My subject this evening is Abraham
believed God. Abraham believed God. That's what James tells us in
James chapter 2 and verse 23. That's what God the Holy Ghost
tells us in James chapter 2 verse 23. Abraham believed God. How do you know that? How do you know that? Let's read
together James chapter 2 beginning at verse 19. Thou believest that there is
one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified
by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought
with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? By works, faith was fulfilled,
finished, completed, consecrated, brought to maturity, out of his
faith, or out of his works, faith was made perfected. Verse 23,
and the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed
God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Now James
has just told us about something that took place in Genesis chapter
22. But he quotes from Genesis chapter
15 and verse 6, something that took place years before. And
he says, now this scripture, Genesis 15, 26, is fulfilled
by Abraham's sacrifice of his son Isaac upon Mount Moriah. Abraham believed God. and it
was imputed to him for righteousness and he was called the friend
of God. You see then how that by works
a man is justified and not by faith only. I know of no portion
of scripture that has been more confusing to men than the portion
we have just read. I know of no portion about which
commentators are obviously more confused than they are about
what James here declares. What is James talking about?
What does God the Holy Spirit here declare and teach us? What
are the works by which Abraham was justified in his faith? Is James telling us that Abraham
was justified before God by something he did? To say such is to fly
fully in the face of the whole revelation of God. Justification
is by God's free grace alone, accomplished by the doing and
dying of Jesus Christ himself alone, with nothing contributed
by us. It is received by believing God. not by doing something, not by
joining the church, not by baptism, not by good works. Justification
is God's work alone bestowed upon sinners by free grace with
no works, no conditions, no qualifications to be met by us. That's the testimony
of the entire Word of God. It was James telling us that
somehow or another Abraham showed himself to be a godly, godly
man. A man that men looked at and
by his moral character, by his conduct, by his behavior, folks
looked at him and said, wow, what a good man Abraham is. What
a godly man Abraham is. I repeat, nothing could be further
from the truth as revealed in scripture. Godliness cannot be
seen by godless men. Faith cannot be seen by unbelieving
men. Spirituality cannot be observed
by carnal men. Now, I know that papists have
taught forever, papists have taught forever, you preach the
gospel by the way you live, so that you look at somebody and
say, How that lady, what did they call her? I hate to use
the word, Mother Teresa. Oh, look at her. Now you've got
to know she's close to God. You've got to know she's holy.
How could anybody do such things? Make such sacrifices? Be so devoted? You've got, oh, that's godly. work mongers who would never
think about going into a church building where they worship a
statue of Mary or would kiss the Pope's ring. Work mongers
among Baptists and Protestants teach exactly the same thing
when they teach that we preach the gospel by our works. Oh no
you don't. Oh no you don't. You preach the
gospel by preaching the gospel. You preach the gospel by telling
folks the truth. Is James telling us that Abraham
justified his faith before men by works of moral uprightness,
by being a good man and a good neighbor, by paying his bills,
by dressing a certain way, or talking a certain way, or living
in such a way that folks looked at him and said, oh, he's good. No. Oh, no. Oh, no. No, no. Abraham's faith was proved to
be real by his proceeding to act upon it. Look at James chapter
2 again, verse 21. God the Holy Ghost, the almighty
author of inspiration, throughout this book, the whole book of
God, puts this beyond dispute. James 2, 21. Was not Abraham
our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his
son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought
with his works, and by works was made perfect, complete, finished,
consecrated, brought to its end? James here says nothing about
Abraham's character, His outward godliness or his moral conduct. He doesn't say a word about anything
other people saw in Abraham. But rather he directs our attention
to something that Abraham did that nobody was aware of except
God who commanded it and Abraham who did it. Nobody was on the
Mount with Abraham and Isaac. Just Abraham, Isaac, and God. Nobody else was aware of it.
It was by Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac upon Mount Moriah that
Abraham's faith was made to be perfected, not by works of virtue,
morality, and goodness before men, but rather by work of obedience
to God. Turn back to chapter 11 of Hebrews.
Hebrews chapter 11. We see this stated clearly. Hebrews
11, verse 17. By faith, Abraham, when he was
tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises
offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, Abraham
sacrificed this boy, of whom God had 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. God promised Abraham a son, a
son through whom he would send the woman's seed, the Lord Jesus
Christ, into this world to accomplish redemption for his people, to
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. God said, Abraham,
I'm going to give you a boy. And that boy given to you in
your old age is that one through whom the promised Messiah, the
Redeemer, your Savior, shall come in human flesh and put away
your sin by the sacrifice of himself. And Abraham believed
God. And he and Sarah had a boy. And
then, when Isaac was about grown, when he was a strapping, strong,
young man, Abraham received commandment from God. God said, Abraham,
take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and get
to a mountain that I'll tell you about. And there, sacrifice
your son to me for a burnt offering. And Abraham believed God and
did just that. what God told him to do. And
thereby, Abraham's faith was made perfect. And Abraham was
justified in his faith. By this act, James tells us,
that Abraham, our father, was justified by works. By this act,
Abraham proved that his was not a dead faith, the faith of devils,
but a living faith. Living faith. is not lip faith. Living faith is not lip faith. Anybody can talk a good game. Anybody can talk a good game. Living faith is doing faith. Real faith is not doctrine faith. Anybody can state the right doctrine. Real faith is doing faith. Faith is made manifest in our
lives as we walk with God for the just shall live by his faith. The just shall live by his faith. How do you live in this world? I just took a breath of air.
Got to have that to live. I'm going to go home in a little
while and have supper. The Lord willing, Shelby's got something
prepared. And I know it's good because
I had a little bit of it last night. And I'll eat the meat. and the rice and the gravy and
the beans and the biscuits and taking those things in bring
nutrition to my body and live by bread and water. We live in
this world in the flesh by these carnal necessary means. God's saints live in this world
by believing God. They walk through this world
believing God. They eat and drink Jesus Christ
crucified, believing God. And God graciously fixes it so
that we do and we must live by faith. Now let me tell you something. Being a proud man, I want you to think well of me. I want my neighbors to think
well of me. I want my wife and my children
to think well of me. Because I am a proud man. And
that aspect of our nature is something we live with. And it's
right that we should want folks to think well of us. That's fine.
That's fine. Nothing wrong with that. A man who doesn't care
about his name and his reputation doesn't care about anything.
A man who's not careful about those things is not careful about
anything. So please don't misunderstand me. Please don't misunderstand
me. Live right. Live right. But I really can't show you my
faith. And I'm not really interested
in you knowing my faith. That's not what concerns me.
I want God to know my faith. And I want to know my faith in
God. And Don Lanieri, I want you to
have that faith for God to know your faith and you to know your
faith in God. And it's not done That's not
accomplished by Shelby looking at you, boy, he's a nice fella.
Oh, he's so good. He reads his Bible all the time.
He studies all the time, prays all the time. He never does anything
wrong. No, no, no, no. That's not it. That's not it.
From the opening verses of this epistle, James has been talking
to us about trials. The trials of faith. Trials by
which faith grows, increases, is strengthened, and is brought
to perfection, maturity, completeness. Look in James chapter 1, back
in verse 2. My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into divers temptations. Do you reckon James knew when
he wrote that He was going to write to us over here in chapter
2 about Abraham. I suspect he did. I don't think
James just took down his pen and started writing and didn't
think about what he was writing. But rather wrote with deliberate,
precise thought as he was directed by God the Holy Spirit. And he's
about to introduce us to this man Abraham. and his faith, and
the reality of it, distinguishing true religion from false religion,
the faith of devils from the faith of God's elect, a dead
faith from living faith. And it says in the beginning
of his epistle, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall
into divers temptations, knowing this, be assured of this, that
the trying of your faith, the proving, the testing, the trying
of your faith, worketh patience. You wouldn't know anything about
patience if your faith wouldn't try it. You'd never know anything about
patience if your faith wouldn't try it. But you don't. But let
patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire,
complete, consecrated, and entire, wanting nothing, In our text, James 2, verses
19 through 24, he then shows us an example of the way God
graciously brings us to this perfection, this maturity of
faith. Come back to Hebrews again, chapter
5, Hebrews 5. Here we read of our Savior, the
Lord Jesus. Verse 8, though he were a son,
yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. And
then in verse 9, the Apostle tells us that he was made perfect.
He was made perfect and became the author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey him. By his obedience and by the things
that he suffered as our substitute, our Lord Jesus was made perfect. That doesn't mean that he was
made more holy. That doesn't mean he was made more righteous.
It means that he was made to be a complete Savior by the things
which he suffered as our substitute by his obedience unto death.
And that which is true of our Savior is true of his people. If we are the children of God,
as long as we live in this body of flesh, we will be required
of God to learn obedience. And we don't sometimes learn
obedience the hard way. We always learn obedience the
hard way. By suffering. There's just no
other way. We learn obedience by the things
we suffer at the hand of God's wise and good providence. And thus our trials, like Abraham,
our faith is brought to its end, brought to its perfection, its
maturity as the sons of God. Made perfect, made perfect in
Christ Jesus by that which God causes us to suffer in trial. William Cowper knew something
about trial. He said, "'Tis my happiness below,
not to live without the cross, but my Savior's power to know,
sanctifying every loss. Trials must and will befall,
but with humble faith to see, love inscribed upon them all,
this is happiness to me." God in Israel sows the seeds of affliction,
pain, and toil. These spring up and choke the
weeds that would else or spread the soil. Trials make the promise
sweet. Trials give new life to prayer. Trials bring me to his feet,
lay me low, and keep me there. Did I meet no trials here, no
chastisements by the way? Might I not with reason fear
I should prove a castaway? Bastards may escape the rod,
sunk in earthly vain delight, but the true born child of God
may not, must not, if he might. The life of a believer is a life
of a series of trials, just a continuing series of trials. One trial,
preparing for another trial, preparing for another trial,
preparing for another trial, by which we are educated in the
things of God. That's the way God teaches His
children obedience and brings His children to the maturity
the perfection of faith that James speaks about. True faith
is obedient faith. Obedient faith. Now that may shut you out, may
shut me out, but that's just fact. True faith is obedient
faith. God commanded Abraham to sacrifice
his son Isaac, and Abraham didn't display even the slightest reluctance
in his obedience. I find that remarkable. I find
that remarkable. He didn't appear, from what's
recorded in scripture, even to hesitate at this demand from
God that he give God that which he cherished most in this world. True faith is obedient faith. Abraham took Isaac and immediately
started toward Mount Moriah. He took the wood for a burnt
offering and laid it on his son. He took fire in his hand and
a knife in his hand to slay his son. He built an altar and laid
wood on the altar and laid his son Isaac on the altar. And he
stretched forth his hand to take the life of his son, the darling
son of his heart. He fully intended to kill him
until God stopped him. For this Abraham is held before
us as an example of faith. But Abraham acted in obedience
to God, knowing that his obedience to God appeared to be totally
contrary to the promise of God and the revelation of God and
the will of God. I find that just as remarkable.
God said, Abraham, here's your boy. Here he is, Isaac. In Isaac, the Messiah is coming
through his loins. by His Son, Jesus Christ, God's
Son, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. All the sins of all
God's people shall be put away, and all God's elect in all the
nations of the earth shall be blessed with grace, and he shall
possess the gates of his enemies. And then God said, Abraham, kill
him. Kill him. And Abraham went to Mount Moriah
and drew back the knife to slay his son being fully convinced
that what God promised God could perform, being fully convinced
that God would raise his boy from the dead. That's called
faith. That's called faith. Faith acts
in obedience to God, believing God, when obedience to God appears
to be contrary to all reason, appears to be contrary to all
that we might otherwise expect. The Lord God spoke to Abraham
and said, give me your son. But this whole picture, turn
back to Genesis 22. I'll wrap things up there and
then we'll come back to James 2. Genesis 22. This whole picture
is about Christ, our Redeemer. You see, faith's object is Christ. The singular object of faith
is Jesus Christ, the Lord. Abraham, our father, was justified
by his works when he offered Isaac, his son, upon the altar.
And thereby the scripture was fulfilled, Genesis 15, 6, which
saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for
righteousness. What's this all about? Abraham believed God. Here in Genesis 22 we have the
first picture that demonstrates clearly the necessity of a human
sacrifice for the remission of our sins. Man had sinned, man
must suffer, man must die. And so the Lord God gives Isaac,
holds him up as a picture. Isaac representing Jesus Christ
our Savior. That one who would come to us
through Isaac's loins. That one who is the seed of Abraham,
who is the seed of woman. And Isaac being held before us
in just that manner, it represents our Redeemer. And Abraham sacrifices
Isaac, looking to Christ. And he saw Christ, in obedience
to God on Mount Moriah, like he could not have seen Him otherwise,
like he could not have known Him otherwise, like he could
not have been revealed to Him otherwise. Here Abraham learned
things about himself, about God, and about his Redeemer that caused
him to say to his boy as they left that mountain, son, let's
call this place from now on Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will provide. And Abraham,
believing God, was justified by this great work. Genesis 22
records Abraham's great trial. Look at the time when the trial
took place, verse 1. And it came to pass after these
things. After all the other trials he'd
experienced, After all the other hardships, after all the other
heartaches, after all the other difficulties, Abraham surely
must have begun to think by the time he got here to Genesis 22,
well, the storm's about over now. I'm just about done with my life.
Storm's about over. Everything's going to be all
right from now on. I have a very dear friend who in his old age,
just before his Ministry was concluded in God's providence.
One morning got up and said to his wife after they got done
eating breakfast, they were sitting there sipping coffee, he said,
we need to pray. Things are going so well, we're
in store for a trial. And he got no more than done
saying amen that morning. He got a call and his boy was
in jail. about spending the rest of his
life in prison. I expect that just where Abraham was. He says,
I've about experienced all the difficulties and trials a man
can experience. I left my father and my mother
and left my kinsmen down at Ur of the Chaldees and I went out
following God. Oh, what difficulties. Difficulties
with the kings of the land. Difficulties in this place and
that. Opposition here and there and
then Lodge. I loved that man. I loved that
man, but there was strife between his herdsmen and mine, and I
said, Lot, we've got to part company. He parted company loving
him, but he gave Lot the best of the land, said, you go take
what you want to. That's a remarkable man. And then Lot was taken captive
by the kings of the plains, and Abraham went and delivered him. And then God told Abraham, I'm
going to destroy Sodom. And Abraham begged for Lot, and
God spared Lot, but Abraham watched Lot's family be destroyed under
the wrath of God. Abraham had trial after trial
after trial. He was required of God to cast
out his son Ishmael, and he loved him dearly. He was required of
God to cast out Hagar, Ishmael's mother. And now the Lord God
sent was this great great trial to Abraham. It came to pass after
these things that God did tempt Abraham. Now the second thing here, understand
that God did the tempting. It was the Lord his God who tempted
him. My brethren, James said, count
it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. The word
is trials. Fall into different trials. Knowing
this, the trying of your faith worketh patience. He said, blessed
is the man that endureth temptation. For when he is tried, he shall
receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them
that love him. God brought this trial to Abraham.
not because he was angry with him, not because he wanted to
punish him, not because Abraham had done something wrong, but
because he loved him and he was determined to nurture him and
to grow him and to mature him. And so the Lord sent Abraham
this trial and he did this at precisely the time he had ordained. It came to pass after these things. Our great God is always on time
with everything. We take our sons and daughters
and we do what we can to raise them and train them, to teach
them. And then they get the age of
our sons and daughters. And we start thinking about all
we should have done. could have done and would do if we could
do it over. Because we spent too much time
on stuff that didn't matter. Spent too much time taking care
of things that didn't matter. Spent too much time doing stuff
that didn't matter. And we look back at it with regret.
Not our father. He does everything exactly own
time, in the fullness of time, after these things, after the
fall, the flood, the exodus, the tabernacle, the law, the
prophets and the kings, the priests, they all run their course and
fulfill every prophecy God sent His Son to redeem us. And the same is true with regard
to His providence. Our trials come from our Heavenly
Father. Our trials are brought to us
to prove and to improve our faith. Our trials reveal Christ to us. They're given to us by God's
hand to make His Son more precious, to wean us of this world, to
teach us to look to our Redeemer. Now, understand this. for the
Genesis 22 too. And realize something of the
magnitude of Abraham's great trial here. I can't imagine it. Can you imagine the grief Abraham
must have felt when he received this command from God? The sorrow
that just must have crushed his heart. The faith and love he
must have had for God. to willingly make this supreme
sacrifice. This was a trial of indescribable
magnitude. Look at every word carefully.
Take now thy son, thy son. This is talking about Abraham.
It's talking about Isaac. But as you read these lines,
always move from Abraham to God. From Isaac to Christ the Redeemer. For this is what this is all
about. The Lord Jesus, whom God sacrificed for us, is himself
God's darling Son. Thine only Son. Our Savior is called the only
begotten Son of God. Isaac. Isaac means laughter. delight. Our Lord Jesus Christ
is described in Proverbs 8 as that one with whom God left from
eternity. That one who was the delight
of the triune God from eternity. While he walked on this earth,
our Savior is that one in whom the Father says, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. That's Isaac. This is the one
that God offers as a sacrifice for us. And offer him for a burnt
offering. Not just a sacrifice, a burnt
offering. Hannah took Samuel and offered
him as a sacrifice to God. That's a sacrifice. But here,
God requires Abraham to offer Isaac a burnt offering. The Lord Jesus is our burnt offering,
our sin offering, our trespass offering, our sacrifice for sin
by the hand of God according to the will of God. Thanks be
unto God for his unspeakable gift. And then there were some
difficulties in the way. Abraham had to deal with them. His faith had to deal with them.
God didn't give Abraham any reason for this. No reason for it. No reason. Abraham could have
used that as an excuse for not obeying the command, but he didn't.
The command was, as I've said before, contrary to reason, contrary
to the promise of God, contrary to love for his son, but Abraham
command was crystal clear. The commandment appeared to be
utterly contrary to that which had been thus far revealed to
Abraham, but the command was crystal clear. If Abraham obeyed
God, he knew he wouldn't have to suffer for it. How am I going to tell Sarah
about this? fairly certain I'm fairly certain
Abraham and Isaac packed up and he told Sarah said me and the
boy gonna take a trip we'll be back in a little while I'm quite
certain he didn't even discuss it with Sarah conferred not with
flesh and blood God give me grace and give you grace to give such
implicit obedience to Christ that Lindsay is faith justified. Matthew Henry put it this way,
God's commands must not be disputed, but obeyed. We must not consult
with flesh and blood about them, but with a gracious obstinacy,
persist in our obedience to them. God, give me such obstinance.
such absolute determined obstinance. Obstinance to obey. Now, let me show you something
else about Abraham's sacrifices. Again, look at verses 3 through
10. I won't try to read all of this
in Genesis 22, but you follow along with me. The whole thing
is about our Lord Jesus Christ. We read in verses 3 and 4 that
Abraham rose up early in the morning and prepared everything
with great care. Abraham believed God. He got
up early in the morning and got ready to go to the Mount of Sacrifice. And he had three days. Oh, what
long, long days those must have been. What long nights they must
have been as he slept out there with Isaac and looked at Isaac.
Three days and three nights. And soon, I want to sacrifice
you. Our great God, in the dawn of
time, before time began in eternity, rose up in covenant mercy and
he prepared everything. for the sacrifice of his darling
son on our behalf. He set his eyes on a place far
off called Mount Calvary and proceeded to the place. Abraham
and Isaac, we're told in verses 5, 6, 7, and 8, went to the Mount
of Sacrifice together alone. Now I'm sure I'm going to get
in trouble with some brainy theologians for this, but I've been in trouble
with them before. I don't know how to say what I want to say,
what needs to be said, what must be said, in consistency with
what I know to be true theologically. I know God is spirit. I know
that he doesn't have parts like we do, and he doesn't have passions
like we do. I understand that. But don't
let your correct doctrine cause you to think that God's a rock,
a piece of stone with no feeling. God the Father and God the Son
went together to the Mount of Sacrifice. And our Heavenly Father, our Heavenly Father, our Savior's
Father, felt the pain of his darling son. Now what other word
to use, I don't know. But he wasn't passive about this.
The wood was laid on Isaac's back even as Christ carried his
own cross. The instruments of death were
in Abraham's hand even as the Lord God took the sword of justice
to slay his son. Isaac said, My father, where
is the lamb? We've got to have a blood sacrifice.
We've got to have a lamb. We can't come to God without
a sacrifice. And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. What a remarkable
statement. What a statement of faith. He
says, boy, I've been teaching you all your life. about the
Lamb of God who's coming, that one that was portrayed back yonder
in the garden when Adam killed that innocent victim, or when
God killed that innocent victim and clothed Adam and Eve with
skins. I've been telling you all your life about this Lamb,
this sacrifice. I want you to understand me,
boy. God is coming to be the sacrifice. God will provide Himself,
a Lamb, to die in our room instead. A Lamb for God, a lamb from God,
a lamb such as God alone can provide, a lamb such as God must
have, and a lamb who is himself God. And at last they came to
the place of sacrifice. Look at Genesis 22 now. 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 on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched
forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. Just as our
God cried awake, O sword, against the man that is my fellow, smite
and slay the shepherd. And look at verse 11. And the angel of the Lord called
Abraham out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, And he said,
here I am. Just like he said back there
in the first part of the chapter, God spoke to Abraham, and Abraham
said, here I am. I'm yours. He's standing here on Mount Moriah.
He says, here I am. 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 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 a thicket. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. That's what God did for me. He offered up his lamb, his son,
himself. in my stead and as Isaac was
turned loose and let go and walked back home with Abraham so God
turned me loose let me go and walked me back to glory with
his darling son the Lord Jesus and Abraham said let's call this
place Jehovah Jireh the Lord will see Whatever we need, the Lord sees. The Lord will provide. Whatever we need, the Lord who
sees our need will provide. And the Lord will be seen. That's what Jehovah-Jireh means.
The Lord will see, the Lord will provide, and the Lord will be
seen in the provision he makes. Obviously, talking about our
Savior. God will be seen in him who is God manifest in the flesh. But it extends beyond that. The
Lord God is seen by the eye of faith in everything he provides
for his believing child as we live in this world by faith.
And God again and again and again and again declares to sinners
who believe him You're justified with God. You're righteous with
God, fulfilling the word we had with God in the beginning of
our pilgrimage like Abraham did back in Genesis 15. God said,
Abraham, believe God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness.
And now when he offers up Isaac, what is it, 25 years later, he
believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. And
thereby Abraham proved his Oh, God give us grace to believe
him, to believe him. Hudson Taylor, once during a
real struggle in the Inland China Mission, wrote a letter to his
wife. For most, it would have been
a little discouraging. They thought Mr. Taylor was down and out. Really blue. His wife understood
better. He said, we have 25 cents. And all the promises of God. And all the promises of God. Amen.