The Faith of Abraham

1. Read: Genesis 22:1-12

2. About the Text:

1) The Bible tells us that Abraham’s faith is a model for our faith.

2) Those who have faith in Christ are the children of Abraham.

3) “Therefore know that those who are of faith are sons of Abraham” (Galatians 3:7).

4) “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all” (Romans 4:16).

5) What was Abraham’s faith like?

6) How can we follow his example of faith?

7) Studying God’s test of Abraham in Genesis 22 helps us get there.

3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.”

2. Abraham had to overcome his own desires.

1) Abraham had desires just like you and me.

2) He wanted certain things out of life just like we do.

3) One of those things was children.

4) But Sarai had been barren.

5) It was his great desire to have this son.

3. Like Abraham, we must overcome our own desires to have faith in God.

1) Notice that God said that Abraham loved his son.

2) It is most often the things that we love that come between us and God.

3) “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).

4) These can be material things, but they can also be people.

5) “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:4).

6) Jesus must be our first love.

7) We must desire Him more than any other.

1. “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love”

1) Isaac was Abraham’s son by his wife Sarah.

2) He was his ONLY legal son.

3) God had told Abraham to put Hagar and Ishmael out of his house.

4) Isaac was the heir.

5) This was his family and the future of his family.

2. Abraham had to love God more than his family, and so do we.

1) It is imperative that we love God first, before any other, even the most dearest to us.

2) “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 13:26).

3) We often hear the expression, “Family comes first.” It’s not true.

4) God comes first.

5) Do we have family members that hinder our relationship with God?

1. “Offer him there as a burnt offering.”

1) Human morality would call this abhorrent.

2) Even God’s Law said, “You shall not murder.”

2. What did Abraham know and understand about God that we don’t?

1) He could trust God even in such an extreme case.

a. God had told him to go to a place that he had never been.

b. God had told him to live in the land of Canaan.

c. God had told him to cast out Ishmael and Hagar.

2) Abraham saw that God could be trusted completely.

3) This is reflected in his statement to Isaac, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:8).

3. Do we trust God commandments like Abraham did?

1) Many think that their morality is superior to God’s.

a. They reason, “I can’t obey God’s commands because it goes against my morality.”

b. Usually this takes the form of, “Surely God wouldn’t want me to …”

c. Some examples: adultery, abortion, transgenderism, homosexuality.

d. Do we trust God to provide?

2) Many think that they know better than God.

a. We like to say to God, “I know what I’m doing!”

b. That can get us into trouble.

3) “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:31-33).

4) Jesus wants us to obey God even at the risk of food, clothing, and shelter.

5) He wants us to trust Him to provide.

4. God’s way is right even when it seems to go against our own “morality.”

1. “I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him” (Genesis 17:19).

1) This may be the most difficult challenge of Abraham’s faith.

2) How will God keep His promise if Isaac is dead?

3) If God doesn’t keep his promises, then He is a liar and no God at all.

4) “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense” (Hebrews 11:17-19).

2. God doesn’t do things according to human ways.

1) “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

2) We need to make God’s ways our ways by trusting in Him.

3. What about God’s command to worship?

1) “I cannot attend worship because …” some reason.

2) Do we trust God to provide when we can’t?

3) Who is really in control? God or us?

4. What about baptism?

1) “I don’t want to be baptized because it doesn’t make sense to me.”

2) Do we trust God enough to obey Him even when it doesn’t make sense to us?

5. The difference between God and us is that God always knows what He is doing; we don’t.

1. Abraham had a faith that trusted in God more than . . .

1) Himself

2) His Family

3) His Morality

4) God’s Promise

2. Invitation