R1693 The Test of Faith

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton and a message from Genesis 12. That's right, today Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author, evangelist, seminary professor, and pastor is taking us into part two of our radically changed life. We'll be diving into Genesis chapter 12 in just a moment. Now, this is part two.

If you didn't hear or see part one last week, don't worry about that. You can both hear or see it on our website right now at tewonline.org. That's tewonline.org, but remember Dr. Wilton will catch us up as we study the Word of God and understand what this radical transformation can do for each and every one of us. Oh, and by the way, while you're on our website, tewonline.org, sign up for the daily encouraging word email. It'll be a blessing in your email box every single day.

And now, Dr. Don Wilton. Genesis chapter 12. Let's just read this. Just follow along with me. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you and those who dishonor you I will curse and in you will all the families of the earth be blessed. So Abram went as the Lord had told him and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son and all their possessions that they'd gathered and the people they had acquired in Haran and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem to the oak at Moray. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land and the Lord appeared to Abram and said to your offspring, I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him and from there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.

And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord and Abram journeyed on still going toward the Negev. Now there was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance. When the Egyptians see you, they will say this is his wife, then they will kill me and they will let you live.

Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you and that my life may be spared for your sake. When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful and when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And for her sake, he dealt well with Abraham. He had sheep, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys and camels, but the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarah, Abram's wife. So Pharaoh called Abram and said, what is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister so that I took her here for my wife?

Now here, here is your wife, take her and go. And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. The test of faith. Now let's just try and contextualize this. Let's consider Abraham and Sarah for a minute and God will speak to us through this. So here's a couple of things in their lives that we all know about, don't we? What about them? Well, Abraham and Sarah embarked on a journey with no destination.

Bible is very clear about that. This couple lived in a place called Haran and God came to them and said to them, I want you to get up and go to a land that I will show you. So they got up and went. They embarked on a journey with no destination. That is a hard thing to do, isn't it?

You and I are inclined to go and check out the destination to find out whether or not we will embark on it. The operative is not the destination. The operative is determining that that's what God tells us to do. Knowing the will of God is jolly hard to do. You don't just roll out of bed in the morning, very difficult.

It's arduous, especially considering our feelings, things that are important to us, all the issues that we deal with. Abraham and Sarah embarked on a journey with no destination for them, but God knew. Second thing that we can consider about Abraham and Sarah is that they were promised a nation without an heir.

Now that's a nice, how do you do? Just wrap your mind around this because here in Genesis 12, now we've got a little bit of a disadvantage or an advantage here because we know the rest of the story, don't we? So could we just lay aside knowing the rest of the story? We've got the story. We see how it all worked out.

Could we just kind of go back? God said to Abram and Sarah, you're going to be a blessing and the father of many nations. Yeah, right. Where are the people? By the way, that brings me to the third point. Abraham and Sarah, an age without realistic hope. Could we just be a little bit specific here?

Seventy-five years of age. I mean, my wife and I are not even anywhere close, but you want my wife Karen to break out in a total panic? Don't tell her she's going to have another baby.

I'm not even going to tell you what she would say. All right, folks, just do you get this? You talk about faith. Abraham and Sarah, practically speaking, biologically, physiologically, were beyond that age and God comes. He says, I want you to get up and I want you to pack up everything and go somewhere, but I'm not going to tell you where you're going. He says, oh, by the way, secondly, you're going to be the father, the mother of many nations. Hundreds, they probably thought in terms of thousands.

We know it goes into millions. We're looking at it today, but then, well, the third reality of this challenge to their faith is their age rendered their hope totally unrealistic. No, this couldn't work.

Absolutely not. And the plot even gets even more difficult because the fourth thing that I just want to throw into this when it comes to Abraham and Sarah concerns a sin that carried certain death. To boot with all of his obedience, Abraham proceeds to sin against God and his sin carried a death sentence.

So let's just lay it down, go and read your history books. He lied, concocted the story about Sarah, his wife, said, no, no, you just tell everybody. And Pharaoh, who was the dictator who had the power over life or death, should have, could have, and would have executed him for this. Listen, back in those days, people were put to death for a lot less offenses than that.

It carried a death sentence. His faith was being challenged at the very core of life and death, which leads me to the fifth one, a sacrifice that ended all hope. Turn with me to chapter 22. Just read the first two verses of chapter 22, Genesis chapter 22. So now we know the story. Well, a miracle takes place because God said it. And they have a boy and his name is Isaac.

Can you imagine how much they cherish this little fella? In our day and age, there was a lot of stock riding in Isaac. He was the sole heir, the only son, and Abraham now is dealing with the promises of God. And he's seeing these things come alive and it's real. God tests him even further. Chapter 22, after these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham.

And he said, here I am. And God said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love. Go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will tell you. And when he does that, God proves himself and says, no, no, no. Not even your own son can take the place of the faith that you must have in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the one you have to trust.

He's the sacrifice. You've got to place all your faith and trust in him. Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the rest of today's message in just a moment. But Dr. Don wants me to remind you, we're here for you as we're studying God's word, especially that last phrase about what it is to place all of our faith and trust in Jesus.

Perhaps there's something in your life, one of those situations or circumstances where you realize you've been holding back on that. It's not all in his hands. We would love to pray you through that particular situation or circumstance. And we're available 24 hours a day at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. 24 hours a day, you'll find one of us happy to talk or listen or pray you through any and every situation because we believe in the power of prayer. You can also visit us on our website, www.tewonline.org.

And while you're there, you'll discover great resources like this. This message will be sent to you for your gift of $20 or more in support of The Encouraging Word. Call us at 866-899-WORD to request The Great Awakening, Biblical Truths and Perilous Times today. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener supported ministry. Thank you for listening today. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. So what is about the test of faith?

Let's just extrapolate this together. A couple of things to think about here today. First of all, the test of faith evidently does not depend on the outcome. The test of faith does not depend on the outcome. We don't do what we do based on what we believe it's going to produce when God says it. And we are a community of faith.

These things are slipping in our world, folks. It's the greatest challenge today to walk by faith and not by sight. Test of faith does not depend on the outcome evidently.

Otherwise, God said to him, go and sacrifice your son. Well, what is the outcome? God knows the outcome. I try and figure it out.

I'm going to be disobedient. God says, get up and go. He knows the outcome because he will fulfill the very desire of my heart. God's got you. He loves you. He loves you very much. He wants the very best for your life and for my life. It's going to take care of you.

It's going to honor you. But it begins with your absolute honor of him. Test of faith, number two, does not detract from the joy of simple trust. Simply trusting him sounds rather contradictory if you would ask me. But the simple faith and trust that we have in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ brings such joy to our hearts. Faith does not depend on the outcome and faith does not detract from the joy of simple trust.

Third, here's a good one. Faith does not diminish with age. Who Christian fellow faith believer here?

Who sitting here right now? You've reached a certain age and you've stopped faithing. You've laid it down, man. You said, that's it. I've lived as a man, as a woman of faith, but now I've retired.

It's over. I don't do it anymore. I don't serve. I don't get involved. Evidently, Abraham and Sarah got a good dose of older age faith, don't you think? When does faith stop? When does God say the requirement to trust him stops? Never.

Not until we're in heaven together. Faith doesn't diminish with age. How many times you get to a certain age and you pull back?

You might change direction or you might do something this or something that. Don't stop being a person of faith. You need faith in a nursing home as much as you do throughout the fabric of your life. Number four, faith does not dissolve the command to obey. What does faith demand?

Obedience. The singular job of the church of faith is to know the will of God and to do it. Number five, the taste of faith does not dismiss the consequences of sin. Sin has consequences. Just because you're a person of faith doesn't mean to say that you don't have to deal with the consequences of actions that discredit who God is and his righteousness. God's Word tells us that because Abraham lived and operated, walked, tried, did his level best all the time to please God, to do what God was telling him to do without interfering in that. God counted, attributed, conferred upon him his righteousness.

And in a rough interpretation of that, God just blessed him with the splendor of God's presence and glory because he was a man of faith. You want to be counted for righteousness? You want to be conferred? You want to be infiltrated with the presence of God? You want to spend a life of just blessing?

You want to just bless other people? You want to leave a real legacy of your life? Be a person of faith. Now we can leave legacies, we can leave trophies and money and motor cars and homes and all these kinds of things and all of these things are wonderful. The most powerful legacy you will ever leave is as a person of faith. Your children and your children's children will rise up and call you blessed.

You will be the blessing of many nations. Number six, and I'll close with this one. The test of faith does not divulge the mystery of God. The test of faith does not divulge, does not necessarily give away the mystery of God.

Folks, listen to this. You and I can be the most astute, deep, loving Christian men and women in the world. Let's never get to the point where we believe we've got a corner on God because if we did, we wouldn't have to trust him. You and I will never quite work God out.

I don't understand everything about the Lord Jesus. I've done my share of study and preaching and teaching and travelling and trying to. It seems to me, you know, we say this all the time, the more I study the Word of God, the more I realise I don't know about the Word of God, right? The deeper you go, the more you realise how much deeper you have to go. It's just a never-ending hole.

It just keeps going into the grace of God and God speaks to us. He wants us to know him. I don't know, my precious friends, can I say this to you? I can hardly explain me. Can you really explain you?

Do we need to? I cannot fully understand why God has brought me this or done this for me. I don't understand how the Lord brought such a beautiful lady as my wife to me.

I don't understand that, but he did. I don't understand that God would give me precious friends like you. I don't understand why God would allow me the privilege of sharing the Word of God, teaching people, loving. I don't understand that.

I can't give you all the explanations, but I know that he has. I don't know why God would love you like he does. I don't know why, maybe not even knowing anything about your life, you sitting there saying, you know, there's no way God would love me anymore after what I've done. Well, I agree with you.

Why? But he does. Some of you are sitting here today and you may be saying, you know, after what I've done, the road I've travelled, the sin I have committed grievously, you'd say to me, I don't know that I can explain, but I do know this, that God loves you and he sent Jesus to die on a cross for you. And I'm telling you, because the Bible, I'm taking God at his word, folks.

When you confess your sin to Jesus Christ, he is faithful and just to forgive you for that sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. That's a faith thing. I accept that. I believe that. I cannot really explain to you that every believer who dies, when you die, that the angels come and surround you and that you get picked up and given this royal escort into heaven and you're going to live.

I can share the word of God and share my, I cannot fully understand all of those things, but I know that they're true because I accept them. I know it. I know in whom I have believed. I am persuaded of these things. And I know that you're sitting on the edge today and God loves you so much and he's calling you.

He's saying, come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. What a powerful message from Dr. Don Wilton today on The Encouraging Word. As you think about that powerful joy of the rest in Christ, it starts with a single decision. You've been listening to Dr. Wilton as he's been teaching and preaching. Now open your heart to what he wants to share next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?

I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much and I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today I repent of my sin. I confess my sin to you and I invite you to come into my heart and into my life by faith. In Jesus' name I pray. If you prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.

This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey.

And in just a moment I'm going to come back with a final word. Perhaps moments ago you were praying along with Dr. Don Wilton to give your life to Jesus Christ or rededicate your life to Christ. Dr. Wilton would be quick to say you need to let someone know and why not let him know. You can call us at the 866-899 word number and we'll share this information with Dr. Wilton right away. That's 866-899-9673. But Dr. Don also loves to read your letters about how God's at work in your life. You can email him.

It's simply Don, D-O-N, at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. Again, just Dr. Wilton's first name, Don, D-O-N, at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. He would love to not only pray for you and celebrate with you, but he will make sure we send you some special resources that are absolutely free if you've given your life to Christ or rededicated your life to Jesus today. Call us as well at 866-899-9673 or meet us online at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. And before we get away, some closing thoughts from our pastor and chief encourager, Dr. Don Wilton. Now just before we go, the Lord has put in my heart today to pray for you.

You know, that's something that I can do, that we can do for one another. But I just want you to know that prayer is so critical. Do you know that the Lord Jesus not only hears our prayer, but he answers our prayer too. I'd like to pray for you today.

You love the Lord, I know, but there are things going on in your life, aren't there? Let's talk to the Lord Jesus. Heavenly Father, right now, I want to present to you my friend who is searching, looking, longing, needing, crying out to you. I just pray, Lord Jesus, that by your Spirit, you would touch this person's heart. Answer that prayer right now.

Fulfill that need. Come down in the power of your Spirit and manifest yourself. I'm praying this in the strong name of Jesus. We believe in prayer.

You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. God, hear my prayer for my friends. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Remember, we're available to pray together 24 hours a day on our phone line at 866-899-WORD. Dr. Don created this when we launched the ministry letting you know that we are here to encourage you.

That's 866-899-9673. Or you can connect with us on our website as well at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org. While you're there, it's our prayer that you'll discover more about our mission and the opportunity that God is using this ministry every single day to see lives change. So you might consider prayerfully and financially getting involved with the ministry. The details are online at www.tewonline.org.