.
This evening I want you to see the faith of Abraham was a tested faith. It was also a reasoning faith. And then I want to apply that to ourselves at the end. So two things and then personal application, how it points us to the gospel.
Notice first that Abraham's faith was a tested faith. Verse 17, he was 11 by faith. Abraham when he was tested offered up Isaac. And he would receive the promises.
In fact, in the act of offering up his only son of whom it was said through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This of course, picks up the story as I mentioned of Genesis 22 when the Lord gave that strange command to Abraham to take his beloved son Isaac and offer him up as a burnt offering on the mountain to offer him up to God. And we read about that in Genesis 22 and I want you to hear that the writer in Genesis 22 beginning at verse 1 says, 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 Mariah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.
So here's Abraham's facing death, the death of Isaac. Even by his own hand at the command of God, we're going to have to deal with that. But it's the greatest test of his faith, not only his faith in the wisdom of God and the goodness of God, but even in the plans and purposes of God. Because the promises of God to Abraham flow through Isaac as the writer of Hebrews reminds us.
It's through Isaac that God promised Abraham a seed, a seed who would be the promised savior to come. It's through Isaac, the promised seed that the people of God would come and the promises of God to rescue God's people and gather them in God's place so that all the nations of the world would be blessed. All of that is through Isaac. And Isaac doesn't have any kids yet to pass along those promises through.
And if Isaac dies, well the promises of God would appear to die with him. And so how are the promises of God going to be fulfilled if Isaac dies? So it's this poignant story of a man who's commanded to do what seems unthinkable, not only on a personal level, which is just unimaginable, but on a theological level. And it was a test of Abraham's faith, not a temptation given by God seeking for Abraham to do anything wrong.
God never elicits his people to do anything wrong. God's not an evil God. He's a good God. But it was a test of Abraham's faith to prove the genuineness of his faith for a good purpose.
The new test of it actually tells us that this is how God is at working our lives and our experience. Oh, not in the same particular way. That was a very unique situation for Abraham in the whole history of redemption. But God, first Peter chapter 1, the apostle Peter tells us, he says to them as he writes to them, you've been grieved by various trials, verse 7, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
God's purpose in our trials is the strengthening of our faith, the refining and purifying of our faith, the proving of it by means of tests that God himself provides. Now, as I said, Abraham's particular test here was quite unique and unusual. And what's also apparent is how absurd it seems on its face. I mean, for all these many decades, Abraham and Sarah were waiting on a child.
And they did all kinds of things they weren't supposed to do while they waited. And then they finally got the promised child. And now God's command to him seems to contradict God's promise to him. It's as those as Ralph Davis, God said, take the promises I made to you in Genesis 12 and 15 and 17 and put those promises on Isaac and kill them.
And so devote him over to me as a whole burnt offering, holy devoted to me, nothing held back from me. And so, you know, how can we not feel something of the anguish that Abraham must have been in, take your son. You can imagine Abraham thinking to himself, oh, Lord, not my son. And then there's the passage says, Abraham, take your son, your only son.
By this time, Ishmael has already gone into the wilderness never to be seen by him again. And God is saying to him, I want you to take all that you have now, Abraham, Isaac, whom you love. I know he's precious to you, Abraham. I know you spent the last decade raising him.
I know your heart is knit to him and you love him. Now, how can God ask Abraham to do such a thing? Isn't it, or is it fundamentally wrong? Let me give you a few responses to that as we think this through briefly anyway.
First, is it wrong for the Lord to take our children from us and from this life, even to himself before he takes even us? Now, it is commonly said to be an unimaginable pain when parents outlive their children. But those of us who know that experience or something of that experience, who know something of the pain that must have been in Abraham's heart, yet we would, as believers in any case, would say our hearts agree with Job. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord.
He has done nothing wrong. But more than this, how could the Lord command the death of Isaac at the hand of a man? Well, he can, and he did. And will not the judge of all the earth do right the scripture asks?
And of course, he will do right. And one of the reasons we can say that he can command such a thing is for because the wages of sin is death, and we are all liable to death. Now, of course, to be sure, the emphasis in Genesis is not that Isaac did anything that he's being punished for, or that Abraham sinned in some way, and he's being punished for that. And yet, death would not be unjust because death is what we all deserve.
We are all made liable to all the miseries of this life and death itself on account of sin. So we Christians confess that at any moment we deserve to die. And every moment of life is a gift from God. I heard somebody ask another, you know, how are you doing today?
It's the classic answer. We've all heard better than I deserve. And that's what we believe. Are you alive today?
You're doing better than you deserve. But we also still must even press further in. How can God the Father ask Isaac's own Father to be the hand that slays the boy? And here, of course, I think probably all of us can't even imagine what that must have been like.
And to wonder what would we have done if we had been in Abraham's shoes? Thankfully, in the story, relief is that hand. For we know the rest of the story, even though Abraham in the moment didn't know the rest of the story, not the way that we know it after it all transpired. What is the rest of that story?
Because Abraham passes the test. What should have he heard some of the rest of that story? Back in Genesis 22, beginning at verse 3. So better read it from my notes.
I can't see my Bible. 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 he arose and went to the place of which God had commanded him. And on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.
Then Abraham said to the young men, stick you with the donkey, I and the boy will go over there and worship and come back 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 both of them went together. And Isaac said to his Father, my Father. And he said, here I am, my son.
He said, behold, the fire and the wood. But where is the lamp for the burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamp for a burnt offering, my son. So they went both of them together.
And 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 his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And 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, 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. No. Did Abraham know that the Lord would stop him in the very act of offering his son as a sacrifice? No.
He didn't know that he would be stopped. He was prepared to go through with it. He was in the very act of obeying the command of God. He was also at the same time trusting the promise of God.
And God had promised him that it would be through Isaac that the promise of God would be fulfilled. So how did Abraham square the command of God with the promise of God when the two seemed to conflict? And then it must have been incredibly vexing. If God was to be faithful to him, right, to Rick Phillips, faithful to his promises to Abraham, then Isaac was to live.
But if God's command was to be obeyed, then Isaac must die. It seemed to be so inconsistent, so internally contradictory, none of us ever received this particular command for God. Thank God. Since Abraham was fulfilling a unique role in history, but God may call us to obey him in a way that seems spiritually counterproductive to ourselves.
You think about repenting of your sin and confessing it and telling somebody you lied to them or you cheated them or something like that. And you think to yourself, okay, the Lord wants me to repent, he wants me to reconcile with people. This may all blow up and be utterly contrary to our spiritual benefit. And yet God actually says, no, it could be awkward.
It could be difficult. But my commands to you to be a repenting person and a forgiving person, these are actually good things. But it may not feel like it's going to be that way. That's just one example.
But how do Abraham here, in such a consequential moment, go forward in obedience without giving up on God's promises? Well, Hebrews 11 tells you in a way that Genesis doesn't. Hebrews 11 verse 19, he considered that God was able even to raise him Isaac from the dead. Now where in the story we just read about Abraham and Isaac, do we find that hope in the resurrection?
Especially when up until the time of Abraham there have been no resurrections. I mean, you'll get some who died come to life under the prophets, Elijah, Elijah, and later under Jesus himself, Lazarus comes out of the tomb. Abraham knows nothing of any of that. He's never seen any of that.
And there's not a single example of not only in his experience or the experience of his ancestors going back to Adam and Eve. And there's no doctrinal teaching about resurrection explicitly in the Scriptures given before Abraham. And yet he believes God would be able to raise Isaac from the dead. Where in Genesis 22 might we see that?
Well, actually we read it. When Abraham and Isaac left the young men who helped them on their journey, he said to them, stay here with the donkey, I and the boy will go over there and worship and come back to you. And he wasn't lying to them. He was convinced he and Isaac would return to them.
How? By the resurrection of Isaac. Now, of course, what actually happens in the unfolding of the story of Genesis 22 is not that Isaac gets put to death and has to be raised from the dead, but that God provided a substitute in death. I mean, just as Abraham was about to offer Isaac, the angel stops him.
And then in verse 13, back in Genesis 22, it says, Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns and Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a bird offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the place or 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. So Abraham reasoned to the doctrine of resurrection, but God's plan actually was a substitute in death for Isaac.
And yet the writer of Hebrews will say all of this was, well, a kind of parable. That is the writer of Hebrews, chapter 11 says, figuratively speaking, Abraham did receive Isaac back by resurrection. That is his son whom he was fully committed to sacrificing and was in fact in the very act of sacrificing his son whom in his heart he had already offered back to God his son who as far as he was concerned was dead. This son he received back as it were from death.
And Abraham had reasoned it out. God's command to him seemed to end the promise of God, but God's never done with his promises. So of course Abraham, thinking too much, of course, that's another thing of course here, but Abraham reasoned, God will raise him. And so again, as another put of reason is the hand made in the faith.
And so as we close two big ways, this helps us ourselves appreciate the gospel and hope we have in the resurrection and how in the midst of our faith being tested we can lean on the promises of God even when the providential circumstances of our lives seem to be in conflict. Let me give you an example first in Romans 8. In Romans 8, the Apostle Paul invites us to consider the logic of the gospel. And maybe you remember that chapter very famously, he ends it with just one question, one rhetorical question after another.
It's in the context in which he says in Romans 8 verse 35, we may face tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword. These are all, he says, various kinds of troubles and hardships we may face. And then we can't escape if we believe the gospel. But we can, he says in Romans 8, be confident that no one and nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now, how can we be confident? No one and nothing can separate us from the love of God when he's just described all these terribly difficult and painful things we might go through. And Paul says, reason it out, think it through verse 31 of Romans 8, if God is for us, who can be against us? Yeah, obviously there's no one.
I mean, nobody's bigger than God and God is for us. He's on our side. Well, how can I be sure God is for me? We might ask ourselves.
Well, he answers that verse 32, he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. Well, he might also along with him graciously give us all things. You see, if the writer, the Apostle Paul is saying, if God has already given his most precious possession, his own beloved son for us, then he's not as it were hiding some other good gift behind his back and playing hide and seek with it or keeping it from us. If he thinks it's something we need that's both wise and good, we'll have it.
And we'll either have it right now because that's when we need it or we will eventually have it in God's own timing because he gave his own son. He didn't spare his own son. He will graciously give us all things. But then you can hear the objection.
I mean, Christian's hearts object. But what about my record of sin? I mean, I'm guilty. I don't deserve good things from God.
I deserve judgment. Well, yes, I do. I don't have to deny that because Paul goes on in verse 33, who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies, he says, that is no charge can stick against you because it is God, the sovereign judge who declares you not guilty and who declares you right before his own holy law.
Yes, you are guilty of sin, but God has justified you. So who is to condemn? He asks verse 34. No one, if God doesn't condemn you, no one else can condemn you.
I mean, the devil may accuse you and he is the accuser of the brethren. And when he accuses you, and even in that final day, he may be standing there and saying, but that one, you know what they did. And he may have the whole laundry list of all the terrible things you did and all the good things that you didn't do that you should have done. And he may be right.
Some of them, you know, he'll be twisting and he'll be lying and some accusations aren't true. Some are certainly true, but who is to condemn? After all, says the apostle, verse 34, Christ Jesus is the one who died. What's he saying?
You deserve death and your Savior died for your sins. Whatever it is my sins deserve. Jesus stepped in as a substitute and took the death, the judgment, the wrath of God, even the hell that I deserve. But more than that, he says.
You see how he's reasoning this out, but more than that, it's that, but it's also this, says the apostle Paul, Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who's at the right hand of God, who indeed is interseting for us. So he isn't a dead Savior. He's a living Savior.
He's resurrected from the dead. He's ascended into heaven. He is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high in the place of all power and authority. And nobody can undo what he has done.
Nobody has the power or authority to undo what he has done. And more than that, what's he doing at that right hand? He's not opposing us. He's helping us.
He's not against us. He's for us. He always lives to intercede on our behalf. And so if you see how the apostle Paul reasons out in the logic of the gospel, that's how he can arrive at his conclusion at the end of Romans 8, exalting for I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things future, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, or anything else in all of creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
And so we can endure tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword with a faith that reasons under the logic of the gospel. And all of this good news is grounded upon what? It's grounded upon the fact of God offering up his son, his only unique son whom he loves as a substitute for us. And this is the last thing I want you to think about as you contemplate this story.
This episode, A Top Mount Moriah, is a picture of God's provision of another sacrifice that true sacrifice and the Lamb of God. And it's a striking fact of providential history that it's a top Mount Moriah that God provides the substitutionary sacrifice to take the place of Isaac. There's only one other place in the Bible that's explicitly mentioned by named Mount Moriah. And it's in 2 Chronicles, chapter 3, verse 1, where we learn that Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had previously appeared to David his father at the place that David had appointed on the threshold floor of Ornand the Jebusite.
What happened was it was on Mount Moriah that the angel of death that had been sent by God against Jerusalem was withheld by the divine command. It was an angel of death that was sent because of David's sin. And it was there on Mount Moriah on the threshing floor of Ornand the Jebusite that David offered up and offering of thanksgiving to God for sparing the people of Jerusalem. And it is there on the threshing floor of Ornand that Solomon built the temple, where tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions were offered to God in substitute for sinners.
And it is Mount Moriah where Jerusalem is where Jesus appears as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so I just say to us all, we may scratch our head of puzzle in our heart at the providence of God in our lives. And we may wonder what in the world is God doing when he has made me such great and precious promises. Or we may wonder if God's commands to us and consider that obedience to them, we imagine won't be helpful but be hurtful, even to ourselves.
And so why would God command them when he has made us such great and precious promises? But what we must do is reason and reason not from our circumstances to the love of God, because sometimes our circumstances appear to suggest that he doesn't love us, but we must reason the other direction. We must reason from the cross to our circumstances to have the confidence that he does love us because he did not spare his own beloved son that he might ultimately spare us. His love is cross shaped.
Let it dominate your thinking about how he thinks about you. Let's pray. Father, thank you. Because you loved us, you set your son and Jesus, you loved us and gave yourself for us and we pray for your help by the Spirit to remember that in the dark places of life.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you for everything.