We are in the book of Hebrews,
chapter 11, and we've really slowed down, haven't we? I mean,
we've kind of breezed through some areas of the scripture.
Other areas, you've got to slow down and smell the roses. Brother
Brad Ward brought a message last week from Yuba Sutter Fellowship. Brother Rick was over there in
Arkansas at Darwin Pruitt's conference, preaching over there. So Brother
Brad brought a message, and he really brought a good message. A message that glorifies God,
declaring the words of our Lord on the road to Emmaus. And that's
what the Lord did on that road, is He expounded. He taught. He taught the disciples. That's
what we're looking for this time. more about him, more about Jesus. And we're going to look at this
morning about learning through trials. We're in chapter 11 of
Hebrews, and we're going to look specifically at verse 17 through
19, but before we do that, I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter
5. It says, Though he were a son, yet learned he, now this is speaking
of Christ, yet learned which was true of our Redeemer
when He walked upon this earth as a man, is true of us as well. If it's good enough for our Master,
it ought to be good enough for us, shouldn't it? If we are the
children of God, as long as we live in this body of flesh, we
will be required to learn obedience. And we learn obedience by the
things which we suffer by the hand of God's wise and good providence. Let me ask you this, when Peter
was walking on the water, Now, our Lord knows all things, that
he's the first purpose of all things, is he not? He's sovereign
ruler of all that is, is he not? So when Peter was walking on
that water, just like Jonah, when he ran from God, when God
allowed Jonah to run from God and run down to Tarshish and
get on a ship and go out, that was the purpose of God, wasn't
it? It was so that Jonah would learn the lesson, the obedience,
that he would have to go through this trial. The obedience of
salvation is of the Lord. Well, just in that same way,
Peter, when he was walking on the water, took his eyes off
of Christ and began to see the world around him, which was a
storm at the time. It was waves that began to raise
up and become boisterous. That's a picture of our sin.
That's a picture of this flesh. And yet it was our Lord's purpose
that Peter would begin to sink so that he would become obedient
to Christ. And what is our obedience? It's
looking to Christ for all things, looking to our Savior, especially
in the time of need. Not just in the time of need
though, but also in the time of peace and fulfillment and
all of those things that we can be thankful for. And we're going
to talk, our fellowship dinner is the Thanksgiving theme. And
we're going to talk a little bit more of that. Christ went through and what
we go through as well. Now I want you to turn over to
Genesis chapter 22. We're going to read the setup
here before we look at Hebrews 11 and see the writings of the
Old Testament and how the Lord sets this up. Genesis 22 beginning
at verse 1. And it came to pass after these
things that God did What this means, what the word
tempt means here is he tries him, he's testing him. He tempts
him, he tests him, and said unto him, Abraham, and he said, behold,
here I am. And he said, take now thy son,
verse 2, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee
into the land. burnt offering upon one of the
mountains which I will tell thee of." Now, Abraham had been promised. Abraham had been promised a son,
and although he didn't wait for the Lord's promise to come to,
he slept with Sarah's handmaiden and had another son called Ishmael. But even from that time on, Ishmael
was not known as the son of Abraham. Isaac was. Isaac was always that
one. So the promise of God that he
would have a son, he had one. He finally had Isaac. The promise
was finally fulfilled when he and Sarah were way past their
age. So here the Lord tells him now, now that I've given you
this promise, I want you to take this promise of mine that I've
given to you up to one of the mountains, which I will tell
thee of, and prepare him for a burnt offering. Verse three,
you know, Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his
ass and took two of his young men with him. and Isaac his son,
and claimed the wood, and the burnt offering, and rose up,
and went into the place where the God had told him." So you
notice here in verse 3, he didn't hesitate. God spoke to him. God made it clear to him that
this was what he was to do, and he did not hesitate. Verse 4,
Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the
place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young
men, Abide ye here, with the ass, and I and the lad will go
yonder and worship, and notice these last words here in this
verse five, and come again unto you. You see, the promise of
Abraham wasn't just to have a child, but it was that the seed, there
would be a seed through the loins of his son, that a Messiah would
come, a deliverer would come, and Abraham knew that God's word
was true. He knew just like you and I do.
How do we know that the Word of God is true? By the gift of
God the Father. That's how. And that's the only
way. If it weren't for the gift of
God, for the grace of God, you and I would be walking through
this world just as we did before He came to us, going about doing
everything the way we thought we should doing it. Doing it
our own way, what we thought was right in our own mind. But
God would not allow Peter to sink in that water. He reached
down because he had loved him with an everlasting love, just
as he loves each and every one of us, and took ahold of his
arm. Here he says to Abraham, and
Abraham says to his young men, and come again to you. Verse 6, and Abraham took the
wood, the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son and
he took the fire in his hand and the knife and they went both
of them together and Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said
my father and he said here am I here am I my son and he said
behold the fire and the wood but where is the lamb for a burnt
offering And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself
a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went, both of them together,
and they came to the place which God had told him of. And Abraham
built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac
his son and laid him upon the altar after the wood. And Abraham
stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said,
Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here am I. And he
said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything
unto him. For now I know that thou fearest
God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket
by his thorns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And Abraham called the name of
that place Jehovah-Jireh, which means the Lord provided. As it
is said to this day in the mount of the Lord, it shall be seen.
Now I'd like you to turn over to Hebrews chapter 11 and let's
begin at verse 17. We've seen here the Old Testament
record The Lord commanded Abraham to take his son, and Abraham
did, and he did so standing on the promises. Isn't that what
we do? We stand on the promises of God. For all things. Everything. We stand on His promises. Look
at verse 17 of Hebrews 11. It says, By faith Abraham, when
he was tried... Now that's what this is talking
about. That's what that was talking about. When he was tried by sending
his son. It didn't matter. He still took
the promises of God, and because he believed God, he believed
God would deliver all that he said he would, including the
seed. And the only way he could have
done that, if Abraham would have killed his son, would be to raise
him from the dead. So he believed God could do that. And he that
had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. Now, Brother Don Fortner wrote
this about that verse. He said, the life of a believer
is a series of trials by which his faith is tested, proved,
and strengthened. Isn't that true? Jonah, through
the trials that God had given him to be swallowed of the whale
and die in the belly of the whale, in the whale's belly, and to
be raised again and deposited on dry land, he learned He was
strengthened to go into Nineveh and preach salvation is of the
Lord. Don goes on to say character
is developed by discipline and God will develop the character
of his saints. It appears that frequently there
is one great trial of faith for which all other trials seem to
be Preparatory, certainly that was the case with Abraham and
the great trial of his faith described in these verses. It
says, by faith, Abraham, when he was tried, God's will is the
rule of justice and goodness, and whatever he requires is just
and good, is it not? We dare not attempt to call the
Almighty to explain His ways. He gives no account to us of
His matters. His command to Abraham to offer
up his son Isaac may be confusing to some. Men may use it to blaspheme
His name, but the Lord our God is the Lord of life. He gives
it, He preserves it, and He takes it as He sees fit by whatever
means that He pleases. Folks, each and every one of
us have the day marked already of when we will leave this world.
And the means by which we will leave this world, everything,
and every bit of it, will do this. It'll glorify our Savior. It says that he offered up Isaac. Abraham showed no reluctance
to that at all. As soon as he had received God's
command, he traveled three days to the place of sacrifice. He
took the wood for the burnt offering. He laid it on his son. He took
fire and he carried the knife in his hand to slay his son.
He built the altar. He laid the wood on it in order.
And he bound his son up and laid him on that altar before the
Lord. He took the knife, stretched it forth with his hand, To slay
his darling son, you could say he fully intended to kill him,
his only son, upon that mount of sacrifice. In fact, God declares
that he actually did. He says he offered up Isaac. That means he actually was prepared
to kill his son in his own mind. He was ready to do it because
his heart In his heart, the deed was already done. For this, he
is held before you and I as a great example of faith along with all
the rest that we see here, this cloud of witnesses in the chapter
11. Over in chapter 12, verse 1,
it says, Wherefore, seeing we are also compassed about, so
great a cloud of witnesses. Abraham here is in that cloud
along with all these others the Lord has listed with him. He's
held before us as an example of faith. Had God not stopped
him, Abraham would have killed his son by faith. He believed
God, that's why he he trusted the wisdom of God
and his God's command. Believing God, he was fully assured
of the truth and the faithfulness of the Lord's promises. No matter
how his providence and commands might seem to contradict them,
we know that God will fulfill all that he has promised. And
so did Abraham. Moreover, Abraham was fully persuaded
that God would, one way or another, fulfill his promises, either
by raising Isaac from the dead and saving his people through
that Savior, who is to come through Isaac's loins. Folks, this is
great faith indeed. Being great faith, it's greatly
tried, though. It says next, and he that received
the promises offered up his only begotten Son. The Lord promised
Abraham that he would have a son, that a great multitude would
be born of him, a people would inherit the land of Canaan through
him, a people would inherit the earth, and the promise of God
to Abraham was the Messiah himself. The woman seed, the Christ, the
Redeemer, would come into the world through his son Isaac.
And we know this because the Holy Spirit calls our attention
to it specifically here in verses 18 and 19 of our text. Look with me if you would. Of
whom it is said, now this is his only begotten son, Abraham's,
not God Almighty's, but Abraham's begotten son, the one of the
promises, of whom it is 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 in a figure. Now, commenting on these words,
John Gill wrote this. He said, Abraham did not go to
the place of sacrifice without thought. He was a wise man. He
put some thought into that. He had to think about, well,
I'm not saying he took a lot of time about it, but I'm saying
he did. And John Gill is saying as well, he thought about it.
He considered this for a moment. He stopped maybe for a second
and thought, okay, the Lord wants me to sacrifice my son. Okay,
well, he's also promised me this. I'll stand on that." Yet he did
not consult with flesh and blood. Did he go and talk to those around
him? No. His reasoning was the reasoning
of faith. I believe, therefore I will do.
And the conclusion of it was that God was able. Isn't that
what we conclude? There's a big thing gonna happen
here in two days. In two days from now, this country
is gonna be able to make a decision on who's gonna lead our country.
That's a pretty big deal. Yet you and I stand here today,
and this is exactly what Roger said to me this morning. He says,
well, whatever the Lord's got for us, we'll accept it. That's
exactly right. Amen, Roger. Because we know
that God is able to raise whomever he wants to. just as Abraham
knew that God was able to raise his son from the dead, he knew
that he had received him at first, he was there from the dead, he
sprung from his own dead body and out of Sarah's dead womb,
and though his faith did not prescribe to God, yet he believed
that God would raise his son from the dead, rather than that
his promise should fail. And this conclusion proceeded
upon the power and the faithfulness of God. Closes there with these
words in Hebrews 11 verse 19, from whence also he received
him in a figure. Abraham received Isaac as one
raised from the dead already in a figure, in a picture, for
that purpose of teaching you and I. about faith. Turn over
to Romans chapter 4 verse 12. And the father of circumcision
to them who are not of the circumcision only but who also walk in the
steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he had, being yet
uncircumcised." Do we walk in the same faith as Abraham, our
father? Folks, we walk by faith, not
by sight. That's 2 Corinthians 5, verse
7. So look with me, if you would,
one more verse, back in Hebrews 11. Let's look at verse 1 once
again. Now, faith is the substance. the assurance of things hoped
for. We believe. Everything that I
do as I walk through this valley, the shadow of death, I can say
this, I believe God's Word. When I have a brother come to
me and say, brother, I just don't know if I'm saved, I don't know
if I'm one for whom God loves, I ask him this question, do you
believe? Do you truly believe that Jesus
Christ is God Almighty in the flesh? Do you truly believe that
Jesus Christ saved His people by His own precious blood? Do
you truly believe that Christ is sitting on His throne this
day? We walk by faith, not by sight. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Amen.