This morning we looked at the
shield of faith that the Christian soldier is given to enable him
to resist the fiery darts of Satan and to look beyond the
visible world into the invisible world and as Moses is said he
saw the him who was invisible, he endured as seeing him who
is invisible and so he saw that faith enable someone to lay hold
of the truths of the Word of God, to see God and to see Christ
and to see salvation and to see the Holy Spirit and to have a
glimpse into heaven itself. And so we're enabled to view
by faith these things and to resist the arrows that Satan
fires of doubt and unbelief and temptation. and deceit to resist
him by focusing on the precious promises of the Holy Word, the
precious promises of God. And so faith gives us that ability
to look beyond and to see things that are out of sight, to see
what we saw as faith is the substance of things hoped for. and the
evidence of things not seen. Faith brings a reality to the
invisible world and Abraham was a man just like you and I. Although he lived thousands of
years ago yet he was just a normal person living a normal life in
the darkness of this world, worshipping idols, living as he wanted to
live and yet the Lord spoke to him and called him out of that
darkness and called him out of his its surroundings and sent
him on a journey to the promised land, to a land that he had never
been to before, to a place that he didn't know. And the scripture
tells us that he went out not knowing, but he believed God
and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. And so the
chapter that we read together has that calling of Abraham. We read in the chapter before
that he lived in the land of Ur of the Chaldeans with his
wife Sarah or Sarai who was unable to have any children and he is
called by God and he leaves that land with his father and with
Lot and they make that journey across the desert, across the
wilderness to the promised land. God gives him a promise. Get thee out of thy country and
from thy kindred or from thy family and from thy father's
house unto a land that I will show thee. And so he heard whether
it was an audible voice that God spoke to him by or whether
it was in his mind. The scripture doesn't tell us
but however it was that God spoke to Abraham. and he used his word
and his word had an effect upon Abraham and he was given living
faith to obey, he responded by faith, he responded in obedience. In verse 4 it says, So Abraham
departed as the Lord had spoken to him. And as I've said many
times it's very easy isn't it just to skim over these things
that he got up and went and we removed from him all human aspect,
his family ties, his house, his place that he had grown up in.
And as the scripture says, he got up and went. No doubt there
is that human aspect to his leaving, his departure. Everything that
he had known, everything that he had grown up in, God calls
him to walk away from. The idols that had been surrounding
him, the gods that he had worshipped, he is called to get up and to
go, to leave all and to follow the Lord Jesus, to follow God.
He was, we can say, converted. as is with all conversion God
calls a person. He moves them from that broad
road that leads to destruction. He moves them from all that they
have known, the hardness of heart and he gives them eyes to see
and a heart to respond. He gives them that faith to be
obedient. They are born again and they
are sent out on a journey with God. Every believer is called
to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and they don't know once they
begin that journey where that journey is going to take them
but they know their final destination is in heaven but how they are
going to get there and the pathway with which the Lord is going
to lead them is a mystery. They have to walk by faith in
obedience to God. And as Abraham, he knew of the
final destination, a place that he had never been before. But
how he was going to get there, he had to follow the Lord on
this journey. And we read that he left all
that he knew and he dwelt in tents in the wilderness. Hebrews 11 verse 9 it says, by
faith he sojourned in the promised land or he stayed in the promised
land as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles or tents
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
And so he became a man who was at a settled place to a man that
was on a journey, a traveller. didn't have any specific home
of his own. He dwelt in tents, moving from
place to place, grazing his cattle, and his family grew, his livestock
grew, and the Lord prospered him in that journey. The scripture
tells us he had no real concern for this world because he looked
for a city that was out of sight. His mindset, although God blessed
him and prospered him here in this world, his mind was on that
ultimate final destination. They were strangers and pilgrims
on the earth. And those that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly if they
had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they
might have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a
better country, that is a heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. And so Abraham, he could have
turned round and he could have gone back, but he continued following
the Lord, walking in faith, walking in obedience, having his mind
on that ultimate destination, which is heaven at last. and
he was going to a land that he didn't know. And so every Christian,
every true believer is on that journey. They are taken from
being citizens of this world to being citizens of a heavenly
kingdom. They are travellers passing through
this world. Yes God may prosper them, God
may cause them to have many material things, they may do well as it
were in this life but their ultimate destination is not here. They
are strangers and pilgrims on the earth, walking to a heavenly
kingdom. They are citizens of the kingdom
of God. They are children of the great
king of kings, and they are going on their way to meet him. And on that journey that they
are on, they do pass through much trouble and much difficulty,
much opposition, but they persevere. looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ,
walking in faith and obedience to him, looking and running that
race that is set before them, just like Abraham as he went
out, not knowing where he went but trusting that God who had
called him would guide him and direct him to where he would
have him to go. David also has that similar mindset
doesn't he where he says the Lord is my shepherd I shall not
want. He understood that God was going
before him and he as a sheep of the Lord followed closely
behind. He understood that all that the
good shepherd would do to him would be for his good and benefit
and he would bring him at last to those green pastures and those
still waters. And so Abraham, a man just like
you and I, was called to leave his place of upbringing, all that
he had known, leave his friends and to go to a place that he
didn't know because God called him to do so. The Scriptures
just tell us don't they that those who are in Christ are brought. Do not know you are bought with
a price that we belong to the Lord Jesus. We are his sheep. We are walking on his road that
leads to heaven at last. And so Abraham when God called
him He gave him eyes of faith and that desire then to follow
and he obeyed. God called him by his word and
he was obedient to that call. In Exodus we have Pharaoh. Exodus chapter 5. As God speaks
to Moses, Moses is told to go to Pharaoh and to say that the
Lord, the God of Israel says, let my people go. And Pharaoh's
response is, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice
to let Israel go? I know not the Lord. neither
will I let Israel go.' Pharaoh is called by God to let the people
of Israel go yet he doesn't respond in the same way as Abraham. Abraham packs up his things tells
his family the Lord has spoken to me and we are going to a place
that we don't know and the Lord has promised that when we get
there we are going to be blessed and we will become a great people. Abraham obeys the Lord. The Lord speaks to Pharaoh. Pharaoh
says who is the Lord that I should obey him. And so there is obedience
and there is disobedience. And even today, the Lord speaks. He speaks through his word. As the reading of the scriptures,
as the scriptures are read, it is God speaking. It is his word
going forth. And that there are those that
hear and those that obey. And there are those who say,
who is the Lord? that I should obey him. I don't
know the Lord, neither will I be obedient unto him. And yet there
are those who are given those ears that hear and hearts to
respond to the reading and to the preaching of the word of
God. They obey and they follow and
they continue to follow. In Samuel you will remember Saul. Saul had been given specific
commandments to wait for the prophet in 1 Samuel 15. But he
was to destroy the city of the Amalekites and he was not to
take any spoil for himself. And Samuel gives him a rebuke. in verse 22 and Samuel says,
Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better
than sacrifice and to hearken or to listen than the fat of
rams. For rebellion is as the sin of
witchcraft and stubbornness is an iniquity and idolatry. Because thou has rejected the
word of the Lord, he also has rejected thee from being king. And so Samuel comes as a prophet
of the Lord to speak to the king and to declare to him that what
you have done is not right. You may have set aside some animals
for sacrifice. You may have made excuse for
what you have done. But God is not interested. What
he is interested in is you being obedient. He says obedience is
better than anything that you can give me. He has called you
to obey. And he says if you don't obey,
then you are a rebel. A rebel is someone who does not
obey, who disobeys the voice of the Lord or disobeys the voice
of authority. And he says disobedience and
rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity
and idolatry. And so with Abraham his heart
had been softened and he obeyed the voice of God. But Pharaoh
and Saul disobeyed the voice of God. There are so many, aren't
there, who hear the Gospel, hear the reading of the Word of God
and it goes as it were water off a duck's back, has no effect
upon them. They say, who is the Lord that
I should listen to him? Think of Tom Allen yesterday
preaching in the streets of Eastbourne. The Word of God went out. But
how many did it affect? We don't know. We know that the
word of God is our seed cast into the ground and we hope and
pray it bears fruit. But how many would think, say,
who is the Lord that I should obey him? Why should I listen
to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Why would this God have,
why would I want him to have anything to do with me in my
life? And so their hearts are hard.
They're stubborn and rebellious to the truth of the Word of God. Oh to have a softened heart like
Abraham who at cost to himself got up and went, left all that
he knew and went to a place that he didn't know. Jesus also uses similar language
to those who were to follow him. Matthew chapter 16, verse 24. And Jesus said unto his disciples,
if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up
his cross and follow me. But whosoever will save his life
shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake
shall find it. For what is a man profited if
he shall gain the whole world? and lose his own soul. What shall
a man give in exchange for his soul? And so as Abraham got up
and went, having no consideration for what he was leaving behind,
he went forward to follow the Lord. He went from, we can say,
from a house, from a town into a tent but in obedience to God
and God was well pleased with him. And so the followers of
the Lord Jesus Christ, they see their need of the Lord Jesus
and they get up and they go and they take no regard for all that
they are leaving behind. They deny themselves. They lose
sight of their own will. They lose sight of their sin
and they have that focus upon the Lord Jesus Christ. They say
like the Lord Jesus did, not my will but thy will be done. And they take up their cross
and they follow, taking no thought for their own life, for their
life is not theirs anymore. They desire to follow the Lord
Jesus Christ in obedience to him. They understand. that staying
where they are although it may prosper them materially it will
not benefit them one bit in eternity. As Jesus says, what profit shall
it have if a man gain the whole world and lose his own soul? I used to say when we were in
Kenya you know you would speak to people and they would say
no I can't come I can't come to church. I've got to look after
my cows. I've got to look after my goats.
And I used to say, you know, there'll be so many people in
hell because of their goats and because of their cows. And how
many people in England will be in hell because They've washed
their car on a Sunday. They have no concern for their
soul whatsoever. They're so materially minded. These material objects, as we've
said, these counterfeit goods that Satan places in the front
of the eyes of so many people. And they're so focused upon them
that they don't obey the word of God and believe upon the Lord
Jesus Christ and turn from their sins. And so they lose their
soul because of material gain. They look at the objects because
they have no faith to view the invisible, almighty, all-powerful
creator of heaven and earth. And so Abraham obeyed, and every
believer obeys the call of the gospel. They deny themselves.
They walk away from all that they knew, their sin, and they
follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Although Abraham is presented
to us as the father of the faith, yet he was by no means a perfect
man. There is no perfect man in scripture,
only the Lord Jesus Christ. There were those who we can say
did well, like Daniel, who had no sin recorded about him. We
have Joseph who remained faithful in the midst of temptation. But
Abraham was a man just like you and I. He had fears, he had doubts,
and he failed. in times. In the chapter that we read,
he obeys God, he goes forth by faith, but hardness comes as
the famine is in the land and he begins to doubt. He's
set before us as a man strong in the faith. But then when presented
with material, physical suffering, he deviates from the journey
that had been set by God and he goes down into Egypt. And it's there that he begins
to make up a story about his wife, that she is not his wife
but a sister, and the problems that it brings to him. And then
he is chased out of Egypt and he doesn't learn from that sin. In chapter 20, with the Abimelech. He does the
same thing again. In chapter 20 it says, And Abraham
journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelt
between Kaddish and Sir, and journeyed and sojourned near
Garah. And Abraham said unto Sarah his
wife, and Abraham said, Of Sarah his wife, she is my sister. And
Abimelech the king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But the Lord
appeared for him again. And so this great man, Abraham,
is tempted. His faith wavers. He is filled with fear. He deviates
from the journey. But God, who is a loving good
shepherd, restores him and sets him on that right course. and
yet he remains the child of God. We know that he is put through
another test also. In chapter 22, the Lord comes to tempt Abraham and
said unto him, Abraham, and he said, behold, here am I. And
he said, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest. and get thee unto the land of
Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of
the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up
early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his
young men with him. And Isaac his son enclaved the
wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the
place which God told him of." And on that three-day journey,
the emotions that this man of God must have been going through
that human aspect we read that he rose up and he went We can
say that he acted in complete obedience, maybe that he rose
up really early in the morning because he was so obedient to
God. Or we could say that he had such
a troubled night of thinking about all that was going to take
place in the next few days that he couldn't sleep. So he thought,
I'll just get up and get on with this journey and get this thing
over and done with. But the scripture tells us that
he got up and he went and he was obedient to God. He obeyed
the word of God, the voice of God, even to his own, what we would think
of as a loss, a difficulty. We look at, don't we, as we look
through the word of God, that those who follow Christ are not
guaranteed an easy journey. Those who have gone before have
been through much trouble and difficulty. Their journeys have
been difficult yet their faith enabled them to persevere for
they looked for a city that was out of sight whose builder and
maker was God. In chapter 11 of Hebrews verse
17 it says, by faith Abraham when he was tried offered up
Isaac and he that had received the promise offered up his only
begotten son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed
be called accounting that God was able to raise him up even
from the dead from whence also he received him as a figure.
And so here we see Abraham exercising faith in the promises of God. God had promised thy son, thine
only son Isaac, he would be the one to carry on the promise. And so Abraham knew that because
God had said even if I killed this son God would raise him
up again from the dead and here we see the greatness of the faith
of Abraham that he willingly obeyed believing that God could
even raise his son from the dead and we As we read that story
we see that he didn't have to slay his son but God stopped
him and there was that substitutionary ram that was taking place and
it was a type of the perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ
where God on that same mountain range did not spare his own son,
but slew his own son for the sacrifice, the Lamb of God, for
the sacrifice of his people. So Abraham obeyed God. The Lord Jesus Christ was obedient
even unto death. Abraham went out not knowing
where he went. He heard the word of God and
he obeyed and at cost to himself, looked for a city that was out
of sight, whose builder and maker was God. So Abraham obeyed God. Are we obeying God? As Pharaoh listened to the word
of God and disregarded it and said, who is the Lord that I
should obey him? What is the Lord telling us to
do? What has he commanded us to do? Are our hearts hardened
to the voice, his voice, or do we walk in obedience? Is he calling you out like he
called Abraham? Come out from among them and
be separate Is he calling you out from the darkness and you
are resisting, you are hardening your heart to the voice of God? Is he calling you to walk in
obedience to him? Has he called you from the darkness?
Has he put you onto the narrow way that leads to life yet now
you are stubbornly refusing to obey his voice? He is telling
you, follow me. you are saying I can't follow
I will not follow I need this and I need that I need other
confirmations but Abraham he obeyed God he left all and he
walked out into the wilderness in obedience He's calling all believers to
follow him as the good shepherd to the promised land. That is
our final destination. That is where the narrow way
that leads to life finishes up. It is heaven at last. We are called to go. out to a
place that we do not know yet we view it by faith as revealed
to us in the scripture, a place where there is no more tears,
no more sorrow, no more sadness, no more darkness, a place where
we will view the Lord Jesus Christ without faith, view him face
to face. We are called to follow him,
where he leads us Our pathways are individual. He calls some
into the ministry, he calls some into Sunday school work, he calls
some into family life, he calls some into evangelism, he calls
some into missionary work but all believers are called to follow
the Lord Jesus and to be useful as they follow him. Abraham was
promised will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee
and I will make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing.
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses
thee. And in thee shall all the families
of the earth be blessed. And so Abraham departed. And
we know as Abraham departed, the blessing of God went with
him and he became the father of the Jewish nation and ultimately
the father of the faith as we trace the line back through to
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And so what Abraham acted
in faith. You often think of you have a
big pond or a lake and if you drop a big rock into the middle
those waves that are made they go right to every corner of that
lake You know, an act of faith like this act of faith of Abraham,
he obeyed God and the ripples of that, the consequences of
that obedience have had eternal consequences on millions and
millions and millions of people because Abraham obeyed. You and
I, we don't know how God will use us. we do know that if we
listen to his voice and we obey him and we follow him we can
be used as an instrument in his hand and even if the Lord uses
us to speak to one person and that one person is brought into
the sheepfold of the Lord Jesus Christ he has used you to change
the eternal destiny of one soul all because you have obeyed. the voice of God. Abraham went
out not knowing where he went and that is faith. He believed
the word of God. He saw God, the invisible God
and obeyed him and obeyed his word. So may we be given that
desire to obey as Abraham he by faith Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place which he should after receive
for an inheritance, obeyed and he went out not knowing whether
he went. So may we be enabled then to
go out, to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and to trust him that
he knows best and that ultimately our final destination would be
glory with him. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen. Closing hymn of this Lord's Day
is hymn number 167 from Hymns of Worship. Lord, speak to me
that I may speak in living echoes of thy tone. As thou hast sought,
so let me seek thy erring children lost and lone. Hymn number 167
from Hymns of Worship to the tune 435. that I may speak in living echoes
of thy Word. As thou hast so solemnly said,
thy erring children lost and gone, Thy wandering and the wavering
thing, O feed me, Lord, that I may feed Thy hungry ones with
malice free. O strengthen me, that while I
stand firm on the rock and strong in Thee, I may stretch out a
loving hand to restless With thy flawless glow, Until
my very heart of love, In kindred formed and growing whole, Thy
love to tell and raise, Just as thou went, and went,
and went, Until thy blessed face I see. Now may the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship
and the communion of the Holy Spirit, do rest and abide with
us now and forevermore. Amen.