What is faith in God

Now, we're going to turn to the book of Genesis, one last time in the life of Abraham, Genesis chapter 22, which is on page 22.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

And so we're going to read the first 19 verses, and then we're going to flick over, and I'm just going to read three verses from Hebrews chapter 11, and then we'll come back to Genesis 22 and think about it together.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

So let's hear God's word together.

Sometime later, God tested Abraham.

He said to him, Abraham, here I am, he replied.

Then God said,

Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there.

We will worship, and then we will come back to you.

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife.

As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham,

Father, yes, my son, Abraham replied.

The fire and wood are here, Isaac said, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?

Abraham answered, God himself will provide the burnt offering, my son.

And the two of them went on together.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.

He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, Abraham, Abraham.

Here I am, he replied.

Do not lay a hand on the boy, he said.

Do not do anything to him.

Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns.

He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

So Abraham called that place, the Lord will provide.

And to this day it is said, on the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.

The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said,

I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,

I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.

Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,

and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.

Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba, and Abraham stayed in Beersheba.

And then we can turn over to Hebrews 11.

It's on page 1210.

I'll read these three verses here from verse 17, as the author of the Hebrews reflects on this story.

By faith, Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.

He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,

even though God had said to him, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.

Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead,

and so in a manner of speaking, he did receive Isaac back from the dead.

Amen.

So we're going to be in Genesis 22,

and I wonder what you make of this story.

Thomas Jefferson was one of the early presidents of the United States when he was reading his Bible.

When he came to a part of the Bible that he didn't really like the sound of,

he would take a pair of scissors, and he would remove the passage that didn't fit.

You and I, we might not do it literally, but in our thinking, we might want to take scissors to this story.

Philosophers and thinkers have struggled with it over the years.

Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish Christian philosopher,

wrote a really interesting book called Fear and Trembling,

and he really wrestles with what's going on here.

Maybe a more popular philosopher, poet, Bob Dylan,

Highway 61 revisited.

He begins the song by talking about this story.

If you remember, oh, God said to Abraham, kill me a son.

Abe says, man, you must be putting me on.

God says, no.

Abe says, what?

And that what might be where you and I are right now.

Here is God speaking, and it sounds like he's calling for child sacrifice.

And this is in God's holy book.

If you've been here for the last few weeks,

we've been saying in so many ways, God is personal, and God is good,

and God keeps his promises, and God loves people,

and God establishes relationship with people.

What do we make of this story?

Let me plead with you at the beginning

to stick with me,

to think through this with me,

because genuinely, my hope and my prayer is that this could become

one of your favorite chapters in the whole Bible.

that this story has the capacity to change your whole life.

To understand that, we need to maybe ask another big question,

the big question of what is the Bible,

and what story is the Bible telling?

Maybe for many people, it's really easy to approach the Bible

and think, well, it's a moral handbook.

Maybe you've heard it spoken of as the maker's instruction manual.

Well, if we take that approach to this chapter,

we won't get the story at all.

What's the moral of this tale?

Should we go and do likewise?

No, is the obvious answer.

But if we read a chapter like this without knowing

the bigger story,

who the Bible is about,

what story it's telling,

we will come to certain sections

and become really, really confused.

It is vital with any story

to understand

what genre, what kind of story is this?

And that informs how we should read it.

And we need to know the whole story

if we are to make sense of it.

I really like Whodunit,

Agatha Christie, I really enjoy.

The ABC Murders,

I borrowed it from the library

and got as far as the last chapter

before I had to return it.

I got it on audiobook thinking,

I know what I'll do.

I'll catch up.

I got as far as the second last chapter

and I ran out of listening time.

A Whodunit,

where you don't know Whodunit,

is pointless.

You're left with no clue.

There is no resolution to the tension.

You need the end.

You need to know the point

that the whole story is driving towards.

We need to be able to hear the story

in the right way.

Maybe you have heard the story

of what happened when H.G. Wells' novel,

The War of the Worlds,

was first made into a radio serial.

And the opening of that BBC radio production

had a news report.

Breaking news!

Aliens have invaded the world!

And people thought it was really happening.

There were people panicking

because they genuinely thought,

we are being told that aliens have landed.

If you hear the story in the wrong way,

you draw the wrong conclusion.

And the same is absolutely true

when we come to a chapter like Genesis 22.

What we need to do

is first of all to let ourselves be guided

by the first people who heard the story.

So the first people that heard the story,

it was the Israelites in the wilderness.

They'd just been set free.

God has acted to deliver them.

And do you know what?

They celebrated this story,

and that should tell us something.

They understood.

This isn't a story about child sacrifice.

This is actually a story that's telling us

about God's love and mercy.

They would be able to hear the story and say,

I owe my entire existence

to God keeping His promises

through this promised child.

With Genesis chapter 22,

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

we are given a window into

God's redeeming love.

But only if we allow ourselves to see

and to understand the whole story

and to get to the end point of the story

as it points us towards

God's provision,

God's grace,

God keeping His promises,

and that for us will take us all the way

to the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

Because when we think about what is the Bible

and how we should read it,

the whole book in its entirety,

in a sense,

is God's biography.

God is wanting to tell us something about Himself.

And especially to tell us about His story of redemption.

And so to think about the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is inspiring people,

inspired people,

so that they would give testimony

to the truth of Jesus,

the Son of God,

and His work of salvation.

And you know,

that's how Jesus read the Bible.

Jesus would say to people in His day,

all the scriptures,

all the Old Testament,

they testify about me.

The first Easter Sunday,

when He met some disciples

that were confused and sad on the road,

He said,

how come you don't understand

that I had to die and then rise again?

And then He led them

on an Old Testament Bible study,

in which Jesus was the hero,

the climax,

the point of God's whole story.

And so we come to Genesis 22,

or any section of the Bible,

we need to read it in the right way.

Understanding this is telling us of God's work,

and it's pointing us towards Jesus,

the Savior.

So I want us to be able to come away from this chapter

able to praise God.

Yes, there's a really difficult test,

but there's also a wonderful God behind it

that is a God of saving grace and mercy.

And the way that we'll get there

is if we're able to put away the scissors,

and instead if we pull out our magnifying glasses,

if we take a look at this text,

and if we read it in light of where the story is heading,

if we read it in light of Jesus.

So we're going to walk through the story

and then think about some of the lessons

that it teaches us.

So we begin in the first couple of verses

with the test of faith.

So if you've been here for the last month,

we've been following Abraham's story now

for 25 years.

Over 25 years, actually.

And we've seen these two themes

intertwine at every point.

Abraham is a man who lives by faith,

and God is a God who is faithful to his promises,

that he enters into a relationship

and he's made a wonderful promise to Abraham.

And that involved a son.

When we pick up the story in Genesis 22,

Abraham is now 100 years old.

After 25 years of waiting,

Abraham finally has his promised child.

This one who would bring blessing to the nations.

This one who would be the hope for the world.

And then we come to verse 1.

And sometime later, God tested Abraham.

Take your son,

your only son,

whom you love,

Isaac,

and go to the region of Moriah

and sacrifice him there.

Do we feel the shock of what's going on?

This chapter becomes the climax

of Abraham's life of faith.

Will he be obedient to God

in this hardest of tests?

We recognize that this is a really intense test of faith here,

how it zooms in.

Your only son,

that son whom you love,

it's Isaac.

And it's an extreme test.

Abraham's not the one who's going to suffer,

it's going to be Isaac.

And it's sacrifice,

and it's death.

And remember,

Isaac is not just any old son.

When Isaac was born,

and Abraham held Isaac in his arms,

he was holding the hope of salvation in his arms.

Without Isaac,

the promised child,

there would be no Israel.

And if there's no Israel,

there will be no Jesus.

And if there's no Jesus,

there's no salvation.

And if there's no salvation,

there is no hope.

God knows this.

Abraham knows some of this.

But we get to learn

that God has a plan.

And God's plan for saving the world

will involve the sacrifice of a beloved son.

And the place of death

will be a mountaintop.

This region of Moriah that's mentioned,

by the time of 2 Chronicles 3,

we discover this is going to be the site

for Solomon's temple.

This is going to be where Israel has to come

to offer sacrifices to deal with their sin.

And then we fast forward further centuries,

it's in those same mountains

that we found Mount Calvary.

when another beloved son

will go to the place of sacrificial death.

Abraham's faith is tested.

Faith will be tested by God

in order to show his faithfulness

when we come to an end of ourselves.

The next mention of faith being tested,

it's in the book of Exodus,

when the people are in the wilderness

and they're hungry

and they begin grumbling.

And the question there is,

will they trust the God who rescued them

to provide for them?

Or will they look back to slavery in Egypt

and all the food they could eat?

When our faith is tested,

and it will be tested as Christians,

can we look beyond our circumstances?

Can we raise our eyes?

Can we appreciate God's faithfulness to us

in giving us Jesus

in his perfect life,

in his death,

and in his resurrection?

Well, as the story continues

in verses 3 to 10,

we see the journey of faith.

History records many difficult

and dangerous journeys.

I remember a few years ago now

reading a book called The Long Walk,

which recounted some prisoners

escaping from a Siberian concentration camp

and walking 4,000 miles

to find freedom.

I remember reading Shackleton's account

of the endurance voyage.

You're trying to reach Antarctica.

Incredibly demanding,

difficult, dangerous journeys.

I'd be inclined to put Abraham's journey

on the list of most difficult ones in history

because of the intensity of this test.

But this walk represents

Abraham's long walk of faith.

What can we say about Abraham's faith?

First of all, verse 3,

we see that faith obeys right away.

Early the next morning,

Abraham got up and loaded his donkey,

took his servants and his son Isaac.

He makes the preparation.

This is something we've seen before.

Back in Genesis 12,

well, God has said it.

God has called me.

And I trust God.

I will obey.

End of story.

It's the wonderful pattern of Abraham's life

when we see these high points of faith.

But then recognize,

as well as faith obeying right away,

he obeys day after day.

Because this isn't a short journey.

Verse 4,

Now, can you imagine how painful

and no doubt how prayerful

those three days would have been?

Until they reach the place

where now they can see the mountain

looming in the horizon

and he turns to speak to the servants.

I wonder what we make of what he says to the servants.

So some people read it and say,

well, here is Abraham,

you know, telling a little white lie.

He wants to protect the servants, perhaps.

He certainly wants to protect Isaac.

So he tells a little white lie.

That's not what the Bible says

about Abraham, is it?

That's why we read Hebrews 11.

How does the author of Hebrews understand it?

It understands that Abraham trusts

absolutely in God being faithful

to his promise

that even if his son dies,

he will be raised from the dead.

This is resurrection-shaped faith

that God will keep his promise somehow.

And then we see that faith obeys all the way

from verse six onwards.

Now they're at the mountain.

Abraham takes the wood,

places it on his son Isaac,

and he himself carries the knife.

His own son will be loaded up

with the wood for the sacrifice.

And then we get this poignant conversation

in verses seven and eight.

Father, yes, my son,

the fire and wood are here,

but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?

To which Abraham replies,

God himself will provide the lamb.

God will provide the lamb.

His faith does not waver.

Somehow a substitute will be provided.

Somehow God will act.

A sacrifice will be made

that everything will turn out okay.

He doesn't see how God's going to do it,

but still he believes.

And then we get to the moment of truth.

They're at the mountain.

They're at the mountain top.

Verse nine,

Abraham built an altar

and arranged the wood.

He bound his son Isaac,

and then he reached out his hand

and took the knife to slay his son.

Abraham, in preparing this altar,

is preparing both a place of worship,

but also a place of sacrifice.

And he binds his most likely teenage son

as if he was a sacrificial animal.

And he raises the knife.

And all the while,

Abraham's faith is that Isaac will make it through.

Either he will be spared from death

or he will be raised beyond death

because he knows God cannot fail

to keep his promises.

It's an example of extraordinary faith.

And we need to remember,

this isn't an isolated story.

Abraham and God have a past.

For 25 years and more,

God has been speaking to Abraham personally.

They have relationship.

It was God who acted decisively

to save Abraham

when he was worshiping idols.

It was God who committed himself

to covenant promises

and to keep those promises.

And it was God who worked a miracle

to give Isaac to Abraham and Sarah.

We tell our kids wisely

that it is not safe to trust a stranger.

God is no stranger to Abraham.

And so he clings to God

and to God's promise.

And when our faith is tested,

we recognize that we too have God's word

and we have God's presence

and we have God's promises

and we have an event

that we look back to

that reminds us that God does love us

and he's faithful.

We look to the cross of Jesus

and to the empty tomb.

Well, as Abraham

has bound his son

and he's raised the knife,

this moment is preparing us

for events that will take place

2,000 years later

of another beloved son

who has carried the wood

up a mountain

for his own sacrifice.

It speaks to us

of a loving father

willing to place his son there

to keep a promise

to save

and to bless

the world.

I don't know if you're familiar

with Glenn Scribner.

He's a Bible teacher

and writer

and podcaster

and he's got a YouTube channel.

He has this great story

of sharing

Genesis 22

with a group of teenagers.

And so he's kind of building

to kind of climax

and he's saying to them

something along these lines.

You know,

here is Isaac,

the only beloved son,

the hope of the world,

the source of all blessing

and he's trudging up the hill

with wood on his back.

Does that remind you of anything?

He says it was on a hill

near Jerusalem.

Does that ring any bells?

And he says he can vividly remember

seeing in that group of teenagers

one friend thumping the girl next to her

because she couldn't contain herself.

She was like,

it's Jesus.

It's totally Jesus.

That's how we read the Bible

and that's how we read this story

because when we understand

why the Bible is written,

that God is giving testimony

to his plan of redemption

through his son,

stories like this one,

they don't need to be barriers to faith.

Rather,

it becomes a bridge to faith

as we see that Abraham represents God the Father,

Isaac represents Jesus,

the Son of God.

That stories like these

can be a boost

to our faith

when we read them in the right way

and understand that this is speaking of God's

steadfast covenant love

and his commitment to keep those promises.

Well, let's come to the climax of our story

where we see the provision

and the promises for faith.

So we've been following Abraham's story of faith.

Over the years, there were ups and downs.

He was fearful in Egypt and told lies.

He questioned,

would God ever send a child?

And so he took matters into his own hands.

But by chapter 22,

we see this mature faith shining through.

But as the knife is poised to fall,

I wonder whether we're asking ourselves,

well, was his faith in God really worth it?

God asked him to do this.

Just pause with me for a moment

and pan forward.

Earlier we read a little section of John 8.

We could go further in John 8

and we would discover this.

Jesus said,

Abraham rejoiced to see my day.

Abraham saw it and was glad.

On that day,

on the Genesis 22 day,

Abraham was given insights

into the saving plan of God

he hadn't had before that moment.

He was given truths

about God's plan of redemption

that he saw in a new way

and he would never forget.

And wonderfully,

because God includes it in the Bible,

we too have front row seats

to God's drama of redemption

so we can learn the lessons too.

So what can we learn?

What can we learn about faith in God?

Why faith is worth it?

How can we say that this story,

which begins in such darkness,

is absolutely wonderful?

Let's draw three lessons together.

First of all,

Abraham discovers

that God will provide the lamb.

So remember back in verse 8,

Isaac asks,

where's the lamb?

God himself will provide the lamb.

But did you notice

which animal was provided?

Look at verse 13.

He saw a ram

caught by its horns.

We're still waiting for the lamb.

And look at verse 14.

Think about the name of this mountain

that Abraham gives it.

So Abraham called that place

the Lord will provide,

future tense.

And to this day,

on the mountain of the Lord,

it will be provided.

So there is this understanding

from Abraham

that there is still a lamb

to be provided in the future.

When is that?

Well, it's in the coming

of the Lord Jesus.

And John the Baptist

sees Jesus

at the beginning of his ministry

and describes him this way.

Here is the lamb of God

who takes away

the sin of the world.

This is Jesus

who is prophesied

later in Isaiah 53,

the one who would be led

like a lamb to the slaughter.

That the Lord God

would lay on Jesus the lamb

the iniquity,

the sin of us all

so that by his wounds

we might be healed.

God provides

the way of atonement,

the way to put right

the relationship

between us and God.

Sacrifice has to do with guilt,

our sin against God

that we cannot deal with.

And the hope that's presented

in Genesis 22

is a day is coming

when God would provide

the lamb.

And that lamb

wouldn't just be an animal,

it would be his own

beloved son.

On that first Good Friday

we see Jesus,

the son of God,

he's carrying a wooden cross

up Mount Calvary

to the place of his sacrifice.

And notice in the story

of Abraham and Isaac,

verse 11,

the angel of the Lord

cries out from heaven,

Abraham, Abraham,

do not lay a hand

on the boy.

This great cease

and desist message

booms from heaven.

Abraham fears God.

He lives with worship

and obedience

and his son is spared.

But on Mount Calvary,

when God's own son Jesus

is nailed to the wood,

to the place of sacrifice,

there is no voice from heaven

to stop the night.

God's judgment

falls on God

in his beloved son

so that we could be forgiven,

so that God's promise

would be kept,

so that we can share

the blessing of life

with God.

Genesis 22

speaks to us

of God's amazing love.

Here's another lesson

that Abraham discovered

on that day.

Relationship

is restored

by sacrifice.

So when Abraham

turns around

and he sees the ram,

he understands

God has provided.

And in providing

that ram

that is sacrificed

instead of Isaac,

a happy reunion

is possible

between Abraham

and Isaac.

The ram dies

and Isaac doesn't.

That same principle

applies to the cross.

Our sin,

our guilt,

our shame,

it separates us

from God,

the life with God

that we were made for.

And the only way

for that to be healed

is if God himself

provides a perfect sacrifice.

And that's what he does

in giving us Jesus.

And when Jesus dies

on the cross,

that shows us

both that God

takes sin seriously,

he does holy justice

against sin,

but at the same time

it shows us

God's loving mercy

towards sinners

because he freely

gives his beloved son

to be our substitute.

And then just as Abraham,

as it were,

Hebrews 11,

receives Isaac back

from the dead,

God the Father,

three days after Calvary,

we have resurrection

and we see that Jesus

is back from the dead.

God receives his son Jesus

to the glory of heaven.

He is risen in victory

on the third day.

And because that's true,

well, you and I,

we can share

in his resurrection life.

Because that's true,

we can enjoy eternal life

with God.

Because that's true,

we can live every day

knowing Jesus

with us

personally.

Relationship

restored

by sacrifice.

And here's a third lesson

that Abraham

would have learned

on that day,

that God's promise

through the promised child,

that promise holds true.

Look at verse 16 to 18

and see the focus

on this son.

I swear by myself,

declares the Lord,

that because you've done this

and have not withheld your son,

your only son,

I will surely bless you.

Verse 18,

and through your offspring,

through your seed,

all nations on earth

will be blessed.

So once more,

God's promise is restated

and the promise focuses

on Isaac,

this beloved son.

And because Abraham

didn't hold him back,

the world could have hope

and be saved.

On Mount Calvary,

God didn't hold his son back.

Jesus,

the beloved son,

the promised seed,

he will die

and then rise.

So that by faith in Jesus,

his great promise of blessing

holds true in your life and mine.

Genesis 22,

in other words,

has always been telling

a bigger story,

a wonderful story

of God's redeeming love,

of a father giving his beloved son

to die to save us.

And it is this God

who says to us,

you can trust me.

And he invites each one of us

to look at Jesus,

the Lamb of God,

who takes away

the sin of the world.

Let's pray together briefly

and then the boys and girls

will join us again.

Our God and Father,

we thank you

that the Bible

is your story,

the story of your commitment

to save a people

for yourself,

to deal with the problem

of sin and guilt,

to bring us

to life with God

through Jesus.

And we thank you

for lessons

that Abraham

was able to learn

about your faithfulness

and your love,

even in this hardest

of times

of testing

of his faith.

Lord,

when our faith

is tested,

help us to look

beyond

the circumstance

to you

as Father,

to Jesus

our Savior,

to see that you

have provided

salvation.

Lord,

may we love

this chapter

because we

see how it points

us

to Jesus

and to the gospel

and to the hope

of life

and blessing

from you.

and Lord,

as we shortly

turn

to the Lord's

Supper,

as we see

in the bread

and the wine

Jesus' commitment

to save a people

for himself,

may you fill our hearts

with a sense

of thankfulness.

We pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen.