A Tested Faith

How far would you go to prove your willingness to obey God? Abraham went as far as it may be possible to go when commended to sacrifice his son Isaac, the son of promise, the son through whom the Messiah was to come. In a picture that foreshadowed the sacrifice of Jesus, this great test of faith marked the high point in the life of this great patriarch.

Stay with us. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching with Pastor Erwin Lutzer. Today, Dr. Lutzer concludes his series on Strength for the Journey, Taking Your Next Steps with God, a study in the life of Abraham.

Later in our broadcast, we'll see Abraham display a tested faith. Pastor Lutzer comes now to open our service. I invite you to take your hymnal and turn to number 17, Jesus, What a Friend of Sinners, Our Great Savior, number 17. Our scripture reading today is by Eric Noss. Eric is an intern here at the church. He's a student at Trinity International University, and some of you may recognize his last name.

He is the father, yes, of little Rebecca, but the husband of Abby Noss, who is the director of our children's ministry. So he will be reading, and then be prepared for 705, It is Well with My Soul. And once we stand to sing, we'll continue to stand until we have sung, It is Well with My Soul. All of us know that around the world, there are many people in the body of Christ who are experiencing suffering. Today, we want to identify with the persecuted church.

Even as we meet together, there are many of our brothers and sisters who are in jails. Many of them have been killed, families have been separated, simply because they love the gospel. I think it's important that we, as a congregation in America, feel the pain and the hurt of those who belong to us, thanks to Jesus. So turn now in your hymnal to number 17, even as we sing a song that affirms Jesus as the savior of the world. I shall pray, and then we shall stand to sing. Our Father, we do praise your name today, that you are a lover of sinners. We thank you today that you have a message that is to go to the world.

It's effective in America, in Canada, and all the nations of the earth, even those who suffer mightily because of their faith. Today, we pray that we might honor him and then remember those, O Lord God, who today do not have the same privileges that we do. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Praise and praise be to God the Lord our Savior. Be my Savior, praise be to God. Alleluia, my Savior.

Alleluia, my friend. Save me, help me, live in peace. Save me, help me, to the light of day. Jesus, Lord, I will stay with thee. Let me love myself with thee.

Take, take, try, and sometimes take. Be thy strength, my living free might. Alleluia, my Savior.

Alleluia, my friend. Save me, help me, live in peace. Save me, help me, to the end. Jesus, Lord, I am deeper.

I will tell this tale this time. Source above me, I will taste thee. Be thy quiet, please, my God. Alleluia, my Savior.

Alleluia, my friend. Save me, help me, live in peace. Save me, help me, to the light of day. Jesus, Lord, I do not receive him.

Lord, I hope he will not die. He has left me now, he has left me. I am his and he is mine. Alleluia, my Savior.

Alleluia, my friend. Save me, help me, live in peace. Save me, help me, to the light of day. We do not lose heart, but we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God for what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. So we do not lose heart, though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Amen. In sorrows I see willows glow, but ever my love thou hast taught me to say, Israel, Israel, with my soul! Israel, Israel, with my soul! Israel, Israel, with my soul!

The season should come, the world's highest should come, and this message should respond to all. And Christ, as we love him, my helplessness gave, and has shed his own blood for my soul. Israel, Israel, with my soul! Israel, Israel, with my soul!

I see no waste of his glorious life, I see nothing more but the whole. Praise to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul! Israel, Israel, with my soul! Israel, Israel, with my soul! And Lord, praise the King, and the praise shall be sung. The cross he opened at your store, the cross shall be sung, and the Lord shall be sung. Israel, Israel, with my soul!

Israel, Israel, with my soul! In a few moments, the choir is going to sing the song, We Are Not Alone, and how wonderful it is that thanks to Jesus, we are not. The text says in the book of Matthew, Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Thankfully, we are not alone. We are not alone. We are not alone.

We are not alone. God is with us. We are never alone. For God is with us. We are never alone. For God is with us.

We are not alone. We are never alone. God is with us. God is with us.

Forever and ever. We are never alone. We are not alone. God is with us. We are not alone.

We are not alone. God is with us. God will make us strong. For God is with us.

We will bless us. For God is with us. We are not alone. We are never alone. We are never alone. God is with us. God is with us.

Ever and ever. We are never alone. We are not alone. We are not alone. God is with us. We are not alone. We are not alone.

We are not alone. God is with us. For God is with us.

God is with us. The question before us is this. How much is a man willing to give to God? To what extent is he willing to be obedient no matter what God asks him to do?

And what are the rewards of that kind of obedience? The story is the 22nd chapter of the book of Genesis, Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac. It's a chapter that has been a problem for some people. I suppose all of us at times have wondered how God could ask a man to do that. Soren Kierkegaard, the melancholic Dane of another century, wrote a book about the struggle that he had with Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son. And Kierkegaard concluded that sometimes God asks us to do the absurd. Kierkegaard, I think, understood the problem of the passage, but he came up with the wrong solution. You can't understand this passage unless you realize that it took place in the flow of redemptive history, and therefore the whole issue of the seed, which has plagued Abraham for years, comes into focus.

This happens to be the tenth and last messages on the series that we've done on Abraham. We must also realize that at this time the Ten Commandments had not been given. Child sacrifice was common among the pagans. God would not have violated a command after he had given it, and so when Abraham heard the voice of God, he heard it correctly and believed that he had heard it correctly and acted on it. But the most important part of the story is to realize that God did not allow him to sacrifice his son. It's not the kind of a God that we serve. But God wanted to come up with an analogy, wanted to come up with a type, as the word is sometimes used, of the relationship between himself and his own son, and this is the only way he could do it, come to think of it, than to give us this awesome dramatic story.

Most dramatic story in all the Bible, with the exception of the crucifixion. And so with that background, we're going to begin in Genesis chapter 22, and the outline that I'm using may have come from my predecessor, Pastor Wiersbe. Years ago I heard him speak on this, and I took down his outline, and perhaps this is his.

I'm not sure, but it's possible. But what we'd like to do is to look at this story as if we were watching a video. Now you know that I believe in heaven we're going to watch videos.

But not from Blockbuster, I can assure you. Not those, they may be watched somewhere else, but not in heaven. But in heaven I think we're going to see the dramatic stories that we read about in the Bible, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the sacrifice, the willingness of a man to sacrifice his son for God.

I'd like to be able to see it someday. And so what we're going to do is to move through the passage, looking at the various aspects of it, and considering this dramatic, heartfelt story. First of all, the greatest test, the greatest test, God comes to Abraham and he says, here I am. 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 of which I shall tell you. Take your son, whom you love. Lord, I have two sons, I've got Ishmael. I don't want Ishmael, I want Isaac, the one you love. Take him.

Take your most precious son. The Bible says, verse one, God did test Abraham. It was, first of all, a test of love because the question that had to be resolved was this. Did Abraham love God more than he loved Isaac? Could it be that this boy, who was the child of promise, who was given to Sarah at an old age, could it be that this boy had so embedded himself into the old man's soul that this boy meant more to Abraham than God?

Was that possible? That's what the test is going to show, whether that happened or not. It was a test of love. When God says take the one that you love, it was as if God was taking a knife, putting it into Abraham's heart, then giving it a half turn. The one you love, take him. It was a test of love.

It was also a test of trust. God, after all, you're the one who gave him to me. He is the child of promise.

He's the one that we have waited years to have. If he is dead, how are you going to raise seed and fulfill your promises? You think Abraham was tempted to disobey?

I'm sure he was tempted to disobey. God, how are you going to fulfill your promises if he's dead? But furthermore, why did you give him to me in the first place and then take him away? Hundreds of parents listening to this message have asked that question of God many times. Why even bother giving me this little boy who dies after a month? Why give us a child if you know that the child is going to have some disabilities and that the child is not going to live? Why give?

And then take away. That's the dagger that was in Abraham's heart. Yes, Abraham was tempted to disobey. Two questions always come up in the trials that God gives us. Always. Number one, how much do you love me?

And number two, how much do you trust me? Those are the two questions. We'll never be asked to do what Abraham was asked to do. Today, you see, if you hear a voice telling you to kill your child, you know that it is the voice of the devil. It is never, never, never the voice of God. This was a situation that I already explained that was very unique.

And of course, the murder, if that's what we call it, never happened. But God does ask us this question. Do I mean more to you than your relatives, than your friends, than your children? Jesus says he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son and daughter more than me is not worthy of me. God says, I want your whole heart and even your family has to be number two.

It's the greatest test. Well, let's move on to the greatest trust. It says in verse three, Abraham arose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took his two young men with him and his son Isaac, and he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place. But God had told him about. He was on his way to Mount Moriah, about 50 miles from Beersheba. Some of us have been to Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah is actually the place where Solomon built his temple, it says in Second Chronicles chapter three, verse one. And that's where the Dome of the Rock is today. When I've been in the Dome of the Rock a number of different times and you see that big hewn rock.

And of course, souvenir hunters have chiseled out parts of it. That, I believe, is the place where Abraham offered up Isaac. Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock, Mount Moriah, Second Chronicles chapter three, verse one, 50 miles.

They now travel together in three days. Scripture says Abraham rose early. What a gift of obedience God had implanted in his heart. Do you think he told Sarah?

I doubt it. He knew that this was something that he was going to have to do alone. And he takes Isaac and two young men and together they walk. And even though father and son are walking together, they are separated by a dreaded secret. Together they walk in every step that Abraham takes, another string breaks in his heart. And they're on their way to that fateful journey. And then they get to the base of the mountain. They journey together from this point on because Abraham says to the young men, he says, I want you to stay here. And the lad and I are going to go yonder and worship and then we're going to return to you.

Why did the two young men that accompanied them, why did they have to stay at the base of the hill? Remember, God wanted a picture of the relationship between himself and his son. This is really a picture of Calvary. And when Jesus went and died on Calvary, what happened there was between him and his father.

A secret between the two of them that you and I can only ponder and think about, but we can never understand. We can never get our minds around what happened on Calvary. And that's why I believe that darkness covered the whole land because the transaction was being worked out when the son who was perfect was suddenly declared to be the most wicked, evil criminal of the universe. He became legally guilty of murder adultery.

Legally guilty of injustice, of cruelty of the worst possible sort. He became the sin for us, the one who knew no sin. And what was going on there in Calvary was a secret between the father and the son and no one could enter into it. So Abraham says to the boys, you stay here.

The lad and I will go yonder and worship. And who carried the wood? It's Isaac. Because Isaac represents Jesus who carries his own cross.

But notice the text. Who is it that carries the knife and the fire? It's Abraham.

That's what it says. Verse six. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife.

And so they went both of them together. Who killed Jesus? Who killed Jesus? Well, the Bible says in the book of Acts, wicked hands crucified him, but God had a part in it. It was part of the plan of God. And that's why we read that Jesus was smitten of God and afflicted. And the Lord has put him to grief. And it pleased the Lord to bruise him. The father who carries the knife and the fire and the son carries the wood.

And together they marched to the top of the mountain. Isaac asks a question in verse seven. He says, father, and the father says, yeah, here I am. And he said, behold, the fire and the wood. But where's the lamb for the burnt offering?

It's the question that is asked from Genesis to the end of the book of Malachi in the Old Testament. Where's the lamb? Every time the Israelites brought an animal to be sacrificed, the real question is, where's the real lamb? We've got all of these lambs here. We've got all of these sheep. We've got all of these goats that are being sacrificed and turtle doves. But where is the lamb?

The lamb. And centuries later, John the Baptist stands on the banks of the Jordan River and says, as Jesus is coming to him, behold, the lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. And Abraham says, God will supply for himself a lamb. And isn't that what happened on Calvary? God supplied for himself a lamb. So that you and I could be redeemed. And so finally, we get to the top of the mountain and the old man begins to build an altar, says in verse nine.

Here, of course, we have to use our imaginations. He begins by taking rocks that are furthest away because he's trying to stall for time. And he begins to build that crude altar, stone upon stone. And he builds it and then finally he has to reveal to Isaac, Isaac, you are the lamb. Did Abraham weep? Of course he wept. This was the son that he loved, remember. Could Isaac have run away?

Absolutely. Scholars debate how old he was, but somewhere between 15 and 20 easily. Could have outrun the old man who is now 100 years old, actually more than 100 years old. So he could have outrun him.

He could have fought him, apparently becomes a willing victim. We're reminded of the words of Jesus. No man takes my life from me, but I lay it down. I have power to lay it down and I have power to bring it to life again.

But but I'm dying voluntarily here. I'm being put upon the altar. And that's what happens in the life of Isaac. And Abraham is beginning to wonder now, obviously, as he began when God spoke to him the first time, how in the world is this going to work out? Because after all, this is the boy that God gave me who is to be the seed of the nation that would eventually bring about the fulfillment of the promises, including the Redeemer. The Bible says in the book of Hebrews, and whenever you find a New Testament commentary on the Old Testament, always go with what the New Testament writers said. All right.

It's very important. We can't improve on the New Testament. It says in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 19, that by faith, Abraham was willing to offer up Isaac, believing that God was even able to raise him up from the dead, from whence he received him, figuratively speaking.

Wow. Remember, there had not been a resurrection. Now we look back and say, well, Jesus was raised and there's going to be a resurrection.

But there was no resurrection that Abraham could point to. This is why he's the father of faith. This is why when the Bible speaks about him, he's talked about as a friend of God three times, but also also the man that we are to emulate, the man that we are to believe, because when he offered Isaac on the altar, he said to the two young men, you remember, we are going to go to this mountain and we are going to worship.

And then the whole idea is clear in the text. We are going to come back to you. The old man expected a resurrection because God is God. And if Isaac is to be the child of promise, Isaac will be the child of promise, even if Abraham kills him. Because God is God.

And we're not. Well, verse 10, the angel of the Lord speaks, notice it says in verse 10, then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here I am. Do not lay your hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.

What is a man willing to do in obedience to God? It's been proven. Some of you perhaps have seen Rembrandt's picture of this. Someday I'd like to see the original. It's apparently in St. Petersburg in Russia.

One of the museums. But you can see replicas and in art books you can see pictures of Rembrandt's painting of Abraham and Isaac and it is dramatic. You have to stare at it for a while because in the picture what you have is Abraham already having his hand on Isaac's throat. So he has one hand like this on the boy's throat ready to strike it and his other hand is up like this with a knife and the angel of the Lord wraps his hand around Abraham's wrist. Don't do it, Abraham.

Don't. I know how much you now love and fear God. That's where the analogy breaks down when you get to the cross. Because when Jesus died on the cross, there was no hand from heaven. There was no rescue from the cross. He cried up and said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And the Father did not come out of heaven and prevent his death or rescue him. But Jesus went the whole way for you and for me. He died for sinners.

What a dramatic story. We've talked about the greatest test, the greatest trust, and now the greatest truth. And the greatest truth is that God is going to provide for himself a sacrifice. You'll notice in verse 13, Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.

Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide. Jehovah Jireh means the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day on the mountain of the Lord, it shall be provided.

Literally, the phrase means God will provide. God will see to it. Some of you are going through a struggle.

You're on the mountain. And who knows what surprise God may have for you that you don't know anything about. And you'll open up your eyes and realize that God made a provision for you that you could not have predicted. The Lord will see to it.

I think of the number of times in my life when I've been at a predicament not knowing what to do. And in the end, I look back and say, yeah, the Lord saw to it. The Lord provided. And so Abraham takes this ram and sacrifices the ram in the place of Isaac.

The ram is now a picture also of Jesus. You say, well, I thought you said that Isaac was. Isaac is. But Isaac can only take us that far. Abraham was not allowed to kill his son.

He was prevented from doing so. So Isaac, the typology breaks down after Isaac is rescued from the altar. And so in order to complete the picture, God takes this ram that is caught in the thicket by its horns that Abraham sees and he kills it. And you'll notice that the text says in the last part of verse 13, he offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. It is now a substitutionary sacrifice, which is exactly what Jesus was when he died on the cross. He died, the Bible says, he was just, but he died for the unjust. He died for the ungodly. You remember, I've told you the story before, but it's a story I love to tell about a woman who is very opinionated and very opposed to the gospel.

She was open to it, but she had her own vision as to what the gospel should be. And so with a smile on my face, and if you ask a question like this, please always smile. You don't want to ask a question like this and not smile.

Or if you do it that way, you might not be able to smile afterwards. But I said, would you consider yourself to be ungodly? Are you kidding?

Of course not. I'm not ungodly. I said, you know, that's really too bad. Then Jesus didn't die for you. Because the Bible said he died for the ungodly. I'm glad personally that Jesus died for the ungodly because I am ungodly.

And I think in a moment of honesty, you're ungodly too. And so the Bible says that Jesus died the just for the unjust. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide and the Lord provided for Abraham. Imagine the new conception of God Abraham had when he came down from that mountain.

Oh, we could read the rest of the story. And I hope you do about how God reiterated the covenant. God says, indeed, I'm going to bless you and I'm going to bless your seed. And God is going to pick up now. Isaac, of course, is alive. And he's going to become the father of a great nation and so forth. And his whole conception of God was different when he came down from the mountain.

One of the reasons I want to see it on video is I just want to see what the different expression when Abraham went up to the mountain and as to what he looked like when he came down from the mountain. Having proved that he feared God, having proved that he loved God. And God comes to him in fresh, brand new ways.

What are the greatest lessons that we can learn from this? First of all, worship always involves sacrifice. Worship always involves sacrifice. You'll notice it says in verse five, the lad and I will go yonder and worship and then we'll come to you. You say, well, I always thought that worshipping was coming to church and singing the right hymns.

Well, it is that. And if you come to Moody Church, God knows you sing the right hymns, don't you? We make sure that you do. And what wonderful hymns we sang today. Jesus, what a friend of sinners.

And it is well with my soul. He said, I thought that was worship. Well, yeah, that's worship.

The fruit of our lips. But biblically, worship means that I bring myself. I bring an offering in the Old Testament in the temple. They always came with something for God, even when we're invited out for dinner somewhere.

Thanks to the good memory of my wife, we stop and at least buy a box of chocolate somewhere to bring to people. Amazing how many people come into God's presence Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, and they bring him nothing. Worship always involves sacrifice. And then we have Romans chapter 12.

Give your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God. That's where it starts. It begins by saying, God, you have myself first. That's worship. And Jesus chided people who thought that because they said the right words and sang the right songs that they were worshiping.

And he said, no, you're doing it. And your heart is far from me. Worship is sacrifice. Second lesson, and that is that when God wants to expose the idols in our lives, he sometimes chooses what is most precious to test us. And what is most precious but our children.

But let me ask the question this way. What would it take for you to turn away from God? If God took your children, would you turn away from God if God allowed you to go through a difficult marriage?

You go through the gut wrenching process of a divorce. Would that make you turn from God? What is it that is in my life and in your life that means more to us than God so that we can actually just dispense with God and turn against him if things do not go our way and if he does not cooperate with our vision of happiness? I suppose that the greatest idol in our lives actually is the idol of happiness. We think to ourselves, I deserve a vocation in which I'm happy. I deserve a marriage in which I'm happy. I deserve living situations in which I'm happy.

And there's nothing wrong with improving those. But I'm simply saying that sometimes what our happiness is so bound up with what we want that we lose the larger vision of obedience and love of God which lies at the root of the greatest commandment. Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul.

That's the greatest sin is to not love God with your whole heart and everything flows from there, doesn't it? The summer I was at Bug House Square, you know, a mile south of here at the Newberry Library and I was giving my defense of Christ to an audience that was not entirely receptive. A few of you were there so, you know, you're given a bullhorn and then you can say anything that you like and I was giving a defense of Jesus and people can interrupt you.

It's great fun. I mean, you know, they can shout at you, they can say things that we wouldn't say in church and you just enjoy the banter. But when it was over, there was a woman who was very indignant. She said to me, because I ended by a personal testimony at the age of 14 accepting Jesus. She said to me, she said, what sin did you commit by the age of 14 for which you needed forgiveness? I guess she thought I was going to say, well, you know, I actually killed my brother. But I didn't do that, felt like it many times.

Problem is he felt like that too with his brother. I looked at her and I said, you know, my problem was I broke the first commandment. Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. I said, I broke that commandment.

And she just looked at me and walked away. The greatest sin you can commit. To have a child, a vocation, something in the place of God that means more to you than God himself. That is idolatry and that is sin. Abraham proved, what is it that God needs to do for you before you draw near to him? He said, well, until he resolves this difficulty, until I get justice, I'm not going to have a thing to do with God. Until I can understand his ways, until I can see what God's up to in the world, I'm not going to have a thing to do with him.

That's idolatry because you're withholding something from God. There's something that means more in your life than he does. The final lesson is, of course, that we'll never give up the creature. We'll never give up the creature until we have been satisfied with the creator. We'll never give up the creature until we're satisfied with the creator. Only when we are willing to say, God, you're first, you're number one. Then, of course, all of the other things fall into line. But as long as we are narcissistic, filled with unrecognized self-absorption. And that, by the way, is the greatest hindrance to progress in the spiritual life, is unrecognized self-absorption. As long as we're there, you see, we are not going to be able to love God.

And when we don't love him, we'll always put him in second, third, fourth, or fifth place. And so the angel comes out of heaven and says to Abraham, Abraham! He says, yes, here I am. Now I know that if you're God, how much is a man willing to do for God? Abraham, Abraham tells us anything, anything he asks. Is that your heart today?

Is that my heart today? Jesus, when he was here on earth, centuries after Abraham, 19 or 20 centuries later, said to some of the people who were criticizing him and accusing him of saying that he was God, which, of course, he did, and which he was. He said, your father, Abraham, rejoice to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.

Maybe Jesus had this story in mind. How was Abraham saved? What happened to his sin?

He was saved on credit. God says, I'm going to take your sin, Abraham, and I'm going to put it away over here on a shelf, figuratively speaking, because I know that someday a redeemer is going to be born, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and when he comes, your sin will finally and completely be dealt with. There is no other way to be forgiven than the lamb that God supplies for himself and for you and for me. Let us pray. Now, Father, only you can expose the idolatries of our hearts. Only you can say to us, do you see this idol?

Do you see that idol? Because we can't see it ourselves. We're too blind.

We're too self-absorbed. Would you, by your Spirit, do what we can't? Would you show us? How many of you today say, Pastor Lutzer, God has talked to me about some idols in my life that I need to deal with. Would you raise your hands, please? All throughout the auditorium, would you at this moment say, Lord, I will deal with the idols that you've exposed?

Father, we do come to you thanking you that now, so many generations and centuries later, we can look back on a story to inspire us to love you more than anything else and to sacrifice for you. Teach us these things, Lord, we pray, and don't let us go until we've heard your word about our hearts. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.

Would you stand, please, and Tim is going to come here and lead us as we sing 596. On today's Moody Church Hour, Pastor Lutzer spoke about Attested Faith, the last in a ten-part series on strength for the journey, a study in the life of Abraham. We hope this series has strengthened your faith in the God whose purposes are never thwarted and whose care for you never diminishes, no matter how long your journey.

It's no secret that America is in crisis. Pastor Lutzer has written a powerful new book, No Reason to Hide, Standing for Christ in a Collapsing Culture. This book can point the way for your walk with God in the difficult days ahead as we face economic failure, racial strife, and moral decadence. No Reason to Hide will be sent as our thank you to you for your gift of any amount to support The Moody Church Hour. Just call 1-800-215-5001. Let us know you'd like to support Moody Church's ministry. Call 1-800-215-5001, or you can write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. You can also go online at moodyoffer.com. That's moodyoffer.com. Join us next time for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.