Sermon: Living by Faith

Let's take Hebrews 11 this morning verses eight through 12 and let's pray before we open God's word together.

Father, we do turn to you and trust this morning. Trust in you to work by your word as you've promised to do. You said that your word does not return void. So we pray even this morning that as the word is read, as it is preached that it would not return void, that you would accomplish your purposes in our lives and we pray this in the strong name of Christ. Amen men. Hebrews chapter 11 verses eight through 12. This is the holy inherent sufficient word

of God by faith. Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going by faith he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God. By faith, Sarah herself received power

to conceive even when she was past the age since she considered him faithful who had promised therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. Though the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

If you and I were to consider all of the scriptures together this morning, we would come to the conclusion that Abraham is the great man of faith in the scriptures. There's only one that surpasses Abraham and all the scriptures and that is the Lord Jesus Christ who was the greatest man of faith, the man of faith. But other than that, Abraham is the one that is set up for you and I as the man of faith that we are to look to

and that we are to understand. But Abraham was not always Abraham as you and I understand him to be Abraham or at least not as we consider him as the father of the faith. We are first introduced Abraham back in back in Genesis chapter 11. At the end of that chapter we find Abraham introduced there as the son of terror and we are told that Tara was a man who worshiped false idols and no doubt Abraham being a son of terror, was also a man

who worshiped false idols with terror and with the rest of his family. And we were told that Tara took Abraham and took the rest of his family and he moved from the UR of the Kaldi's that is Babylonian territory or of Kaldi's and he moved to the land of Haran and it is there in the land of Haran that we have God approach Abraham and speak to Abraham there in the land of Haran and it is there that God calls Abraham and he calls him and he calls him

and he tells him to go forth from Haran to set out he was to leave his father, he was to leave his family and he was to go. And yet Abraham does not know where he is to go. He doesn't know what this land is or where it is. As the writer of Hebrews says here and he went out not knowing where he was going. It's very likely that what God did is as he called Abraham and then he told Abraham to go, he then kept telling Abraham which direction to head as he went.

God called he was to obey but as is God's way and as we see him do over and over throughout the scriptures though he called Abraham and though he commanded Abraham and Abraham was to obey, he encourages Abraham's obedience by giving him promises. The Lord doesn't have to and yet he does. He graciously makes it easier for Abraham to obey the command that he has given to him. He promises him that this land that you are to go

to Abraham, it will be yours. He also promises him to make him into a great nation. Abraham, you're going to leave all of your family, you're going to leave everyone you know, you're gonna leave all of your kindred and yet I'm going to fill your house. I'm going to make you into a great family but not just a great family. He says he promises them that he is going through Abraham is going to bless all of the nations of the earth.

That is that Abraham, this nobody in the land of the Chaldeans is going to be made into somebody and somebody that everyone would know that we know sitting in this room this morning, someone that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through someone that would've been easily forgotten as he left the earth, the Chaldeans and after he, after he left Haran, he would've easily been forgotten. And now he's remembered not only now

but for all of eternity, the great father of the faith. But Abraham, he only knew he had this coal and he only knew this, this promise at the very beginning and this is the way of faith. It promises much even as it demands much demands much, it promises eternal benefit but it always requires earthly sacrifice.

When Abraham receives this call, he is 75 years old. His wife Sarah is 65 years old. He's called to leave home and to go and he goes Our first point this morning, faith is not to be a thin veneer. Faith is not to be a thin veneer. If you look at Abraham and you look at his life, and if we were to look at it throughout the book of Genesis, you would see that his faith was an obedient faith. Our faith is not to be a thin veneer, fear God

and keep his commandments. We hear that refrain throughout the scriptures over and over. Fear God keep his a commandments Abraham. He didn't know where he was to go. He didn't know what it was going to look like but he went Why? Because God commanded it

and God calls Abraham, it changes everything his entire life. His entire person is now caught up with God. His life of faith is not just a sh a little veneer. It's not like a little bit of sprinkling of the pixie dust of faith upon his life. No, his entire life is now dominated by faith. Everything that he is that is for those that are called by God, the Christian faith that's not privatized, that is our faith is not something just for the closet.

Our faith is not just for a part or a parcel of our lives or our beings. It's not just for when we're homes. It doesn't just touch our speech. It's not just for Sundays. Now when God calls a man or a woman, he calls the entire man or woman. All of our life is to be lived in faith. I'm to pursue nothing apart from pursuing. It's in faith. Nothing I do nothing I desire is to be separated from my faith where my faith is not the operating principle, it's sin.

Why? Because I'm his and my life is to be dominated by faith so that Paul can go so far as to say whether you eat or drink or whatever you do due to the glory of God so that he can say in another passage, I appeal to you. Therefore brethrens by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, a life dominated by faith.

Christian faith is not a thin veneer. God isn't only our provider, he's our father. Christ is not only our savior, he is our king. He says do and we seek to do. In fact, it becomes the great pursuit of our lives to obey him. The person of the Christian faith. They find themselves more sensitive to the spirit of God, more attentive to his word, more desirous of knowing him and knowing his way why? So that we might walk according to his truth

so we might walk more to his glory. It becomes our great pursuit 'cause we delight in him because he has called us because he has made us his own.

Abraham's faith was an obedient faith. Our faith is not to be a thin veneer promises much, but it demands much,

which leads to our second point. Faith often leads to the difficult, even scary. It often leads to the difficult, even scary.

Abraham was to go out to a place not knowing where he was going. I've never left my house not knowing where I'm going, leaving my house, let alone my entire geographic region. I didn't know where he was going. Leave everything behind and go and he goes, he just left. He he knew that God had called him and told him to go. And so he just takes that step in faith in that direction and I want you to consider what that meant

for Abraham for his experience. In Genesis 12, he's called and he's commanded to go and he is to go to this unidentified land. God just then directs him to it. He leaves everything and then he finally arrives and as the writer says here in Hebrews 11 verse nine, he says that it was a foreign land. It felt as if it was a foreign land. It was not only a foreign land, it was a land that he ends up dwelling in a tent in. He didn't get any permanent structure.

There was no great realization. When he was there, he dwelled in a tent. Jacob dwelled in a tent, Isaac dwelled in a tent.

It was not as promising as one would hope. In fact, we read in Genesis 1210 that when Abraham arrived, quote, now there was a famine in the land. No sooner had he arrived in the so-called promised land than he finds it not to be so promising. Faith is often difficult.

We regularly think the opposite. If God calls us to this or that in our life and leads us into this or that in our life and if we approach it and walk forward in faith, we think it will be a little easier and we're we're thinking people we're rational, people we're people have experienced and we're not expecting sugar plums and we're not expecting roses. We think, well, if I obey God and follow God in faith it will be at least a

little less trouble, a little more ease.

But more often than not, that's not the case.

Faith often leads to the difficult, even the scary Peter's life did not become more easy by following the Lord in faith.

Paul's life did not become more easy by following the Lord in faith, Abraham's life did not become more easy for following the Lord and faith. What did the Lord Jesus say when he called us to be disciples? When he called them to himself, he said, if you would be my disciple, you must do what? You must deny yourself. Pick up your cross and follow me. It's not a path of ease. It's often more difficult. In fact, with Abraham here, life was not easier

for following the Lord in faith. In fact, when Abraham we were told that that famine that was in the land, it was so severe when he got there, it was so devastatingly severe that he had to go down to Egypt.

Then why follow in faith? Because Abraham believed God was worth trusting and obeying and he is. He always is. It's not necessarily easier but it's sweeter. It's always sweeter.

Faith often leads to the difficult, even the scary Third that means much of the life of faith is simply taking the next step in trust of God. The life of faith is just taking the next step. Abraham doesn't know where he is going but he went, he arrives and there is famine and yet he continues to trust God. Just take the next step. He has promised his child, but more than that, he's promised an entire nation will come from him.

He can't see it. He's a hundred years old. He is dried up. He's never had a child, but he just takes the next step in faith.

All he does

often said this in pastoral counseling that there are many of us that are risk adverse. We we like to plot things out, we like to plan them out. We like to hedge our bets. Uh, we like that safe component as much as we can. And yet God, more often than not, he simply just shows us the very next step to take. That's all he shows you. And then you take that step and then he a lights the path and shows you the next step. It doesn't take much faith, it doesn't take any faith

to know the entire path before you. It takes faith to take the next step and he calls us to faith. Abraham, he he can't see it and yet he takes a step of faith.

Had this conversation many times over the years with fellow Christians. For example, a young man feels called to seminary. He feels called to the pastorate. He has this internal sense of calling. There have been others around him that have said, I, I see this call upon your life. I see the gifts are there and yet when he sits down a seminary, he is opened the door for him. But he sits down, he puts it all on paper and it just doesn't make sense financially.

How's he gonna do it? But he just takes a step in faith and somehow the Lord provides a young woman as part of a friend group and that friend group is sliding into the way of gossip and slandering other people and she is not a leader in this group. She doesn't have much of a voice in this group. She in many ways feels like she's on the edge of this group all the time and yet she feels pricked. She feels some kind of conviction inwardly

that she needs to say something. We need to stop this kind of conversation in our group. But she doesn't have standing in this group. People aren't going to listen, but she feels like she must and she just takes the step of faith. Doesn't make any sense from a worldly perspective,

doesn't make sense that there are college students here on the Sunday before exam week.

This is good study. Time doesn't make worldly sense.

It's all the sense in the world according to faith.

I've told our elders on a number of occasions, let's be wise interaction but even more so let's be faith filled worldly wise at times has to give way to faith wise and sometimes faith wise. Being wise in light of faith, you you can't do it. You can't put it on a spreadsheet, you can't line it all up. You do all of that. It makes zero sense. This makes no sense that we would do this, that we would step out in faith this way.

And yet though it makes no sense in the universe, it makes all the sense in the kingdom.

Just take the next step of faith.

When he's leading you just trust where he's leading you.

Seldom does faith see beyond the next step. God was taking Abraham somewhere where he didn't know

a place didn't matter because of the person God was leading. He takes a step of faith.

We can't know, let alone demand to know every twist and every turn and every corner in the path before us. You. You can't do it. You're not a person of faith if that's what you demand

to listen very carefully to to this.

You don't have to understand,

you don't have to understand. You just have to trust and obey. That's what he requires. You don't have to understand. Just trust and obey and you can take the next step in faith,

which leads to our next point. Fourth, faith looks forward and upward with hope. Faith looks forward and upward with hope. Abraham did not enjoy all that was promised in this life. Notice the writer says in verse 10, he was looking forward to the city that has a foundation whose designer and builder is God. When Stephen the first martyr of the Christian faith, when he's preaching that sermon in Acts seven and he's recalling the accounts of the patriarchs

before him, he gets to Abraham and this is what he says in Acts seven. In that sermon he says, speaking of Abraham, God removed him from there into this land into which you are now living. Yet he gave him no inheritance in it. Not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring. After him though he had no child, Abraham did not see the fulfillment of this promise in his life. He didn't even get a portion of the land.

He didn't even get it. Steven says a foot's breath of the land. He will purchase just a little cave in the land for his wife Sarah to be buried in and she will have that as her final resting place, but he sees none of it, but his faith keeps looking forward and upward with hope.

God is worth trusting and he's worth obeying because he always fulfills his promises. He always fulfills his promises, but not always in our lifetime, not always so that you see it. Abraham and his descendants were promises land and yet Abraham literally did not own a foot breath length of it. Not even that little bit.

He has this promise. It's no less real. It's no less true. Why? Because he looked forward and he looked upward. Quote to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God.

He looked forward and upward. See, this is our problem. We have two great barriers, you and I. One is time and women's perspective.

We are limited by time, but he is not. Charles Bridge is a church of England. Minister in a previous generation used to tell his trainee preachers this. He would say the word you sow may lie underground until you do. And it's very true in ministry. That has to be the train of fold. I have no clue this morning this word that I'm preaching whether it'll produce any fruit within my lifetime. It may be that this seed that is being sown this morning lays underground as long

as I'm alive and not until I'm in the ground and then produces fruit. That's just how ministry can work. But as word does not return void, it accomplishes its purposes. Not only is that our approach in ministry in life with Christ, we must take that same approach. He has never ever slacked to fulfill his promises, but we may not see them in our lifetime. Time limits us, but it does not limit him. The other is perspective. We just don't see everything.

I don't see it all. You don't see it all. What he is accomplishing and how he is accomplishing. It's far beyond our purview. We don't know. Abraham could have been a very bitter, could have been a very despairing, could have been a very discouraged and even fearful filled man, but he wasn't. Why? Because he had faith that looked forward and he had faith that worked, looked upward with hope. He trusted God.

I can say this in all tenderness and pastorally to you this morning,

Christian, if you could see everything that has occurred in your life and everything that is occurring in your life,

if you could see the purpose of God and if you could see the end of God, there is not one thing that you would change, not one.

If you could Christians see the tapestry of his providence and see how all the things in your life and the lives of the people around you, how they all fit together into this kind of seamless garment of history. If you could, you could see it all.

You would see that it all is working together not only for His glory, but you would see it's working together for your good. And there is literally not one single small thing you would change.

Not one. It's just a matter of perspective.

We don't have it. He does

and he's worth trusting.

Abraham didn't see all the promises, but his faith kept looking forward and upward with hope. He didn't see them all fulfilled in his time, but they were. And they will be fulfilled. The land promise will be fulfilled. It'll be fulfilled in even greater ways than Abraham had any imagination of. Don't get caught up right now in everything that's going on in the Middle East. This isn't part of it. It's not about the nation state.

Israel somehow having some certain geographic land boundaries, that's not what it's about. The promise that God has made to Abraham will be fulfilled and it's fulfilled on that last day when all of those that are in Christ, the true son of Abraham, the true Israel of God, all those that are in Christ, when Christ receives his inheritance as the true Israel of God, when he receives his inheritance, all the heavens and all the earth and we in him receive that inheritance

with him and we will be spread out throughout the face of the earth.

Be covered. The promise surpasses the wild imagination of Abraham. If you think back to the garden, Adam and Eve were to spread Eden throughout the world and they failed Israel. Corporate Adam was to do the same and it failed.

It has finally realized in the second Adam, the true Israel of God, Christ and all the offspring of Abraham, children of Abraham by faith united with Christ. When we inherit the very ends of the earth, the promise was not lost. And in some way Abraham understood this. He had some slight understanding that this was indeed the promises. The writer of Hebrews says he was looking forward to that city that has foundations whose

designer and builder is God. That city, that new Jerusalem that you see in Revelation 20 and 21 that descends outta the heavens and settles down upon the earth and God chooses to make his home among us forever where heaven and earth are joined together and we reign with him in the land now and forevermore. That's the promise

surpasses

which leads to our final point. Our faith is not perfect, but God's faithfulness is our faith is not perfect. But God's faithfulness is

the writer says Sarah considered him faithful who had promised. And that's the key, the the there. There's some debate here. Is it actually Sarah's faith that is being referenced or is it Abraham's faith that's being referenced here tend to think it's Abraham's faith. Again, that's being referenced here, but it doesn't really matter because the point is the same whether it is Sarah's faith or whether it is Abraham's faith.

They both point to the same thing. What the writer says here, they considered him faithful who had promise. Faith does not seal, but it trusts God to fulfill our faith is not perfect. But God's faithfulness is his faithfulness is.

It's what you think about Abraham and Sarah, neither of them. It's a perfect person of faith.

Abraham though he is this this great example of faith to you and I in the scriptures. He has a faith that weers, he is a man that will deny God and show a lack of trust in God multiple times. He will lie about his wife in fear two times He will try and create his own progeny and and create his own child so that he has an heir by his own means rather than just trusting God. His faith waivers. Sarah will do the exact same thing.

She will plot and she will plan and she will try and take this, this producing of children into her own hands, her faith waivers. She will waver to such a degree that she'll just laugh at the promises of God. She has a faith that waivers our faith is not perfect, but God's faithfulness is. There is not a man or a woman in this room that has a perfect faith. There is not a man or a woman in the history of mankind that has had a perfect faith.

Bar one. The Lord Jesus Christ was the only one that lived his entire life saying, thy will be done. You are not doing it. I'm not doing it. Not every moment. Our faith is never perfect this side never. And then it becomes sight. But his faithfulness is and he is never. He is ever true. He's ever faithful. There is nothing that he promises that will not be realized. Nothing. Lemme just read to you some of the promises that he gives to you.

Christian. This is faithful God. Isaiah 26, you keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you because he trusts in you. Psalm 37, the Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him. Though he may stumble, he will not fall. For the Lord upholds him with his hand. Matthew 11, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I'm gentle and lowly in heart

and you will find rest for your souls. Isaiah 40. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow. We weary. They will walk and not be fainted. Philippians four, do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses understanding will

safeguard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. John 14 in my father's house or many room. If it were not so would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am you may be. Also though our faith is not perfect, his faithfulness is

and what he promises he fulfills.

None of his promises or laws

of Hebrews is pressing home. This point in our final verse, he's providing the encouragement. Verse 12 from this one, man, a man as good as dead in the sense of him not being able to bear children from this a hundred year old man, good as dead, who had never had a single biological child from this man, from this man came a number of descendants, as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the writer says, innumerable grains

of sand by the seashore. Have you ever tried to count the stars in the heavens? Impossible. Even more impossible. Have you ever laid on the lake shore at Lake Michigan and just taken a handful of sand in your hand and tried to count how many grains of sand are in your hand, let alone on the entire lake shore? Impossible. More descendants than that from a dead dried up hundred year old man, and I'm staring at some of them this morning.

He fulfills his promises.

You and I get to look back at the life of Abraham and we get to see a God who is truly faithful to fulfill all that he's promised. What the writer of Hebrews is doing, he is saying, look, ha, let your faith be encouraged. Do you not see what he did with Abraham? Be encouraged and he's holding up Sarah and he's saying, look, look, this God is is faithful. Trust in him. Keep placing your faith in him and he is already done that.

He's led us through Abel and Enoch and Noah, who we've already seen. He's gonna go on in this chapter to give us Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and Joshua and Rahab and s Samson and David and on we could go. But it's not just that. You and I have all of this, this redemptive history to look at in the pages of scripture that this is a faithful God who fulfills his promises to his people. We could do it throughout history.

We could look at Polycarp and RNAs and Athanasius and we could look at Luther and we could look at Joni Erickson, Tara,

and we have example after example, after example of those who lived in faith and saw and were rewarded with all the faithful promises of God.

But we have more than that.

We have more than Abraham

because we have sealed to us the very blood of the Son of God who says that all the promises of God are yes, amen. And me the greatest promise he could provide, that he would send a son of his, the only son of his into this world, to live for sinners and to die for sinners

that he might redeem sinners and make them children of Abraham to receive an everlasting inheritance that he seals to us by the very blood of his son. You and I have the greatest promise realized so

that Paul can say in Romans eight, God did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also along with him graciously give us all things if he fulfilled that promise? He fulfills every promise.

The God of Abraham

he's worth believing in. He's worth trusting in. He's worth walking in faith with

God fulfills all of his promises.

Let's pray.

Father, we come before you this morning thankful,

thankful that you are a God who fulfills all of your promises and oh, that we would be a greater people of faith

who trust you with all that we are who walk with you, who live in that faith or dominated by that faith. Just keep taking the next step in faith to your glory and praise. Now You work it in us. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.