The Faith of Abraham

Introduction

I would venture to say that most of us have a bias when it comes to the era that we grew up in. I know I do. I grew up in the best of times. I grew up before the internet and before video games or smartphones. We had four channels on our television. We had a party line, telephone. And so my entertainment was largely self-made. And was largely outdoors, because that’s where my mother, who was indoors, wanted me to be.

Crossing who knows how many property lines and just go traipsing through the woods, through the creeks and up the mountain and down a mountain, find an old abandoned barn and climb up in it and jump out of it. But I had a friend who for a part of his life lived in the city. When I’d go visit him, those were very different adventures. Because when we would leave his house, because his mother kicked us out as well, we would walk on sidewalks and paved roads, street lights, very different adventures. And I remember one particular time being out of my element, the country mouse now in the city, that we were walking, and it was getting kind of dusky, dark a little bit, and there was what we called a tunnel, some kind of culvert that went under the road, and it was kind of a long dark tunnel that was made out of concrete.

And we started walking through this dark to these young boys’ ominous looking tunnel. And it had rained recently, and so there was a layer of water, probably about an eighth of an inch of water on this concrete surface. But in the dark to two young boys, that eighth of an inch of water could have been 20 feet deep. And so we didn’t know whether we wanted to just start walking across.

But we walked across treacherously that first time, poking right where we were going to step and easily walking through. And so we went on the rest of our adventure through the city, and it started getting a little too dark, and so we thought we better get back home. And so we came back the same way we came, and we came back to that same dark wet tunnel. And I know what you’re thinking, but we didn’t use the stick the next time. We ran through, confident that we weren’t going to drown in that eighth of an inch of water. You know, faith is important. Faith that the ground underneath is not going to give way and that you can safely make it through. And you might say, well, now, Ken, that wasn’t faith.

That was you poked the ground, you knew. But remember, the Hebrew writer tells us that faith is the evidence of things not seen. And I like to liken the way, the two different ways we walked through that tunnel to the two different ways of people going through life. Those who have no faith, no understanding and belief of what the future, the eternal future holds, are like those two boys with a stick, scarily poking the ground to see if it’s going to hold up. But those children of God who have true faith in God who holds the future are more like those two boys who ran through that dark tunnel, knowing that all was well.

And so I want to talk to you about faith this morning, and not just abstractly on the subject of faith, but I want to talk to you about the man we read about in our Bible reading this morning, Abraham. If Ned would have read further in that text, he got to verse 11, where it states of that man Abraham, that he is the father of all who believe. That’s not just because, in a way, we can trace Judaism and Christianity back to this man Abraham and the promises that God made to him. But more in a conceptual, philosophical way. Abraham is the father of all who believe. Because Abraham stands in Scripture as the grand example of faith, of what it means to have faith in God.

1. Not a Blind Faith, Based on What God Revealed

And so, if you’re to have that kind of faith as a Christian, you’re to model the faith of Abraham. And so let’s talk about Abraham, this well-known character, and let’s talk about his faith and see what kind of faith he had, because that’s the kind of faith that we as his children are to have. One thing we notice about his faith is that his faith was not a blind faith, and it was not a faith that he based upon himself, that it was a faith based upon what God had revealed to him. Turn with me, if you will, to the book of Acts. We’re going to start in the New Testament, talking about this Old Testament character, Abraham. Stephen gives us kind of the reader’s digest version of the Old Testament in Acts chapter 7.

And in so doing, he has to include the story of the father of the faithful, Abraham. And notice what he says. Let’s start in Acts chapter 7, in verse 2. He, that’s Stephen, said, Brethren and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, Get out of your country and from your relatives and come to a land that I will show you. Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, he moved him to a land in which you now dwell.

So Abraham’s faith was based on something, and it was based upon the revelation of God. Abraham heard God speak, and his faith was based on that. We have that in common with Abraham. We can say today, God spoke to me. Now we don’t mean it in the exact same way that Abraham could have made that statement. God hasn’t spoken to us audibly in the sense that he did to Abraham. But God has spoken to each and every one of us through his word. And our faith is to be based upon that revealed word of God. You remember the familiar words of Romans chapter 10 and in verse 17 that says, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. See, our faith is based upon what God has said to us, and by the way, it’s based upon nothing else but that.

And largely it seems to be based upon nothing other than emotion. What I want it to be. We need to understand that Scripture teaches us what life has taught us, and that is that our feelings and our emotions are too unstable and unreliable to be dependent on. What you feel may be right. But what you feel may be just as wrong as can be. Several years ago, the campus of Florida College, the first day as students moved in, I spotted a girl from Kansas. And I quickly realized, or my emotions told me that she’s the one. Several years later, I spotted a car. And my feelings told me that car is the one. One of those turned out to be a lemon. It was the car.

We owned that car for eight months. Five of those eight months, it was in the shop. It was horrible. But I thought it was a good investment. I felt that it was going to be a great, reliable car for us and our family. You see how your feelings and your emotions can be? Sometimes they can be dead right. But sometimes they can be just as wrong. Do I want to base my eternity, my soul’s eternity, on something as unstable and unreliable as my feelings? The Proverb writer put it this way in Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 12. There’s a way that seems right unto a man. But the end thereof are the ways of death. So if our faith is to be like Abraham, it’s going to be based upon something real and stable and dependable, like the revealed word of God.

2. An Obedient Faith

Another thing we notice when we look at Abraham’s life is that Abraham’s faith was an obedient faith. Turn with me now. Stay in the New Testament. Isn’t it interesting that we’re talking so much about an old testament character, but we read so much about him in the New Testament. And there’s a reason. Again, in Hebrews chapter 11, we realize that this old testament man is held up as an example of how we’re to live our New Testament lives of faith. Look in Hebrews chapter 11, and let’s begin reading in verse 8. And notice the theme about Abraham’s faith. By faith, Abraham, Hebrews 11 and verse 8 says, obeyed. When he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

By faith, he dwelt in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs of him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed. And she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged him faithful, who had promised. Therefore, from one man and him as good as dead. They were born as many as the stars of the sky in a multitude, innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. These all died in faith. Skip down to verse 17. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And when he’d received the promises, offered up his only begotten son.

Do you see the recurring theme in this section about faith and this subsection about Abraham, the father of the faithful? It says over and over again about what Abraham did because of his faith.

Abraham didn’t have to understand why. Why just a mental acknowledgement wasn’t enough. Abraham didn’t understand to understand why God wanted him to do stuff rather than just say stuff. I don’t have to completely understand.

How can I be saved by faith? And at the same time be saved by grace. And at the same time be required to do certain things in obedience to God. How are those reconciled? Doesn’t one wipe out the other? Doesn’t one negate the other? But yet the scriptures all say faith, grace, and obedience. I believe those can easily in our minds be reconciled as we look at these stories. But my ability to understand and reconcile those things aren’t, I don’t believe, necessarily required. I’ve said it before and again, I’ll say it this morning. God did not call us to be theologians. He called us to be disciples. And I don’t have to understand.

I just have to do what God said. By faith, by grace, I’ll obey what he said. How does God make all those things reconcile? How does God make that work? That’s God’s end of the stick. Again, I think I can understand those and explain those and see those lived out in the lives of Abraham and others in the scriptures. But God just simply said, do what I say. Believe me and do what I say. Isn’t that kind of what Abraham did? Abraham obeyed. And that’s what faith will do for his followers today.

3. He Put His Trust in God

When we look at the faith of Abraham, we see it was an obedient faith, but we also see that he put his trust in God. This may be a somewhat neglected aspect of faith in our studies. We talk about faith being the mental acknowledgement that God is, that we believe that there is a God, that he is eternal, that he spoke and the world came into existence. We believe that he sent his only begotten son, that in the first century there really walked this earth a man by the name of Jesus. And he wasn’t just a man, that he was God in the flesh, and that his death wasn’t just a death, but it was a redemptive death for the sins of mankind. So we talk about that mental assent to those facts.

We talk about the obedience aspect of faith that Abraham and all of God’s followers, by the way, exhibited. But do we really think about the idea of how faith involves trust? That we trust God. That we trust that God’s way is best. That when it comes to how he tells me to live my life, to be the type of man and Christian and husband and father and citizen that I trust that his way is the best way. Do I trust that he has my best interest at heart? And though there may be times in my life where I cannot see that readily. And I may be challenged to doubt whether or not God really loves me and is seeking my best. But do I trust that he’s my father and he will care for me?

Do I trust that in this messy middle that I’ve read the last chapter of the book and I know how this story ends. Faith involves trust. And Abraham trusted God.

And now of all things, God says, give him back.

4. Abraham’s Faith Grew

But Abraham trusted in God. He trusted, though I don’t see what God is doing here. I don’t see how this is a part of his plan. I don’t see how this is the best interest of me and my family, but I trust God. And I must ask myself here in the 21st century, do I trust God? Do I have the faith of Abraham? Another thing we observe about the profound example of Abraham’s faith is that Abraham’s faith grew. We like to think of Abraham as that old man, Abraham, as the father of the faithful. But let’s not forget, before he was Abraham, he was Abram. And then his name changed, his faith changed. His faith grew. We could go back to the Genesis record and we could list some times in which Abraham exhibited some doubt.

When he exhibited doubt in regard to Hagar and trying to help God along in his plan. He didn’t have any children, and he and Sarah couldn’t have any children. And so let’s come up with plan B. We’ll help God with this, seemingly to be the thought of Abraham and Sarah. There was some doubt when God said, no, you and Sarah, what did the Hebrew writer say, as good as dead, are going to have a child. There was some doubt there.

There was some doubt when he went into foreign lands about how to deal with his wife Sarah. And so he concocted a lie what to tell the people. But Abraham’s faith, though it might at times have been mixed with a little bit of doubt, it never fully gave way. And it grew.

And there’s a lesson for you and I to be people of the word. That’s how our faith is built and how it will grow. We could argue that his faith grew the more he obeyed, the more his faith grew, the more he trusted in God. It’s kind of this self-replicating being our faith. The more we dive into it, the greater it becomes.

We don’t have time to dig deep into this story, but we have a man in John chapter 9, the blind man who dominates this chapter, this story, who I think exhibited the faith of Abraham. His faith was based upon revelation. It was a trusting faith, and it’s a faith that grew.

Come to find out he had been blind his entire life. We don’t know how old this man was, but later his parents will say he’s old enough to speak for himself. So that gives us a little idea, maybe of his maturity and maybe somewhat of an age range. And he comes to Jesus, and remember the story? Jesus, this is the man that Jesus made the clay out of spittle and dirt and rubbed it in his eyes and told the man to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. And he went and washed, and he could see.

And so they called the man’s parents and they reasoned with this blind man. We don’t know what happened here, how you found out your sight, but we don’t like Jesus, and so what happened? And they’re questioning him and they’re reasoning with him. I want you to notice in John chapter 9 the three statements the blind man makes about the one who healed him. In John chapter 9, verse 11, the Pharisees had asked him, How were your eyes opened? And he said, verse 11, a man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and I received Sai. It’s not a grand statement of faith, is it? A man called Jesus.

I know the man’s name, and I know what he did. Well, they argue, he argues. Some time has passed, and some logic has been employed. Verse 16 says, Therefore, some of the Pharisees says, This man, speaking of Jesus, is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath. Others say, How can a man who is a sinner do such signs? And there was a division among them. So there was some more thought given to this. Now notice in verse 17, they said to the blind man again, What do you say about him? Because he opened your eyes, and he said, He is a prophet. The first thing he said is, All I know is his name. A man called Jesus. He put some mud in my eyes, he told me to wash, I did, and I can see.

That means something. He steps it up a little, doesn’t he? He doesn’t say a man called Jesus. He says, He’s a prophet. Which was shorthand for saying he’s from God. Only God could do those things. Well now, Jesus finds the blind man. Skip down in our text. Verse 35, Jesus heard that they had cast him out. And when he had found him, he said to him, Do you believe in the Son of God? And he says, Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? And he answered and said, You have both seen him, and it is he who is talking with you. Then he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. You see the progression of this man’s faith. His first statement was a man called Jesus made some mud and put it in my eyes.

And I can see.

We would say it’s a rapidly growing faith, but it’s a growing faith because he is presented with further and further evidence of who this man called Jesus is. And he’s forced to deal with that evidence. And it leads him through these progressions of statements that ends up with him worshiping the Son of God. Abraham’s life was a life of that progressive growing faith. The life of the faithful, enduring Christian, is going to be a life of studying the Word of God, growing in our knowledge and being faced with challenges like this man faced in John chapter 9, with questioning, like this man faced, but with further revelation and evidence.

Conclusion

And when we do properly, our faith will grow. So I guess the question is, how do you want to walk through life? Trepidatiously poking the ground in front of you with a stick in fear that it’s all going to cave in. Or do you want to run through even the darkness? Confidently. Boldly running forward, facing the future. With faith. Would you be presented with the evidence as Abraham, with the revelation as Abraham was, and as the evidence of this blind man in John 9 was? And will you move, will you act upon that faith? Would you become his disciple this morning? And say, I want to walk through life with faith. With the confidence of where I am going and who is in control of my life.

Did you become a Christian this morning? Would you become a child of Abraham and more importantly, a child of God by stepping out and walking by faith? Can we help you in that this morning? Can we help you in any way this morning? Let it be known as together we stand and as we sing. World where this is a very good question.